Violence in Video Games Documentary

Posted by Kevin Doyle in June 15th, 2007

Posted in: Gaming

The two part documentary produced by PBC Productions, a NY based startup film company, tackles the negative image given to “gamers” and the gaming community. The film work and editing is very professional and really helps get a very important point across. Check it out!

Part One

Part Two

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Drew A. said on June 15th, 2007 @11:02 am

I think that this is so true and people shouldn’t judge something that they are “iffy” about. It’s kind of like racism. People are judging and trying to get rid of gaming because they are the easiest thing to be blamed. Back in the 1800’s, they were scared of African-Americans because they were different. Just because somebody might be different and have a different opinion on life than you do doesn’t mean that you should try to blame them. The reporters just need something to blame. They won’t attack the music or movie industry because if they do they will get sued. Gaming isn’t as big as those two titles.

Cristi N. said on June 15th, 2007 @12:35 pm

I agree with Drew and i’d like to add that if school shootings are related so much with video games why are they happening only in the US? It’s not like there are only US gamers. For instance Koreea has a big gaming population and I haven’t heard yet of a school shooting over there. I have nothing against americans, but they should really think about things in depth before setting the blame.

MrLex said on June 15th, 2007 @4:41 pm

Jack Thompson, obviously sat on a pong controller as a child..

Alex said on June 15th, 2007 @4:56 pm

They don’t show footage from or any clips of real time strategy games. Because one time I was playing Starcraft I had a sudden urge to warp in a photon cannon in my school to blow everyone up.

Alex said on June 15th, 2007 @5:00 pm

LOL! The ratings should be a lot more stronger!! I’m not a gamer and can’t handle basic English grammar.

Rob M said on June 15th, 2007 @5:01 pm

I think there should be a Godwin’s Law for racism analogies. i must say that I don’t think that the comparison to racism really holds water, but I aree with your overall point.
People who attack games aren’t people who play games, I have never met anyone who plays grand theft auto who believes it encourages violence, or anyone who believes it causes violence who has ever played it.
The aim of chess is to kill the king. Does this make chess players more likely to commit regicide and assasinate a real king? of course not!

JOE.E said on June 15th, 2007 @5:24 pm

lol if anything video games have made me a poon. i almost got into a fight a couple days ago and the first thing i thought about was using direstrike on the guy and open a greater healing potion.

Mike said on June 15th, 2007 @6:18 pm

Jack Thompson is responsible for gaming’s bad reputation. About 98% of people who play violent video games are not going to go out and shoot people. And people who do go on violent rampages are not made more or less likely because of video games. Video games have become an unfortunate scapegoat. Bottom line: Jack Thompson should be put somewhere where he can’t infect impressionable diplomats with his mental disability and video games have little to nothing to do with violence.

sollipsist said on June 15th, 2007 @9:23 pm

Don’t kid yourself, the vast majority of games are violent in nature (the chess analogy was right on). Do they contribute to aggressive behavior and lack of self-restraint? Yeah, probably. Are most game companies composed of greedy, unoriginal scumbags who consciously use exploitative and controversial shortcuts to make their product as recognizable as possible? Yep, that’s true too.

On the other hand, this is America, and we are supposed to be free to hang ourselves with whatever rope we can get. For my part, I can’t wait to play the new Manhunt sequel…maybe I’ll even break down and buy a Wii for the absurd contrast. But I probably won’t be murdering anyone from behind with a plastic bag.

Vince said on June 16th, 2007 @2:12 am

Sollip, they don’t PROMOTE violence just because it is included. They do not contribute to aggressiveness and self restraint issues from what I’ve seen, sure gamers sometimes have tempers and they make empty threats, but the key term here is EMPTY. Gamers often times shout “Aw, you whore, I oughtta rape you in your sleep!” or “I’m gonna slit your throat soon as you look the other way because of that.” But in all truth it’s nothing but playful banter, with a little teeth clenching on the side. And yes, gaming industries are greedy, but they don’t do nearly 5% of the damage that the tobacco companies do.

Corvis29 said on June 16th, 2007 @3:25 am

Maybe the Only reason they blame Video games is because if they Blamed themselves for showing hours upon hours of The repercussions of this violence and footage of the people who committed it people might believe the media was bad Maybe even promoting violence and they would lose some of those ratings they work so hard for….

sollipsist said on June 16th, 2007 @3:57 am

Back in the 2600 days, my brother used to hit me pretty hard whenever he lost a life

I’m kinda playing the devil’s advocate here, but don’t get me wrong- I’m a lifetime gamer and I lean more towards the gory and disturbing ones. I think I would have been more destructive if I wasn’t able to let off some steam playing games.

But I think the truth is that violent entertainment contributes to a violent society (and vice versa). Contributes, not “promotes”. The same way a person contributes to homophobia by using “gay” to mean stupid. It’s no big deal, nobody should be crucified for it, but let’s not deny that there’s a connection. Rockstar got their fame from our desire for violence…and so did Jack Thompson.

Jack said on June 16th, 2007 @9:08 am

I agree with sollipsist. I think the humans do have a violent nature but I think games can help. If you are aggressive then maybe instead of picking a fight with some one after school, go home and face him online in a game like halo. I perfect example of how games can help aggression is my teacher. She was in a bad car accident completely because of the other car involved wasn’t paying attention. She had minor but lasting physical damage and as a result she began to have road rage thoughts. To prevent this her therapist gave her Burnout 3 to release that specific type of aggression. I don’t think there is a better example of how video games can help people who play them and the people they might not danger.

Rob M said on June 16th, 2007 @9:32 am

She got GIVEN burnout 3? Damn, i’ve got to get me some of that mental illness stuff. I agree with you about that, burnout is an awesome stress reliever. Reminds me of this;

http://www.kahrashin.com/

Jack said on June 16th, 2007 @9:36 am

I’m not sure she was GIVEN it but I know she only got it because of her road rage problems

listikal said on June 19th, 2007 @7:35 pm

Gaming is the easiest thing to blame these days because it’s the most misunderstood by mainstream politicians and mainstream media. Long live gaming….go watch a few R rated movies and then come talk to me.

Michael said on June 21st, 2007 @5:47 pm

I know a maths teacher that regularly plays a modded version of Quake II and the enemy avatars are all images of his most hated students. lol

Oh yeah, if you want to see real rage and violence being created by a form of entertainment just watch a few ice hockey/football(soccer)/wrestling/ultimate fight/etc etc etc TV programmes. Greif you can even read the forums generated by Big Brother /survivor/I hate lost/etc to see what a fermenting boil of rage is being created.

hehehehehe, try telling a trekkie that DS9 sucked or telling a Buffy fan that the vampires look Soooooo gay.. You’ll soon see what I mean :))

Santi said on June 22nd, 2007 @9:30 pm

Not bad, but I don’t worry. The man always needs something to worry about. Peace.

Como said on July 7th, 2007 @12:04 am

While the recent school shootings are tragic, they aren’t the worst that our nation has suffered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_Disaster). Many people today are saying that violent videogames are causing people to become violent, but correlation does not imply causation. Just because violent people may be drawn to violent video games doesn’t mean that the games should stop being made. However gamers as a whole do need to try and change our overall image to the general public. I think one of the best organizations I’ve seen in this regard is Child’s Play (www.childsplaycharity.org/). Child’s Play is simply about gamers coming together to do something good for children in need, and whether the world takes notice of the good that we gamers are doing…well, at least we know we’re doing something good.