I decided to write this blog today after reading an article posted on Gamespot regarding Katey Courics desire to speak to people in the games industry after already posting a hightly critical article about the ills and bad influences of the games industry in a very one sided piece that did little more than re-itterate the view of most gamers, and probably most within the games industry (although they are seemingly not allowed to defend themselves without being accused of having a vested interest in the argument), that the media was looking for a convenient scapegoat for some of the reprehensible violent spree shootings in the United States, to deflect blame from the firearms industry.

I really couldnt care less about the NRA and what they have to say, Im not American, and its so nothing to do with me.  However as someone that is nearly 41 years old, and has been an avid player of computer games since I guess 1984/85 it does concern me when someone attacks my hobby, not just attacks it but makes comments that border on being slanderous at times in the assumption that because one person who played picked up a gun and went on a shooting spree, that it must be the computer games he played that are responsible.

Just to put this into context but there has been there has been 3 or 4 recent and highly publicised spree killings where the person or persons responsible has used firearms, contrast that to Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 which has reportedly sold 10 million copies worldwide since its release, taking into account some people may have bought duplicate copies or some households may have 2 copies its still going to be at least 7.5 million copies sold mark.  So according to the gun lobbiests who it appears are the ones seemingly quick to blame the games industry and gamers that is potentially 7.5 million people walking around participating in illigal acts due to playing a computer game all because of the random act of 3 or 4 people??

The mind boggles at just how inconsequential the numbers are that are responsible for such terrible acts compared with the number of gamers that played this one specific game, but when you compare it to the amount of people that regularly and frequently play computer games globally we are probably talking  about 0.1% of all gamers that participate in criminal acts as a result of playing video games and although that may be an unscientific number its probably nearer the truth than certain parts of the media would have you believe when linking games to violent/criminal/anti-social acts.

So what is the answer? Well if I knew that Id not be sat here writing blogs, but one suggestion I would make is that rather than blaming the games industry and the developers and gamers we should be looking closer to home, at the parents that allow their kids to roam around the streets in ferel gangs, that give in to demands for games for an easy life ignoring any age rating the game may have, and allowing their children to play games aimed at an adult audience.  The games industry can only do so much and once a game is developed, produced, rated and released surely it is up to parents/guardian and more importantly the shops stocking the game to ensure that certain games are not allowed into the hands of under age gamers that are more than likely not mature enough to deal with the adult themes of certain games.

To blame the games industry is quite simply a cop-out, it is the easiest and probably the safest option because  there are probably no lobiests or politicians with a vested interest in making sure the games industry remains unchallenged unlike certain self publicing groups.