Ksolo12 Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Hello, I am seeking some help from the LCVG gaming community. I am participating in a school debate regarding voilence in video games. One team is taking the position that violent games are having an effect on kids and Congress should intervine. The other team (my team) is taking the position that the government should not get involved in the gaming industry. I wanted to get some opinions and feedback from members of this board regarding the hot topic of video game violence. Do you think that violent games affect our youth? Do you think that Congress should pass an age limit on selling games to minors? It does not matter which position you take. Just a brief explanation of your position on this topic. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated or any links to articles regarding this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan FB Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 You can get my opinion on whether Congress should pass a law regarding selling videogames to minors here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 check out game politics also check out this pbs article (found link at game politics) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMonkey Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 http://economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=4246109 My absolute favorite: http://gr.bolt.com/oldsite/articles/violence/violence.htm which includes some nifty graphs... The truth is that these are the most non-violent kids we have ever had, and they all own Playstations. The government is so desperate to find some youth crime to crack down on that they’re strip-searching kids for 10 bucks while locking up 11 year-old girls for throwing rocks and eating french fries. The most peaceful generation of Americans in recorded history is being shoved through metal detectors, having their civil rights violated on a daily basis, are the victims of unreasonable search and seizure, and are treated with constant suspicion. Updated: October 19, 2005 The FBI has just released its 2004 crime report. The results? The violent crime rate has further dropped 2.2% since 2003. The number of murders is down by 2.4%. And our violent youth? "As for trends in arrests of juveniles for violent crime, a comparison of 2004 data with those of 2003 indicated that the number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes declined 0.8 percent, 5.5 percent compared with 2000 data, and 30.9 percent compared with 1995 figures." He makes a good point that childhood violent crime rates have been dropping for decades, not going up. There is no problem. Childhood/young adult violent crime rates have been going down for decades. Another "be afraid, be very afraid" media thing IMO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Well, to be honest, it is intellectually dishonest to claim victory on this issue because of those graphs. If the graphs went the other way, and anti-videogame people used them as evidence as to why videogames are bad, would you all just accept that as fact? No, you wouldn't. You'd say that there are far too many variables affecting behavior, and that pinning that trend on videogames is hugely speculative. It's like claiming that the Bush tax cuts are the reason the economy is improving, or that they are the reason the economy took so long to improve. You simply cannot know one way or the other. Besides, violence has gone down because of the increase in abortions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob B Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Besides' date=' violence has gone down because of the increase in abortions.[/quote'] holy shit dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Monkey Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 That's a conclusion drawn by the authors of Freakonomics, Bob. The book and their arguments merit discussion, but a videogame forum probably isn't the best place for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merlot Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Whats more violent, playing cowboys and Indians with pop guns and maybe having some physical contact, or mashing buttons at one screen characters? what both have in common is being an outlet for aggersive behavior, which I would think is a good thing. One can argue that ever since we've become more "soft" over the years (less violent cartoons, less use of toy guns, yelling at children rather than hitting them) that violence has gone up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foogledricks Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 That's a conclusion drawn by the authors of Freakonomics, Bob. The book and their arguments merit discussion, but a videogame forum probably isn't the best place for it. Yeah, that comment was simply an irreverant exclamation point to see if anyone had heard of or read that book. I wasn't being serious, though it is an interesting correlation. The jist is that cutting down on unwanted pregnancies results in fewer neglected or impoverished babies. Follow the logic from there. As you can see, it is quite controversial and not suitable for this forum. Read up on it though if you're interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMonkey Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Just pointing out that childhood violence is going down (drawing no conclusions on why). I don't consider the graphage proof of why, just interesting points on how it's been going down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberwoo Posted December 21, 2005 Report Share Posted December 21, 2005 Besides, violence has gone down because of the increase in abortions. Classy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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