I do think gratuitously violent games like Ureal, Quake and other teach children a very important lesson. There are very few problems in life that can’t be solved with the application of ridiculous amounts of firepower. After all, guns and violence are what made this country great. Just as the Indians.
Seriously though, I do think these overly graphic portrayals of death, murder, and violence can have serious, long term, detrimental effects. But Computer games are far from the only culprit. One of the worse offenders I ever saw I ran across in the public library the other day. Here was this book laying around in a public library where any child might pick it up by accident. After a few minutes of thumbing through it I was horrified. It was literally rife with stories of brothers murdering their own brother, so-in-so smiting so-in-so, wars, bondage. There was this powerful spirit entity that went around burning towns to the ground that displeased him. At one point this being wipes out nearly the entire human population of the world. Not a peaceful death either. Drowning. (shudder) Can you imagine, treading water for days vainly trying to find some high ground or tree branches finally, exhausted, sinking below the surface, convulsing at the shock of that first lungful of cold water. Imagine the masses of floating, bloated, rotting human corpses. (shudder) All because this spirit was angry and had the power to destroy. Is this the kind of problem solving skill we want to teach our youngsters? Was there no other way to resolve these disputes? Could some kind of mediation be brought in? Counseling? I could go on but this book was full cover-to-cover of more of the same. Finally at the end of the book the protagonist is brutally and sadistically tortured and nailed to planks of wood and left to die an agonizing death. This kind of violent imagery can have no possible beneficial effect on the minds of our young people. In our rush to ban computer games lets not leave these other sources of violent brutal imagery uncontrolled.
(not a parent, but a concerned citizen),
Wab
