People act as if s*** like this has only been happening since video games were invented. If video games are the problem, why has there always been this kind of violence?

New media is evil after all.

Well, this issue comes to mind, why would a child play those games at all?

The fact that the child wants to stems from influences in their lives, which most tend to be parental.

I beg to differ, the influence is probably from peers, resulting in peer pressure. Not to mention especially poorer parents have little time to combat peer pressure.

In such circumstances, peer pressure tends to result in worse than playing "overrated" (:P) video games.

Well, those circumstances are very rare.

They aren't very rare in general; they are if you're middle class or above.

It is more common if you live in a ghetto, so people affected are usually indigenous people, descendants of recent immigrants or any other oft-discriminated racial or ethnic minority.

In the UK, those would be Bengali and Pakistani.

In Australia, those would be Aboriginals.

In the US, those would be blacks and Latinos.

In the Netherlands, those would be (descendants of) Antillians, Moroccans and Turks.

In countries wiith rather poor welfare states, the effects can be far more dramatic, as demonstrated by the second article below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto
http://www.jobbankusa.com/News/Jobs/tou ... _jobs.html

Heck, in Australia, even middle to upper class are left to run wild at home. I remember being mocked in primary school because I hadn't watched an MA film. (Which is supposedly restricted to those 15 and older)

Even so, none of these can probably be afforded.



BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

I was 9 as well

They might or might not have a PC, it is an important medium nowadays, for education as well. They'll probably have access anyway, I'm not knowledgable on how they get access, but I think we are now discussing the lower middle class anyway, not the lower class.

I have some clues on the matter, which have to do with living a higher standard than one can afford, also an effect of peer pressure (and welcomed by neo-liberalism, though they now seem to give their laissez-faire capitalism a different spin).

Also, note that I said the following.



Worse means gang membership amongst other possibilities here.

Oh, right, playing games like Dead Space will make me a gang banger.

I think you have a very interesting manner of making conclusions.

Let me put it in a scheme for you:

[Parents belong to a low social stratum] -(result)-> [Parents have to work many hours per day] -(result)-> [Parents spend little time with their children]

[Parents spend little time with their children] + [Peer pressure] + [Ownership of a PC] -(result)-> [Children play "overrated" games]

[Parents spend little time with their children] + [Peer pressure] + [Living in a ghetto] -(result)-> [Children join gangs]

These results should be seen as a real probability, not as an absolute consequence. More could be said abou it, but these are the general lines.

Note that I did not mention gang banging at all.

You're really straining away from the topic about PC's turning you into a war criminal, and onto the "peer pressure is a horrible fenomenon" chattering. Actually, I'm not even seeing a direct connection anymore. So get back on topic.

There is indeed divergence from the topic (so I'll return to it), I must say it is not that radical straining away; people always come up with "It is not the media, it's the parents", so I just say the influences are different [basically two steps away]. Also, nobody said that peer pressure is a horrible phenomenon, it is just an element of socialisation.

Anyway, I'd actually like to see a solid evaluation of different studies regarding this subject, because the results often are so divergent, so I'm inclined to think there are some serious problems with their methodology. One such case has been shown, having to do with the results of games played somewhere in the seventies and the results thirty years later were examined, without allowing for other explanations. Something like that might be very widespread.

This isn't an issue if you don't have any mental problems or if you're playing the games at the right age.
Besides, it's practically been proven children become more intelligent if they play video games at an early age.