40 replies to this topic

[Hum]

In wake of the Newtown, Connecticut Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, a small Connecticut town about 30 miles away, Southington, has started organizing a violent video game buyback program with the intention of destroying them once they have been sold back. Yes, that’s a little reminiscent of a good old-fashioned book burning.

The event being held on January 12 is the product of SouthingtonSOS, a group of Southington organizations like the YMCA, Chamber of Commerce, fire department, and board of education.

Following the Sandy Hook shooting, Joe Erardi, the superintendent of Southington School, said the school received a flood of emails from concerned Southington parents asking how they could help the neighboring Newtown, as well as how they could better protect their children’s school from some kind of similar tragedy. Erardi’s response did lead off with the proper advice of recommending that parents talk to their children about violent video games, as it’s a parent’s responsibility for how their child is raised, rather than the responsibility of, for example, Activision or Square Enix. However, he then directed parents to the video game buyback drive, noting that they’ll receive a $25 gift card for dumping off some violent games.

What’ll happen to those games? Erardi said that the discs will be snapped, thrown in the dumpster, and most likely incinerated, making the event nearly indistinguishable from a book burning.

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[+Majesticmerc]

Urgh. Nothing says 'ignorance' like burning media as a knee-jerk reaction to a tragedy.

[Gerowen]

If I had to choose between banning guns and banning violent video games, I'd rather ban the violent games. However, I personally see video games as an art form and a form of free speech. There's this organization called the ESRB that rates games so parents know what ages a game is appropriate for. If you buy games rated M for your 12 year old and then he becomes more numb to violence and blood than a normal child should be, then it's your own fault. The ratings are there for a reason. It's good that parents are finally stepping up and doing something, but it would have been nice if they hadn't bought age inappropriate games in the first place, and if 20+ people didn't have to die for them to start caring.

[Hum]

I haven't killed that many people, after playing video games ....

[xendrome]

Sounds like Nazi Germany or the storyline in Equilibrium

[+Crisp]

How do I bring my cloud to the burning?

[+Biotoxic_hazard_835]

Why do people keep blaming inanimate objects for the actions of a few stupid or malevolent individuals ? Instead they should take responsibility and take time to teach their kids the value of human life and to respect others like they want to be respected. They should take time to make sure their kids are involved in family activities and less in letting the TV or the game console raise the kids. They should be setting the example by acting like good law abiding people and teach them the value of earning the things they get and the importance of hard work instead of giving them everything in their hands for free and without working or at least studying and having good grades for it. I guess it is easier to blame something that can't defend itself than to take responsibility and act like a parent.

[xendrome]

Biotoxic_hazard_835, on 05 January 2013 - 01:32, said:

Why do people keep blaming inanimate objects for the actions of a few stupid or malevolent individuals ?

Ignorance, lack of self-education, fear, the inability to process actions, many reasons... I'd say "ignorance" covers it in a broad sense..

[TurboShrimp]

i have been playing video games from the age 13 to now i am 37 yrs old and i do not want to go kill people .

i learned right from wrong from my parents its as simple as that.

ignorant people will always be ignorant.

[ncc50446]

We will find out how many irresponsible parents there are lol No games should be brought in, since none of those kids should have violent video games anyways So the parents will simply be making themselves look bad.

[xendrome]

TurboShrimp, on 05 January 2013 - 01:39, said:

i learned right from wrong from my parents its as simple as that.

ignorant people will always be ignorant.

That's another reason, bad parents who don't accept responsibility for themselves or their children.. AKA horrible people.

[+techbeck]

Yup, blame books, music, tv, movies, games, and anything else they can toss in there. You know, its never the parents fault, media, or the kid to blame. Some people are just messed up but I knew they were going to blame games. It is always one of the number one scape goats.

xendrome, on 05 January 2013 - 01:46, said:

That's another reason, bad parents who don't accept responsibility for themselves or their children.. AKA horrible people.

Yup, my parents were strict. No rated R movies in the house, PG-13 was questionable, and no violent video games. But I did all of them anyway, and got caught (orig Mortal Kombat for PC/wolf3d), and each time I got the lecture about what was bad with those movies/games.

[Rohdekill]

Never underestimate the stupidity that can be achieved by a group.

[TPreston]

Guns don't kill people (unless its in a movie or game then they totally kill people)

And video games today are fairly tame compared to fallout 1 2 and tactics.

Oh well I commend the town for not going full retard and blaming it on no more mandatory prayer in the schools

[ChrisJ1968]

Reminds me of learning about book burning by the nazi's