Last week’s tragic shooting at Virginia Tech University served to start another go-around on a number of issues including security, gun control and violence in entertainment. In a free society how can our schools be made more secure and thus safer… yet retain an open atmosphere of free thought? In a complex society, how can we be expected to make choices and, once those choices are made, even begin to predict their ramifications?
But the issue that has once again become a hot topic is that of video game violence. Show boaters such as Jack Thompson were quick to jump on for another ride, claiming that the shooter used video games to “train” to become a killer. I find this difficult to believe. But the misconception has permeated the mainstream media, and various parents’ groups and other pro-censorship organizations have joined this bandwagon as well. It has been claimed that violent games — developed by the military or law enforcement — have been used to “train soldiers and police,” and were then converted into entertainment. Where this theory originated this reporter cannot say, but it is false, at best.While there are games that resemble simulators the truth remains that the United States Army isn’t actually training on games like Call of Duty. And even games like America’s Army were developed as recruiting tools, not military trainers! After the Columbine shootings in 1999 then president of the IDSA (later ESA) said at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo that a video game controller can no more train you to drive a racecar than it can teach you to shoot a gun successfully. But the myth continues, thanks to people like Jack Thompson.