Gaming Mods For The Church of England

Seems to me like the arcade era is now come to a end, PS3 XBOX 360, and other systems have now replaced arcades. It's a culture thing I guess, because the Japanese go to arcades. You can't get an audience by playing jumping around on a plastic mat in your living room.

Myself, I like computer games, and things you can hack/mod. I Half-Life mod, which took the storyline and level locations the columbine massacre. The plot was, go into a school and shoot as many people as you could before the police arrived. It didn't go over very well. Actually when you think about it…. in this situation, the game didn't promote the violence, but the violence promoted the game, so perhaps those in society who are against games should get their priorities straight.

The Church of England accused Sony Corp. on Saturday of using an English cathedral as the backdrop to a violent computer game and said it should be withdrawn from shop shelves. The game, Resistance: Fall of Man, shows a virtual shootout between rival gunmen with hundreds of people killed inside the cathedral. Church officials described Sony’s alleged use of the building as “sick” and sacrilegious.

For nearly 35 years these arguments have not produced anything concrete. While a connection between violent video games and anti-social behavior in teenagers may seem obvious to you, there is a real question in the medical, legal, and political community as to whether this connection is real. People who are easily influenced will be influenced by anything they are around, be it movies, video games, music or books. What about Football. That's a pretty rough and violent game. It's also real aggression, acted out against real people.

The power of expression, such as art, literature, movies, entertainment, music are valued for their ability to "move" and "stimulate" the viewer, listener, etc. It should be no suprise that people react by saying "this made me do it". Or, they are using it as a total cop-out.

The legislation trend is getting quite disturbing. Especially when argued with "high moral" overtones. Looking back on the influences in my youth, I can't count the number of times and multitude of ways Elmer tried to kill Bugs Bunny. Did I grow up thinking you could avoid being shot by sticking your finger in the barrel of a rifle? Did I believe that you could fall off a hundred foot cliff and get up and walk away?

If anything, I can say that violent video-games provide an OUTLET for violent tendencies that may exist. Just like sports programs do. It takes quite a bit of intelligence to mod a game for a Bill Clinton shooting spree. Regardless, people have a right to make and sell violent games, art, literature and film as much as I have a right to make up the market to purchase it.

The solution is so easy everyone is blinded by it. My parents taught me right from wrong and reality and fiction. Problems aren't coming from the games or movies. Take responsibility for your own actions. It's not someone elses fault. Children are the direct responsibility of the parents, and parents need to have a god grasp on what their children can handle AND what they are being exposed too. I've just ended the 35yr debate. You're welcome.

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