I am a fan of Elisabeth Hasselbeck's even though I know a lot of people aren't. I am a conservative and generally agree with what she is saying, or differ very slightly. When I noticed she was trending on Facebook, I had to check out why.
That is when I came across this article: Fox & Friends Co-Host Elisabeth Hasselbeck: We Need National Registry for Video Games, and it also quotes this one:Raw Story
Basically the articles talk about how Elisabeth had a discussion on her new show. They talk about the guy who went in and did the shootings in the navy yard. They start out trying to say that people will start blaming gun control laws, but the real blame should lay in the shooters hands. Absolutely right. And if the conversation stayed there, I would not be talking about it here. However, it did not.
They go on to discuss how he had an obsession with video games, and how he played all the time and how his friend said that he would come over to his house to play. They would bring him his dinner because he wouldn't stop playing. This is when they suggest the solution would not be a gun registry but a gaming registry.
I am not here to discuss gun registries, that is a debate for another blog. But here are my thoughts on a gaming registry.
No. Absolutely not. This is not about the games he played. Yes, he played insane hours of shooting games. That is probably not good for you. Neither is playing any game for insane hours. If this is what caused him to shoot all those people, then you should keep me out of a candy store or I shall crush all the candies!
My hubby and his buddies play these types of games too, but it's in moderation. Just because you play shooting games doesn't mean you will do this. I mean my hubby plays; he isn't mentally unstable, and hasn't once gone on a shooting spree, and he has played them for 20 years in various types. And I still don't think it's the hours played, I think it's the fact that the shooter had it in him to be this type of person, and it manifests itself in many ways, one of which was that he was obsessed with video games.
I think a gaming registry is a huge waste of valuable resources such as time and money. It would be practically impossible to keep up with, and I think would lead you down a wrong path. For instance in our house, I have bought: Halo (5 versions), Tomb Raider, Call of Duty, and GTA to name a few. I have played none of them. So I would be on this registry, because I like to buy my hubby presents. Yup. A real threat to national security I am. I play candy crush (did I mention that already?). I also think there are a lot of people out there that like to play and have no problems.
If you are going to blame the video game aspect, which I still think that is letting this guy and his medical staff off the hook for his mental instability, but say you were..... then you need to blame the friend and his family for 1. bringing the guy food so he could keep playing, 2. seeing an obsession and continuing to enable, 3. not saying anything when they saw a problem, 4. letting him in their house to play for endless hours.
Mental Disorders are very serious and I don't think that everyone gets the treatment they need I think we need to focus there instead of doing a gaming registry, and diverting attention and resources from the real issues.
What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts, but please keep it respectful.
That is really interesting, I've never heard of a gaming registry before. It does seem like it would be hard to keep up with.
ReplyDeleteWow I have never heard of such a thing. I guess I feel that playing a video game for a long period of time wouldn't make a person go to such drastic means like that.. but that is just my thought!!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I don't think it's good for your body to sit that long, or good for your brain to not be challenging it with lots of variety.
DeleteA Gaming Registry would be foolish and a waste of resources for everyone involved, LOL. Games affect us about as much as movies and TV watching do. Are we suddenly going to be regulated on what we get to watch when we're adults? Its sad that this guy decided that virtual shooting was no longer enough for him, but he didn't become violent from gaming. In fact, it might have kept him from picking up a real gun for a very long time. If he didn't have the virtual one to amuse himself with, whose to say he wouldn't have gone out and did the real thing earlier?
ReplyDeleteIts disturbing to think that one bad egg could ruin the fun for everyone else. The recent FanExpo in Toronto was entirely busy filled with gaming and horror nerds, and everyone around was so very sweet and just happy to socialize with like-minded peeps. If Elisabeth Hasselbeck wants to see what gamers are like, she should go to an expo. The people there are all about the soon to be released first-person shooting games, but they know its a game, and not real life.
Exactly. I shook my head on this one. Seriously. I have many good friends who play these games, and I have spent long hours with them and would trust them with my life.
DeleteI had never heard of this before. I do think that gaming can be a problem and this is a possible idea to move towards a solution. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your opinion, and in a respectful way. I don't mind people disagreeing with me as long as they do it respectfully :)
DeleteI have a hard time with the connection here. I think people are just looking to make sense out of it and while I think gaming can be a problem, I don't really think the shooting is directly related.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I thought that this would be a real knee-jerk reaction to this sort of thing. I never thing a drastic response is a good one. I think thoughtful discussion weighing pros and cons are the way to go.
DeleteThe persistent "direct" connection between gaming and violence is ridiculous. If gaming caused violence, then conventions like E3 and PAX (Prime, East, Aus, Dev) would be virtual festering pools of violence and every attendee would be evil and mean.
ReplyDeletehttp://prime.paxsite.com/gallery
^ that hardly looks like festering pools of violence.
I just think people latch onto the connection because searching for a much deeper reason or cause is too difficult. People prefer to chunk causes to units that are more mentally palatable. But when you do that - when you simplified things - you either lose detail or misunderstand things.
And, really, gaming is so easy to target. It is the scapegoat for a cause no one can or wants to eke out. You can't identify intangible causes but you can (or at least try to) ban a game.
Lastly -- the idea that video games leads to violence conveys the idea that the inverse is true - that is, a lack of video games equals no violence. Which doesn't jive with history, what with all those wars and such.
I am baffled that this would even be an option. If the violence in video games is thought to be a threat to national security shouldn't they ban the production of them?
ReplyDeleteMMmmm... A gaming registry not likely, but truly games like Grand Theft Auto go WWWWAAAAYYY to far... No one should be playing "games" where torture and rape are options....
ReplyDeleteI think if someone is playing excessive hours of those violent video games, they have a problem that is bigger than the video games already. It's a shame that society is always giving people ways out of taking blame for what they've done. If you shoot someone it's your fault plain and simple, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWhenever something like this happens, people always try to find a reason. These things are complex, and it doesn't do any good to blame the video games, although I do think the excessive violence in some games is a problem.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dani above and I think it would be tough to regulate as well.
ReplyDelete