Analog Gamers Gaming From a Slightly Different Perspective

As if we don’t have enough idiotic politicians in the US to worry about, now we get Bavarian Minister of the Interior Joachim Herrmann. Herrmann, a longtime critic of violent games, dialed up the rhetoric in the wake of the recent school shooting in Winnenden.

According to a translation provided by a GamePolitics reader, Herrmann’s statement reads as follows:

The statement contains the usual accusations that “such games are one of the causes for youth violence and also for school shootings, where images from killer games become reality”,and that “more and more children are getting mired in this virtual world of violence”, so that “they have no time left for school or job training, and are lost to our society”.

However, this time, he’s taking it a bit further. The last sentence states: “In regards to their harmful effects, [violent video games] are on the same level as child pornography and illegal drugs, the ban on which rightly is unquestioned”

A second German official, Commissioner for the New Media Thomas Jarzombek, criticized Herrmann’s remarks. He stated in part that, “anyone making such statements is unqualified to participate in any further debate [regarding the] protection of minors from harmful media.”

GamePolitics has the whole story if you’re interested. I for one am awaiting the day that someone in a political office will realize that video games, far from being a cause, are merely a scapegoat. Much like rock music, R-rated movies, and even books in past generations, video games are currently demonized. Luckily, the ‘video game generation’ is almost at the point where they will begin to be the people taking office. Hopefully, the will signal the shift of attention onto the violent individuals that cause these crimes, and not the coincidental fact that they once played a few rounds of Halo.