Dear Future Gamer,

Following on from Michael Flaherty's letter in FG30, I agree that blaming computer games for acts of violence is a waste of time. The problem is, when people experience a crisis such as one of these increasingly frequent shootings in America, they feel they need a scapegoat. Let's not blame the upbringing or look at the psychological causes of what happened, let's just use the easy escape route of computer games, horror films or whatever.

It's saddening and pathetic that people cannot take responsibility for their own lives and the lives of their children. I enjoy Carmageddon and think it's a very good game. (Well, it would be if it worked and if SCi cared enough about the people who buy their games to reply to technical support emails).

A few years ago there was an invention called the "stress doll" which never really took off (but that's beside the point). It was a doll which you could pull apart, the idea being that you could relieve your aggression on the doll and get it out of your system. Now, no-one accused that of causing people to try to kill each other at the time (probably because it was never popular) but that's the way I see Carmageddon. It's an incredibly satisfying, enjoyable game. It means I can kill a lot of people in imaginative ways on my computer and get it all out of my system so I don't feel the need to do it in real life. (Not that I would anyway, of course, your honour..)

I would imagine that the problem of these crises is more due to the fact that no-one is prepared to take responsibility for their actions rather than something harmless like a computer game. The second it happens it's not a question of "why" it's a question of "what did it?". It's this apathetic attitude that does it, this feeling that we are all somehow brainwashed and can't think for ourselves. The people that push the blame on videogames are more responsible than the videogames themselves.

John

FG: A sentiment we concur with John. As I've said before, mad people are mad and anything can send them over the edge. We don't understand enough about the inner workings of the human brain to be able to say this or that stimulus will cause this or that reaction. Well, not when it comes to higher brain functions like conscience. Don't forget as well, politicians are looking for popular support and will often jump on any bandwagon they feel will curry favour with the voting populace. The 'violent computer games cause violent behaviour' argument will rage for years yet - as the 'violent films cause violent behaviour' argument has raged for years. Our only recourse can be to ask for definitive scientific proof that there's a link between violent games and violent behaviour. My own feelings are that this proof will be unforthcoming simply because it doesn't actually exist.