Ever notice that since the Columbine tragedy every news special ends with
the tag line: ". . . and how it effects our children." Do you know just how
much that disgusts me? To think the general populace is seeking out a
scapegoat, some effigy they can burn and tear at. There have already been
discussions in prominent newspapers linking this horrid tragedy to "gaming."
Angry parents and blood thirsty news reporters are jabbing angry fingers in
our direction.
"It's that devil game!" quoth the ignorant.
So, let's try and look at both sides of the issue here. Let's attack
gaming here for a while . . . bear with me . . . this is harder on me than
it is on you.
In role-playing games, the participant assumes an invented identity and
that identity functions in a make believe world making decisions and choices
that ideally have no basis in the root of the participant's true identity.
The danger inherent in that is that some participants use the modes of the
game to manifest, encourage, or sate deep seated pains, fears, anxiety, and
violence. While escapism can be a healthy psychological tool for the
stressed or the unbalanced, if left unsupervised or moderated it can become
the trigger that lets out residing psychosis. The decisions made by these
invented identities can also lead to disassociation and desensitization.
While the manufacturers of these games maintain that the games in and of
themselves do not promote or encourage any ideology, mode of thought, or
belief system, the fact cannot be ignored that the game does have an impact
on the one facet of its players it focuses on, their imagination.
There. I just slammed gaming. Now let's defend it.
First . . . the facts. Two percent of the American population has played or
currently plays role-playing games. Role-playing games have been accused of
being directly related to crimes of violence on over twelve occasions. On
every occasion . . . it's never been substantiated in court. Out of the two
percent of Americans who do play role-playing games, only a third of a
percent of the two percent microcosm have committed crimes of violence. So
in essence . . . where's the real link?
Now, I don't mean to just go off here, but when we live in a society that's
constantly flicking out accusing fingers at everything from Marilyn Manson
to the Teletubbies, trying in a pathetic attempt to find the "reason" why
their kids are messed up in the head, we have to realize where those fingers
should really be going - up our own @$$. Parents just can't accept the fact
that they need to pay attention to their kids. They hate the fact that they
can't just order out for dinner and pay a few bills and boom ala-kazam
instant perfect family. When I say pay attention to their kids, I mean
exactly just that. Don't go around saying "it's just a phase," or "my child
would never do that." Wake up. You're kid was messed up long before he
played a game. He was messed up when he was eleven years old and he never
got better. When Billy Bob Jojo Bully pulled his pants down in elementary
school and kicked him into the girl's bathroom, and in gym class he learned
that he can't catch a ball, and in math class he learned that he has to try
harder than everyone else, THAT was the beginning of your child getting
messed up. It started happening when he found you drunk one day, when he
got beat up in school, when his girlfriend left him for another girl, you
know, all the things you never cared about enough to ask him.
Taking care of your kids and your family begins, ends, and stays in the
home. Stop trying to blame WWF, Batman, and funky looking dice.
Timothy Till
President Rune's Law Inc.
P.O. Box 73146
Houston, TX 77273
(281) 397-7595 Phone
(281) 397-6640 Fax
-- Makers of Wayfarer Infinity: Science-Fantasy Role Playing
-- Hosts of "I Think Therefore I Con" in Houston, Texas
