And Now for Something Completely Unexpected

Sorry, did I say “completely unexpected”? I meant “completely expected”. Yes, it’s that time of the…hour…again when we get more people who don’t know what they’re talking about condemning the eeeeeeevils of video gaming. Because apparently the world never knew violence until video games came along (or rock music if this were the 1950’s, or comic books if this were the 1960’s, or rap music if this were the 1980’s/early 90’s, or Catcher in the Rye if this were…well, ever).

I know what you’re thinking. I’m going to talk about Jack Thompson here. Well, no. He deserves his own post and I’m positive he’ll be getting one, don’t you worry. No, this post is about one Dr. Susan Bartel, who appeared recently on The Today Show to talk about video games. Why was she talking about video games? That’s simple: It’s because she’s the author of Dr. Susan's Girls-only Weight Loss Guide: The Easy, Fun Way to Look and Feel Good. So, clearly she is the expert of all experts when it comes to talking about the eeeeeeevils of video games. Anyway, she talked about how it is interesting that when children play violent video games, you can clearly see a big difference in kids’ brain patterns. I’m assuming she threw in “violent” there because I guess when you play non-violent games, the brain pattern looks exactly the same as when a kid is sitting staring out the window at rainbows and unicorns. She was referring, of course, to the 2006 Indiana University study that showed that while there was an increase in brain activity, specifically the regions related to self-control, inhibition and attention, there was no correlative evidence to show that this would turn non-violent children into violent serial killers trained in the deadly arts of button mashing. I guess she forgot to read that second part.

Dr. Bartel then proceeded to tell The Today Show that it was clear that children rode an emotional high after playing these violent games and would kill the next person they bumped into on the street. No, I’m not making that up:
“No, it’s negative activity that the child really has to get into the CHARACTER of the person that they’re playing that’s killing all these people. So when they walk out of the ROOM and they go out into the streets and someone might bump into them, what are they going to do? They’re going to react in that same highly aroused, angry way and we saw what just happened yesterday…”

Let’s look at the real facts now: In the past decade and a half, youth violence rates have plummeted. Don’t believe me? It’s all right here in easy-to-read HTML format. You know what else has happened in the past decade and a half? Video games have exploded (you see what I did there?) to become the #1 form of entertainment in today’s home. Part of the stigma of video games reducing our children to blubbering forms of violent goo is that all video games are developed and marketed solely to children. This is not 1990 any longer. Long gone are those days. Today’s average video game player is 33 years old. That 33 year old has also been playing games for over 12 years. The decade and a half. So, if video games really are turning us into mindless killers, shouldn’t crime rates be skyrocketing, and not plummeting like they are here, in the real world?

Let’s also not forget, people, that we have ratings on the game boxes. They’re fairly large and they’re right there on the front of the box. Not even movies have their ratings on the box. They’re hidden somewhere on the back of their boxes. Go ahead and go pick up a DVD case and a video game case. Try to find the movie’s rating, now try to find the video game’s rating. Which one did you find first? Which one was larger, easier to read? I’m willing to bet it was the video game’s.

The solution here is not to call all of our children idiots who don’t know the difference between right and wrong. It is not video games’ fault when children don’t know the difference between right and wrong. It is the parents’ fault. But why blame ourselves when we can use people who don’t know what they’re talking about to tell other uninformed people about the eeeeeeevils of this new entertainment medium? That’s just easier. And isn’t that the American way?

Special thanks to gamepolitics.com for the inspiration for this post and the quote from the good doctor.