All About Games: “They Cause Murder & Make You Illiterate”

Its a trap. We're reading this article and that constitutes as reading.

Ya know, the Bible contains a lot of violence.

I think that we should ban it next.

'An infographic for parents who know nothing about television has recently been causing waves with its assertions that television “turns children into impulsive murderers” and “makes them into illiterates.”'

Fix'd, Ye Olde Whining style.

Those statistics are hilarious. They're constructed to tell exactly what the maker wants them to.

What's with the "800 hours" statistic? "May contain"? If it's referring to one game in specific, I would love to play this game. If it's talking about every violent game ever, than it's completely pointless.

Some of the points in the last section are just blatantly untrue, and the others are misleading. 30 minutes of what games? Many games have shown an increase in frontal lobe activity, as the gamer plans out strategies, etc...

And that last point... LOL~

Also, some somewhat unrelated food for thought:
http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2008/04/15/does-gaming-promote-reading.html

Lets ban reality TV. It has just as much violence and it doesn't have any sort of redeeming quality to it. At least with video games some of them help to train your brain or your senses

Video games have also been known to cause severe cases of USI and denial. :P

MOTAL KOMBAAAAAT!

that doesn't include eroge.

Feel the pain of us german gamers!

But at least they dont censor games because of nudity here. :P Actually in the states some sexy outfits are already too much. ^^

PS: I want to see a singleplayer game that contains 800 hours of "footage". Even 80h are far to many for 99% of all games...

As much as I don't like the tone of this shit, at least this will prevent little kids from fagging up online FPSes with their fights over chocolate milk :3

Labeling issues with given information:

1. So if they appeal to emos, sadists, and psychos,
they can't be sold to minors? And before this,
anybody who believes this garbage is NOT a
reasonable person, therefore making this point
relatively moot. Last note, difficult to discern?
Ummm, either let them play or ban them for life.
Either way, they'll get around to playing them
behind your back anyways...

2. I believe minors not only CANNOT rent 'M' games,
but they also CANNOT buy the 'M' games in stores
for themselves here in the US. Simple fix, get
said person who hasn't bought into the 'scare
fagtics' of violent game propoganda to get the game
for the minor. Who would know the difference? Who
would care if it caused profits for the store?

3. FPS was only violent back then? What happened to
swinging swords and other various weapons to kill
creatures in other games before this? And even if
'defending oneself' was used as an excuse, the same
could be used to defend Wolfenstein. Gah.

4. 2003? Maybe some more recent info? And 800 hours
of footage in a game? If Kojima couldn't do it, no
one can. In that same note, the only games that
could push 800 hours are WKC and other online FPS
and MMOs. And most violent content saved for last?
Uhh, no. Most games give access to most content thru
one single-player playthrough.

5. It's been said but most games have dialogue to
read, therefore NOT impairing reading time. More time
on video games = bad? In excessive amounts, it can
be. But overall, bullshit is the name of the ad here.

Oh, and be sure to thank your insurance company for NOT being this retarded...

the hell? even though california is a good place but the laws there sheesh. i have learned alot from video games. vocabulary, heck i begin to understand violence more and it made me more mature than ever. now i don't rage quit when playing games unlike some people. still today people are being an ass and giving video games a bad name. it didn't happen during SNES days why now?

lol... dumb kids surely get influenced..
in any case, they forgot to add violence on TV

illiterate? if anything, you do a lot more reading gaming than watching movies =P

Wait, this is recent? This looks like what they use to publish back 10+ years ago.

The information is provided by a travel insurance company it seems, why would they be a reliable source regarding these sorts of things?

http://gamepolitics.com/2010/06/07/treasure-trove-game-research-psychology-publication

Nuff said.

There is a movie out called Moral Kombat. I found it on Hulu.com. It talks about this whole issue. Look it up if you like.

oh please >>
do this kind of research on serious problems

What a bunch of bullcrap.

