Video Game Link to Philadelphia's Murder Rate? Politicians Probing

Let's completely ignore the real problem and waste tax money on a study, that fixes everything!
In a related note, Obama is a jackass and a tool.

[...] - In case you were wondering, politicians are still earthshatteringly dumb. [...]

This coming from Ben Franklin's home city, he must be rolling over in his grave.

"Children can’t always understand the difference between the video game world and the real world..."

Are there any studies to support this? I have never personally encountered a child who had a problem differentiating between real life and make believe.

By the way, Pennsylvania is having a budget crisis, they've laid off thousands of state workers, and they have civic "leaders" like this guy:

http://www.wgal.com/news/13666348/detail.html

Ive always argued that in a world with no depiction of violence of knowledge of it at all people would do things without knowing the consequences of their actions.

Why on slow news weeks cant theyjust run stories on talking ducks, and why do they have to dress the news with their own ,to be frank petty opinions

The system is broken? These asshats were VOTED into their positions for the most part. The system is fine, the people voting for said asshats in support of their own "special" interests and the generally uninformed masses (thanks to the media's unwillingness to care about truth in favor of the almighty dollar) are the problem. Educate the public and the douchebags will have no outlet/blanket of protection to spout their rhetorical bs and actually get elected. As the late, great Bill Hicks put it (roughly): "Go back to sleep, America...here's 42 channels of American Gladiators, watch THIS! Your government has everything under control..."

Also disagree that violent media makes people less sensitive to REAL WORLD violence. It obviously makes them less sensitive to other violence in media (which would make sense) but seeing + experiencing the real thing is worlds apart, as anyone who has can tell you. More edumacation please.

*sigh* glad i'll be moving away from PA soon. Dont' see them going after other forms of violent media, or addressing other things. Morons.

I know another group of people who have trouble distinguishing between fact and fiction...

... Politicians!

I would now like to amend the guy's quote:

"Philadelphia alone has seen 204 homicides so far this year. Giant roaming gorillas may or may not be a contributing factor, but we will never know unless this issue is seriously studied."

That said, video game violence exposure is just like all violence exposure... it almost certainly makes people less sensitive to violence in general. But given that the entire culture's entertainment is based around violence, it's poor form to start pointing fingers.

Of course everyone knows this. But politicians are the weak link in this country. Seriously... how can you expect people to make good decisions about anything when the key to keeping their job is saying what people want to hear? And we put those people in power? And then we complain about it?

The system is broken. We can't rely on it to represent our interests.

@ Judith
old people.

Well, if I tried to add anything to this, I'd just be rehashing whats already been said about crime in Philadelphia.

I'll just say that this proposed legislation is an insult to the intelligence of the people of Philly who want to solve these problems.

how is a universal rating system going to change or affect a murder rate? and moreso, what does that have to do with a murder rate in the first place?

To cover a few things, the ESRB is a highly effective rating system, but it can't control the the psychological state of the people that play it. On the same note, parents should monitor games as well, not just rely on the ratings system. I thank theCurse for the magnificent point that he made: How many of these homicides wre caused by children. Children can tell the difference between reality and game if it is regulated. I am thirteen and during christmas break I powergamed for a few days to beat Final Fantasy XII. This does not mean that I do it constantly. That is where confusion begins to happen. Take your kids outside for at least an hour a day, do something as a family, don't let your kids sit in front of the television or computer all day. As far as I'm concerned on the Philidelphia homicides that is a political thing that has to do with living conditions and maybe the Philidelphia mob.

I know it has already been said, but are these murderers running around with controllers in their back pockets and Halo shirts on? Seriously this is just another attempt to use unrelated events to press on personal agendas of legislators. Seems like these days you can think of countless examples of politicians taking advantage of the situation do throw some dirt at something they have been waiting to.

"Apparently, video games secretly come out of their disk cases and then are used to shoot people which results in homicide."

-Ronald Waters


This shouldn't even be considered libel, as that is basically what he is saying.
I can't wait for Jon Stewart to make fun of this idiot.
I guess he wants to keep the gun shops lining his pockets with money and blame the video games since they give him the finger for being such a corrupt prick.

Poor Philly, known as Killy hereafter; it is just being shit on so a politician can enjoy his money and have fun wiping his ass with dollar bills. I bet Bam would hate to visit his hometown Killy now, it must suck when you hometown becomes full of crime only to have people blame it on games than something realistic.
I guess when we're older our grandchildren will be asking us why did politicians do such mean things to people?

I'm sick of hearing of crap like this.

I always wonder if people consider the possibility that video games are affected by the real world, instead of the other way around. The world is getting more violent, so games are getting more violent as well. After all games are shaped by us right?

Do you have to be a major in law to run for office? If not, that explains a lot.

I blame the waltz for bringing this moral decay.

hey,

Does anyone have a wiki or something?
maybe we could all total up the money and time wasted on this kind of stuff from every local state or city area across the country.

I'll totlly make a pie chart!

maybe comparing it to the amounts spent on text books? hmm...

So... let me get this straight.
A few years it was made easier to get guns if Philly...
and now there is a rampant increase of killings...
hmmm...
IT'S THE M@&$#! F*%!*$# VIDEOGAMES!!!!!111!!!11!!!!!1!!!!!one!!!!!!!


I think that's what's going though the politicians heads.

Actually it's probably more like "I'm going to blame video games so the gun lobbyists will will keep sucking my c@*!."

And to thing someone elected these dumd@$$es.

Sorry for double post, but my sarcasm notes didnt make it around. the 3rd sentence.

Video games have been very popular for a long time and graphic 3D games date back at least 15 years. Yet, the homicide rate only started spiking about 2 years ago.

@ Pissed Offed

So let me get this straight. A couple of years ago they made it easier for people to get and carry guns. Then a couple of years down the line they notice an increase in homicides and they blame video games.

How ignorant do you have to be to not make the connection.

*sigh*
I was once proud to be an American. I was once a Patriot. Now I see that it has all been for naught seeing as the people who run the country are no longer afraid of it's people. Supid laws are made by politicians who feel safe. Once their ass is on the line do they actualy work and fix things. When will this end?