Hey! Check it out! Video games are in the mainstream news again!! Sweet!
Oooooh, uhhhh, ummmm. Yikes. Yea, that’s not good. Not good at all.
So, as we all know. America was hit with not one, not two, but THREE mass shootings over the last week or so. Something that has become all too common in recent years. But, I’m not here to preach about gun safety or mental health or whatever else these shootings are blamed on. No, I’m here to talk about the whole #VideoGamesAreToBlame bullshit.
Over the years as mass shootings have become the norm, we’ve seen these politicians blame everything under the sun. This time around its video games. “These gruesome and grisly video games are desensitizing our youth!” Whether you’re a fan of the president or not, even HE is out there blaming games! And it’s got all of us gamers whipped up in a frenzy. Over the past couple days we’ve seen both sides throwing out the hashtags, #VideoGamesAreNotToBlame and #VideoGamesAreToBlame. Hell, even I got roped into it!
The truth is, this is all bullshit. We’ve won this fight already. We beat it back in the 90’s when that asshole, Jack Thompson was all over the big bad video games industry. There’s been TONS of studies that have shown since then that games play absolutely no part in violence like what we’ve seen! This is all “lip service” to get the angry mob off of the politicians back and divert attention……and we are all falling for it! The past couple days I’ve seen NUMEROUS articles by popular games media trying to protect the industry and blame America and our gun control. All we are doing is shifting the attention away from the REAL problem whatever that may be.
I know that we have our fair share of problems here in the U.S., but it’s not because of video games. Video games have already been regulated and aren’t going anywhere. We have the ESRB now and games are rated just like movies and music. If politicians want to stick their nose into the game’s industry, stick it into the loot boxes and predatory gambling mechanics put into some of these games. Those are the real things that parents need to worry about.
Next time you see mainstream media talking about gaming being the problem, just remember. We’ve fought this fight before and we’ve beat it already. So, we don’t have to defend fuck all!!
NOEN (@hashtagNOEN)
