For most people the effect doesn’t last long. There are
some, however, who will spend the rest of their lives imitating their favorite
character.
Enter the video game. Here the player is the main character
even though the environment is made up. The player can act out a personality
guided by actions programmed into the game. In other words, the player becomes
the lead character in a surreal world. It is a world where he or she must make
decisions and take actions that affect the outcome of the game’s fantasy. While
playing the game, the player’s world is only what the game maker intended. The
player experiences emotions that go with the actions.
This is the same technique used to train pilots on flight
simulators. Pilots receive the very realistic experience of flying an aircraft
in an environment controlled by the simulator’s program. When they have
completed the training, they know what it feels like to fly under any number of
adverse conditions and will act according to the response made under simulated
conditions. The simulator programs an automatic response by the pilot.
Is it any wonder, then, that people who spend untold hours
playing a video game will become “trained” to react to situations experienced
in the game? When the games or a particular game becomes an obsession there
should be some serious red flags raised – especially if it involves the many
violent video games. Repeated playing by young, impressionable minds can blur
the line between the real world and the fantasy world of a video game. Play by
someone with autism or a mental disorder can have a disastrous outcome.
One case-in-point is that of Adam Lanza aka the Sandy Hook
Elementary School Shooter. Investigators found that Lanza became a recluse in
his own home. He had cut off contact with nearly everyone in his life and only
communicated with his mother by email. The windows of his room were covered
with black trash bags.
Diagnosed with an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) named Asperger’s Disorder, he was obsessed with “Dance Dance Revolution” a non-violent dance simulation game played with the wii game platform. He was known to spend as much as ten hours a day playing the game.
The November 2013 final report names the following twelve
video games as being part of Lanza's collection: Left 4 Dead, Metal Gear Solid,
Dead Rising, Half Life, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Shin
Megami Tensei, Dynasty Warriors, Vice City, Team Fortress, and Doom. No one can
say how much time he spent with any of these violent games, but Lanza’s OCD and
obsession with another video game might lead us to believe he could have been
similarly obsessed with them.
Adam Lanza is just one instance of a connection between
horrendous violence and violent video games. I would wager that taking look at
the evolution of homegrown violent incidents, one could find a direct
correlation in the increase in numbers and severity with the increase in
realism and mayhem in video games.
Yet mainstream media and anti-gun groups would rather
highlight the fact that these acts were committed with guns. Most of the tools
used in the violent videos are guns – some very realistic and others quite
fantastic – but they are weapons that “shoot” some sort of projectile. Are
these mass-murderers being programmed and trained to use guns in their
distorted world?
A Supreme Court ruling that sights the First Amendment
currently protects violent video games. While concerted efforts are being made
using these horrific acts to tear up the Second Amendment, there seems to be
little to no action or even inquiry into the role violent video games have
played in them.
It must take a very sick and twisted mind to program the
carnage and mayhem found in many of these games. The creators of these games
need to take some responsibility for the horrible consequences of their
creations. As I see it, they might even be considered co-conspirators in these
savage acts.
Life is not a video game. You can’t reboot and start over
when you are killed off.
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