Bisexual Paedophile

Jack Thompson. Not a name you'd instantly associate with the title of this blog. Yet, he seems to think that it would be (Is there something he's not telling us?).

I am a gamer, and I love the GTA series. So it should come as no surprise that I have a rather fine tuned hatred of anti-game lawyers that place the blame of teenage homicides squarely on the figurative shoulders of violent video games.

Now, I agree, these video games are going to have a rather dramatic affect on children. It's inevitable, children are impresionable. Which is exactly why these games are rated 18, or in some cases (Mostly when it comes to PC games) Adults Only. In my experiance these ratings all have breakdowns of what makes it a game of that rating, typicaly using phrases like 'strong violence themes' or 'mild nudity', and so on. You know, easy to understand, easy to digest, and very quick to read, unlike a full on review of the game, it lets you know what to expect when you play it.

It also serves to let parents who want to buy the game for their child what their child will experiance while playing the game. However, I don't know a single parent that has bought video games for their children (My friends/friends of friends) who has ever even looked at the age rating, let alone the breakdown of the games content that requires it have that rating.

While there are a lot of parents out there who are doubtlessly good parents, who support their children and help them with their homework, the generic good parenting. However, there is still a flaw with that parent. Most of them don't have a clue what they're buying for their child, and I'm damn sure that the children are not going to have a convorsation with their parent(s) that goes anything like this;

Child: Mum/Dad, buy me this game!
Mum/Dad: Why can't you buy it yourself, you have pocket money/a job?
Child: Well, it's rated 18 because there are violent themes and there is a lot of swearing, set in a gang environment, in which you play an odd job man.
Mum/Dad: Oh, that sounds like a reasonable game to buy our child.

It just won't happen, with good parents. They'll understand that their child is not old enough to be able to play this game and not take the values they have to play by and experiance in the game, into the real world.

Now, that's an ideal situation. A lot of children will, and I have done this myself in the past, lie, deceive and act ignorant as to the content of the game, or their knowledge of the game, in an effort to get their parent(s) to buy the game for them.

How does it work for the crappy parents that one day realised that rather than putting on weight, they were actually about to have a child? A lot of these parents have no real capability to look after their child(ren), and rather than condition said child(ren) to understand right and wrong, correct and incorrect behaviour, they will just shout at the child, and feed it(them) video games and television.

Where does that leave the child? The parent(s) have no interest, and it's being shovelled all these games, some of which are violent, others not so much (I can tell you now, as a 13 year old boy nothing sucks more than playing a video game about a freakin' purple dragon).

The child ends up immersed in what is essentially a make-believe criminal world, which in a lot of cases mimics the real world criminal organisations with incredible detail. The child has no choice but to take its life experiance from the game, where they can (Should they desire) take an assault rifle and rampage around a city and either 'die' or get 'busted', both of which result in a loss of cash and weapons. They just reload their saved game, no harm done.

In the real world, though, what happens when they get picked on, or someone pisses them off at school? Would they go to their parent? Of course not, the parent hasn't been there for said child so far, why would this be any different. The teachers/lecturers/police? In their experiance, all the enforcment bodies are bad, and you should avoid them at all costs. That leaves one option.

Crack the son of a bitch over the head with a baseball bat. Which inevitably leads to either prison or suicide and a bunch of idiotic people blaming the games that the child played.

I admit, video games have an insane ability to influence your decisions as a child, but they are not the problem. The problem lies with irresponsible retailers selling games to children, it lies with parents who cannot be bothered to raise their child, it lies with lawyers who want to make a fat pile of cash by suing every game company they can, or in one lawyers case, focus heavily on what they see as 'the biggest' contributor to teenage homicides.

The lawyers need to be taken out of the equation. They're useless and shifting focus from the real issue. Parents need to be parents, and not spoon feed their child(ren) violence and downright sadistic games (Postal 2, anyone? Good fun, that game, but damn, some of the things you can do are sadistic).

Video games affect everyone differently. Parents are affected in the sense that most of them have no interest what so ever in monitoring the games their children play, for whatever reason (God knows, there are a lot that they come out with when their child goes nuts and shoots someone). Children with no proper parental system are affected in the sense that their morals and ideas come from these games, which can be devastating to anyone who gets in their way.

Responsible parenting and sensible moderation of the amount of violence the child can see/interact with results in a teenager/adult who can enjoy these games, and at the same time, not try to crack everyone in the face with a bat.

In my case, I was brought up responsibly. I've been playing violent video games for over half my life (Eleven years if I'm not mistaken), I have a love of airsoft, I really love seeing bladed weapons. Yet, in all my years, I've never taken a weapon to someone in anger, ever. All the friends I have continued to be in contact with for the last seven or eight years are in much the same place as I, and now, we're all well rounded 20 year olds, or as near as makes no difference.

In conclusion.

Jack Thompson, you are a self important pile of fecal matter, I hope you wake up one day, and realise your focus is entirely in the wrong place, and that not everything negative about anti-game lawyers (GTA:IV, anyone?) is about you. Go back to the rock you've lived under all your life, you're boring, and no one will ever love you for your convoluted bullshit legal cases.

And now, if you got this far, you're wondering what my point was.

Sucks to be you.