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Violence in Games: When the Agenda Dictates the News

What sounds like a headline that’s likely to get more attention and make a news organization more money: “Father Fails to Secure Firearms, Leaves Them for 9-Year-Old to Play With” or “Video Game to Blame for Boy Bringing Gun to School?” Clearly, it’s the latter. The former would be more accurate if all you were interested in was reporting the facts and just the facts but facts don’t make money.

And that’s the problem with coverage of recent news coverage of anything that’s even tangentially related to video games. Whether it’s a kid bringing a gun to school, a mugging in Britain or a mass shooting at a military installation, the media isn’t interested in reporting the news but in creating a story that’s much more exciting than just the facts.

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Posted in Games, Long Read

48 Comments

Tags: Games, Media, Video Games, Violence, WPLongForm

Will There Always Be Violent Video Games?

One storyline about gaming that won’t go away is that games are too violent and lead to violent crimes. It’s the reason why Bill S. 134: Violent Content Research Act of 2013 is making its way through the US Congress. Fox News recently had a poll about the perceived influence of violent games in causing violent acts. Heck, even I wrote a column about violence in games.

With all this focus on violent games, will violent games eventually disappear? According to PBS’ Game/Show, not only will there still be violent games going forward but this a continuation of violent games from history.

Posted on September 13, 2013 | Video

Video Game Violence, Ratings and Your Children

Sep 2

Posted by Steve Murray

It’s just one of those things that we gamers have come to expect. Any time that video games are even tangentially related to a violent crime, the mainstream media will jump on that as a reason for the commission of that crime, regardless of the numerous studies that show no causative relationship between video game violence and real violence.

The latest case of the persecution of video games and gamers comes from Louisiana where an 8-year-old boy shot his grandmother in the head. The East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Department have strongly implied that the boy playing Grand Theft Auto IV led to the shooting.

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