Something wicked this way comes?

Every gamer I talk to these days has one name on their mind. Grand Theft Auto IV, it’s one of the biggest games of the year and it’s bound to be the subject of tremendous controversy. I’m certain, that some news stations are going to be running their typical anti-game screeds about how these games turn perfectly normal children into mass murderers. These are of course ridiculous over generalizations and simplifications of very difficult issues.

First off, some straight facts; each Grand Theft Auto game sold over 14 million copies.The number of criminals which attorneys have linked to these games number no more than a handful. Obviously some sort of 1:1 correlation just doesn’t exist. What’s more revealing is that through the whole Playstation revolution, where 3d games went from a relatively small nerd phenomenon to a major worldwide medium. and continuing into today the rates of violent crimes and violent crimes by young people have been on the decline.

Meanwhile the level of vioelence and the graphic fidelity of that violence has gone up exponentially. There are complicated issues with psychology that I won’t pretend to comprehend sufficently to analyze but the number of studies which have simple findings which showed some sort of light switch like relationship between media consumption and deviant behavior is zero.