In our reading for Thursday, the issue of realistic video games was discussed in depth. How realistic or how much of the “mimetic” aspect of a game is too much? An event that usually is referred to is the Columbine shooting from the late 90s and the subsequent shootings (one that is recent is Virginia Tech) at both high schools and colleges, that have occurred afterwards. Galloway chose to only to briefly mention the topic because of its controversial nature, however it brings up the question of how much do video games affect the public. With increasing quality of graphics in video games, video games appear more realistic with each passing year and more “real” subject matter rather than fantasy, such as World of Warcraft.
The realistic violence in video games is normally the scapegoat for increased aggression in adolescence and as a reason for the shootings mentioned above. I put into Google, “Columbine theory video games” and found a recent blog post about the very thing discussed in the essay. The blogger states his thoughts on video games being blamed for these shootings and this demonstrates Columbine’s relevance even now, since the shooting happened in 1999 and the post was from this year in February. Although the blogger does not cite “quantitative facts” from studies and the like, he does bring up the good point of how much blame can be cast on video games. The same argument that “Doom” and the Columbine RPG game caused the urge to shoot people can be applied to Mario saying that creates the urge to jump on turtles. Personally I think that the Columbine RPG game is a little much, but are the realistic subject matter of video games the cause of violence in the world or it is the media’s scapegoat?
http://www.screwattack.com/news/columbine-doom-theory
The link for a documentary discussing the Columbine RPG game referenced in the blog post.