I've played GTA, where the prime theme of the game is all about mafia, gangs, etc. but it did not, in any way, let across my mind of murdering a person.

Citing computer games as a cause of murder is really too much. I've read some novels (forgot the titles) and they are way more gruesome than games.

800 hours? There have been a lot of games that I've played and replayed over the years, but I'm pretty sure I haven't accumulated 33 full days worth of playing from one game. If you are going to make up numbers and statistics they should at least be somewhat realistic and feasible.

I was 8 years old when I got mine MK4
I haven't killed nobody yet

26% Over 50... Way to go old people. Ill inherit a lot of violent games when mine die ^ω^

I thought not reading made you illiterate.

I thought actually killing someone made you a murderer.

The more ya know!

No wayyy!!! I play video games hours everyday, am top of my class, and have NEVER killed anyone! Gamers spend more time reading in a fully voiced game than their parents probably do.

OH GOD! What is wrong with the freaking government?! Can't they just realize that just because playing violent video games doesn't mean they would make them murderers?! Make it stop, for crying out loud!

WAKE UP!!!

Why don't they do something about that horrid series of movies- Saw? It's just pointless gore and it's real people killing in a movie.

"Violent" is a very broad term and I'm not sure minors would be able to play much if the law goes into act. Isn't this why we have ratings in the first place? Minors would probably manage to buy it other ways, like by using the internet, and banning them would only make them want to play them more. I do have a thing against kids playing excessively violent games because personally, I feel that kids can be stupid and easy to influence. That said, I still feel like parents should take more responsibility instead.

Of course you are going to read less if you play video games a lot. If I had to choose between a good game or a book it wouldn't matter.(Unless it was Starcraft 2)

As a kid I spent nearly all of my free time playing video games. I was a straight A student too.

Video games do no make you dumb.

Speaking of illiterate, sitting here at home in Taipei, EVEN I NOTICED that half of Michigan, what they call in USA the Upper Peninsula or U.P. was not correctly colored when the map said Michigan.

Is that some kind of California thing?

Also, when I first saw California Game Law, the first thing that I thought of was hunting and fishing. Maybe my English is just not good, but did anyone else thing the same thing?

Fictional media doesn't create murderers, society does. How many times have I wanted to go on a rampage from an all-nighter in TF 2? None. How many times have I wanted to do the same because of the jackasses & drooling morons out there? I've lost count.

I hate the fact that they try to stop "violent video games" to be sold to young kids, when as a matter of fact they SHOULDNT be sold already, its something called ESRB. Just parents and stores dont obey it, and instead of paying attention they blame vide games.

God they put Wolfenstein 3D as an example and its rated M:Mature (17+).

If your kids plays a game non suitable for him, its YOUR fault.

Yes. 49% of the top games contain violence, but 51% don't. Because balance TOTALLY ISN'T A GOOD THING.

Also, the last one isn't proven. Failsauce.

Heh, glad I don't live in the fucked up place called America.

I swear, who the fuck is allowing these things? I assume that this was in a newspaper? If it was, I want to know which editor wasn't doing their job, things like this are not supposed to be approved for print in most newspapers outside of the Daily World News.... and calling that a 'newspaper' is a severe stretch.

I play video games all the time, and I'm unaffected. Now if you'll excuse me, i need to go murder my cat.

The lot of people who play jRPGs, often spend about as much time readings as "playing" games, while just only playing their video game. And people call Visual Novels games, but all you're really doing is reading.

Video Games have really become a hodgepodge of different media formats of the past. Along with variations of different board game systems such as the tabletop RPG, you also get the movie in the form of the cutscene and the book/novel in the form unvocal messages. And let's not forget music, like movies, video games contain a lot of music.

Everything Bad is Good for You By Steven Johnson <3

great read if anyone has read it ^.^

I'm relieved. I thought that I played video games too much. But, since I could read the article and haven't committed any recent homicides, I'm OK.