*presses start*
(Note: Long winded Nostalgia run coming up.)
As a kid, I can recall being super excited about getting my gaming copy of "Street Fighter II". The high definition graphics, the massive amount of kung-fu going on, the machismo of being the crap out of each other was so enthralled to me as a kid, It pretty much took over my entire time of being a 7 year old (and solidified my love of fighters) . I wanted so bad to be Guile. I begged my grandparents to let me grow out a afro, got a fake tattoo of USA on my arm, tried to do my back flips and practiced my sonic boom so much that one point and time, I swore that I saw a spark come from my furious training as the next street fighter. My brother wanted to be Ryu, so he wrapped a red t-shirt around his head and practiced his fireball.
As time moved on, we also discovered "Mortal Kombat" and mocked that too. I wanted to be Sub-Zero and my brother Scorpion. I should mention at this time, that the Sega Genesis copy was a extremely toned down version of the game. The fatalities were uppercuts and there wasn't a spark of blood at all. It was essentially, Street Fighter. I can also remember the day where my friend came over and asked me about the blood code. I told him he was a liar but sure as day, he put it in and I got to see Mortal Kombat for what it actually was. People bled. Heads ripped off of bodies. Flesh burned. People stabbed. For some kids, there wasn't a difference at all. For me, It was night and day. About a month later, I saw my brother again.
"Hey man, Let's pretend again. I want to be Johnny Cage!"
"Naw," I hesitated. "Let's pretend something else. X-men?"
Imagination is a powerful thing when you're a kid. Naturally, you want to be what you looked up to, or someone that just looked badass. I don't know a single kid that didn't want to be a superhero at one point in time. Power Rangers. X-Men. Batman. Superman. I can remember when Harriet the Spy came out and everyone wanted to document everything just like her. Kids are crazy influential. Same goes with video games.
I never, however, tried to physically do harm to people because of what I played in a video game.
Video games are always going to be the target of media attention. Mortal Kombat was the reason for the ESRB. Street Fighter catches it for their depection of females. Grand Theft Auto is a game where you can kill practically everyone that you get your hands on. Doom at the time of it's release was what was known as a hyper-violent shooter and parents around the world pressured for the game to be banned. As of lately, however, Being a gamer pretty much means that you're a serial killer. The media makes every chance to play on the fact that people played games. The recent Kimberly Proctor case made it a point to mention that one of the boys was 16 years old, lived with their parents, and was avid gamer.
16? Parents? Gamer? How dreadfully normal.
It was known as the World Of Warcraft text murder. People were quick to point out that this guy plays WoW a lot. What in the hell does that have anything to do with the murder and torture of this poor girl? I'll give you a solid answer. Not a damn thing. The only thing that has anything in common with the gaming world is that he confessed to his girlfriend over WoW. That's it. Another story that's coming out is about the 19 year old that shook his baby to death because he interrupted a video game. A while back, a kid shot his little sibling because he mistaken the real gun for the Wii gun that the family owned. How about the story about the kid who stole a car because he played Grand Theft Auto? Can anyone else remember the Mass Effect 2 Sex crap? Really? Star Trek had Kirk romancing alien women. How is Mass Effect any different? The one that everyone should remember involved two kids shooting up a certain high school. Because Doom was found on their computers, people were automatically up in arms about the game.All of these cases spin the web that because this poor soul played video games, they turned into this crazy person that NEEDED to act out their hidden desires to murder or do some other illegal act. I'm here to tell you that's total bullshit. These people were going to do what they wanted to do, regardless of what game they played. I've played fighting games all my life, but never once went out of my way to physically KO someone who didn't deserve it. I don't see people jumping on top of other people in order to save their princess. I haven't heard of Pac-man being the reason for obesity around the globe. I may never forget the Sub-Zero fatality (forward, down, forward, HP) but I've never tried ripping a spine out of someone. I served in our Military, and I can tell you that there's a indisputable difference between shooting a plastic gun at virtual zombies coming from my quarters and holding cold steel towards a living breathing human being and giving them a permanent game over. I guess gaming is the easiest target for everyone, as I don't hear about anyone trying to kill someone believing that they're in the Matrix or copycatting a popular movie franchise or being in love with one of the popular teeny-bopper franchises or a amazingly great TV series.
Oh wait.
Strife out.
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