As a fellow who works in a major public hospital system in Dallas, I don't see many realistic inteventions being put forth to aid in improving mental health in the states. The vast majority of significant research in the field is being dedicated to pharmacological interventions, which do have their place, but people underestimate how difficult it is to keep these patients compliant with their medication regimen. Most of the other research involves significantly less funding since Big Pharma isn't funding the bill, and often produces vague unhelpful results. I think it's a noble sentiment, like ending poverty, cancer, and world hunger, but ultimately like those previously mentioned an ulreastistic one that we can strive for but won't achieve.
So where do we go now? If we can't solve the origin, which most believe is mental illness, than we must stop the means or at the very least what is inspiring this violence. Is the media, movies, music, games, political unrest, guns? It feels like we're reaching blindly in the dark now. Well meaning citizens won't accept inaction and at the same time offer interventions that won't solve problem. If we introduce another federal assaults weapon ban that won't prevent mass school shootings from occuring because the range at which those kills occur is so close that can easily be accomplished with a pistol or shotgun regardless of high capacity magazines. If we ban guns altogether and pursue a more European approach to gun control, some believe we'll have opened Pandora's box where America's constitution and our very rights can be rewritten at any point in time. And as for the media, film, music, games, we can't even produce consistent results showing a causal relationship.
Difficult times we live in. Enjoyed the article, Carolyn.
I've never believed the claim that pirates are soley downloading illegal full copy games only to serve as lengthy demos prior to purchasing the game provided they enjoy it.
Also you seem to be taking a hypocritical stance, saying developers exaggerate statistics of pirated games and than later on say that you believe a drop in Japanese game sales is soley related to anti-piracy laws. You provide no numbers to back up your claims or even the time period In that case, you're most likely exaggerating the significance of pirates buying games.
These New Regency and Ubisoft partnerships seems to be the hopeful game to film adaptations in recent memory. It's nice to see big name actors jumping on board. However, I really don't see either one of these titles as being a great foundation for a script.
Regardless of your feelings on DRM, you've got to give Ubisoft credit for releasing the first fully fleshed out FPS in a long time. Lengthy single player with an open world, co-op, competitive multiplayer, map editor. You've got to give credit where it's due here.
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