Dear Sir or Madam,
It has come to my attention that you intend to produce a slot for a show built around the concept that playing violent video games makes you violent.
It has also become apparent that the overwhelming response you have received thus far is less than friendly.
I am a 25 year old man who is happily married with a mortgage and plans to start a family in the next year. I have been playing video games since I was about 7 years old. To date I have never once thought that recreating anything I saw in a game would be a good idea. This can also be said of all of the films I have seen and books that I have read.
When I saw Terminator for the first time my overwhelming instinct was NOT to go around chasing anyone called Sarah, shooting people with a shotgun or speaking in a slightly odd accent. When I saw Jaws I was overcome with a complete lack of desire to leap out of the bath to bite peoples legs. Similarly when I played Grand Theft Auto I didn't think it would be a fantastic idea to go out and find myself a prostitute, shoot some gang members and then respray my car at the chop shop. When I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare I did not suddenly get the urge to run around killing Muslims or shout "Go! Go! Go!" when entering someones home. This is because I was brought up correctly with some morals to know that some things are bad and some things are not.
As a child I remember my friends talking about how they had gotten the latest 18 rated game for Christmas. For children of 12 this seemed a little far fetched but sure enough upon visiting them they did indeed have the game and shortly after finishing it they ran out of the front door and completely didn't do anything out of the ordinary.
There are some direct points that need to be addressed. People play violent video games and do not get violent. People watch violent films and do not get violent. People who ARE violent probably ALSO watch violent films and play violent games. I have no doubt that there are people who have never played a violent video game who were ostensibly not nice people. A certain Mr Hitler comes to mind.
To judge the approximately 14 million people who bought Modern Warfare or the 17 million who bought Grand Theft Auto IV as violent because they play violent games is a grave mistake that shows nothing but a complete lack of understanding of the media and those that consume it.
As a gamer I can see, as can so many of us, where the actual problem lies. Yet it is never us who are asked for our opinions. This is no doubt because a programme detailing some of the truth about video games wouldn't appeal to the audience you and your advertisers are trying to hit, namely non gamers.
Parents as a whole quite wrongly see video games as something for children and as a result think that any game released for that child's toy is suitable for a child. Parents the world over buy their children the latest 18 rated game because they are uneducated about the ways they are using to babysit their children instead of spending time with them and monitoring the entertainment and media they consume. Parents are more than happy to sit a child in front of the TV or on the games console for hours on end if it means a quiet night for them but are the first to be outrage when an already violent person commits some appalling act and it transpires that once 17 years ago they saw a friend playing a violent video game.
I don't honestly expect a reply to this e-mail, in fact with the amount of emails I think you are getting I doubt this will even be read. Think about the media you are producing and ask yourselves if you are honestly giving a fair and open mind to a question you clearly know nothing about but have entered into with an opinion regardless.
Kind Regards,
Darren Thomas
(A non violent madman)
