Wednesday, October 11, 2006 Video games: War over mind or soul By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
“Knowledge of peace,” wrote Yehuda Amichai in his poem Patriotic Songs, “passes from country to country like children’s games which are so much alike, everywhere.”
Video games in the Philippines are popular pastimes for the young and the young of heart. Yet outside our shores, the issue on violence has been a political war between manufacturers who maintain that video games are harmless and sectors who believe otherwise. And researchers can only provide answers through short-term studies. Here’s more from the readers on this topic.
From CM: Hi, I read your article Scant Ties mentioning that the US Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Engineering Center’s (TEC) website made some claims about the effect of violent video games. I was wondering if you have a link to the section of their website where they talked about this.
I have only been able to find an article from ‘96 discussing the use of Marine Doom: “The game teaches concepts, such as mutual firing team support, protection of the automatic rifleman, proper sequencing of an attack, ammunition discipline and succession of command.”(http://www.tec.army.mil/TD/tvd/survey/Marine_Doom.html.)
Thanks for your help, CM of GamePolitics.com, North American correspondent.
Dear CM: Thanks for reading Scant Ties. The information on the US Army Corps of Engineers TEC website came from a research report Medial Violence Research and Youth Violence Data: Why Do They Conflict by psychiatrist Cheryl Olson of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media (Boston, MS). Its references showed no link either. Please check the Olson report at http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/28/2/144.
The full text of the Vossekuil team report The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School Initiative (SSI) is available at http://www.secretservice.gov/ntac_ssi.shtml.
To set things straight: There is no claim by the US Secret Service that violent video games caused the violent killings in certain American schools. One relevant finding, however, is: Over half (59 percent) of the attackers demonstrated some interest in violence, including video games.
“Every so often a boxer dies,” said Sugar Ray Robinson, “some people like to shout that boxing should be outlawed...If that were the case, auto racing should be abolished. So should football.” Our next Breakthrough article will run the SSI findings to assist parents and educators in preventing incidents like these from happening in our schools. (For comments and suggestions, email to ztliteratus6046@lycos.com or text to 0927-979-3519.)
