This is my first blog so bear with me!

There has been a lot of talk about the role violent video games play in modern life. There was an ill conceived articleabout the slippery slope modern games are on into some kind of moral abyss. It's all rubbish, the entire premise can be disproved in one simple sentence. The Call of duty and Halo franchises have alone sold a couple of hundred million units around the world. there are not a couple of hundred million people going on killing sprees. That's it case closed. However some people think that its not as cut and dried as that (it is, but let's humour them for a while) and that modern video games with their realistic graphics are de-sensitizing people to violence.

I'll deal with this in a couple of ways. firstly i'd like to see these games with their realistic graphics, i must have missed those ones somehow. Secondly and most importantly these games, and movies, only tend to de-sensitize beople to FAKE violence. Violence has been around for millenia, the most violent piece of literature hands down is the Old Testament. If they tried to make that into a film today it would make Hostel look like the Little mermaid. Violence and violent death did not spring up around games or movies. the two most destructive wars in history happened before TV was even around. The vietnam war was a turning point in violence on Tv. that was real violence and it was confronting and shocking.

Put 100 people in a room playing splatterhouse or some other insanely violent video game. Then walk them, across a road where they witness someone being hit by a car and killed. Not chopped up by a machette or ripped apart by dos just struck by a car. Every person out of that 100 will be seriously affected by it. Many will throw up. Many will relive that scene in thir head for weeks afterwards. Because it's real and our incredibly complex massive brains CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IS REAL AND WHAT IS NOT! We know that GTA is cartoon violence and that we can't steal cars with impunity and beat up hookers for money while carrying 7 or 8 different weapons around. We know when we get killed in real life we don't wake up in a hospital short a few dollars. We know we can't score a scorpion kick against Brazil in the world cup final.

So what it really comes down to is triggers. People say these games, or rock music or whatever are triggers. In order for something to be a tirgger there needs to be an issue with the person to begin with. Remove the video game trigger and something else takes it's place. In the case of Son of Sam it was his neighbours dog. whatever the ethical opposition to violence in video games they are not the cause of the ills of modern society. Games properly regulated and sold to appropriate people are just that, games. You don't let you 12 year old watch Saw (at least you shouldn't) you shouldn't let them play GTA. But i'm a grown man and i find video games, violent and non violent relaxing and an enjoyable way of passing the time and i've never shot or stabbed someone or felt an urge to do so while playing them.