A False Claim

I was reading a news article last night about the familiar violent-games-creates-violent-people debate. It was written in 2005 (don't ask why I still have the paper), so it wasn't influenced by the recent Virginia Tech shooting, instead it featured Grand Theft Auto (GTA) quite a bit since that was when the "Hot Coffee patch" incident occurred. One of the lines caught my eye. It quoted Hilary Clinton as claiming the game promoted "[having] sex with prostitutes and then murder them". Having played GTA myself I admit this is indeed something you can do in the game, but that's due to the non-linear nature of the game. There are no missions requiring the player to murder prostitutes and if you try to do that outside a mission the cops will come after you for killing pedestrians. I'm not sure how that promotes casual killing. Sure, there is no denying GTA requires the player to kill a lot of virtual characters and that might still have bad influences, but people should get their facts right when making such powerful statements.

Within the same article, author and retired colonel Dave Grossman aruged these games are "murder simulators" that teach "young people how to use guns while lessening the impact and shock value of real violence". I hope Mr. Grossman does not live in the U.S., because he would have a hard time explaining to me why the NRA, which advocates the ownership of guns, does not promote violent crimes in an even more direct way. I have said it already and I will say again. Having the intent to murder is different from having the ability to do so. Games may provide the intent (even that is debatable), but certainty not the ability. If people want to blame games or movies for violence, they should first blame the organisations that provide the means to carry out these violent acts.