Barcelona: Day 63 : Video Games .

This is actually probably not going to be the post you may have envisioned upon reading the title, but that's part of the fun of blogs is that they are interesting in that way. I watched a video made by CopperCab, and for those of you who don't know who he is, he is this insane ginger kid who has some serious anger issues. However, for all the times he's made fun of, occasionally he sticks a decent message in there. This time it was how video games corrupt people. He takes it to the extremes, and screams and whatever else he does to get views, but his rants are still watched by people all over the place, getting hundreds of thousands of views.


I'm not saying I agree with everything that he's saying at all. I don't think that mainstream media is corrupting people, and I don't think people get killed because of video games. Least of all, I don't think that video games start wars because people are used to them. That's just utterly ridiculous. However, I will say that war video games and other things of the like desensitize people to violence in general. And that might be a problem.

I remember when I was younger, my mom was very particular about us not watching PG-13 movies until I was 13, and I've never watched an R movie with my parents until V for Vendetta and Gladiator, and that was with my Dad, who was a bit more lax on the issue. We didn't even have a video game console until the kids pooled their money and bought it together, because our parents bought us some PS2 games, and obviously well, we can't play games without the console. But she was most strict about violence, and sheltering us from that sort of world. Sheltering us from "bad" bands with nasty lyrics (which, honestly, half the time you couldn't understand anyways, but I understand why she did it) and violent video games. She probably would still come in and give us a dirty look when my brother and I play the Star Wars Battlefront 2 game, which by the way, is a great game.

I understand why she did it, but I think that the envelope is always going to be pushed. I remember complaining to my parents how everyone else at school could watch these certain movies and play these certain games and I couldn't. But the fact of the matter is I'm hoping that perhaps it gave me a sense of morality and awareness that has stuck with me to this day. I'm thinking it has, as those who know me well know that I'm not really the average typical "just trying to get some" guy. I have my limits and goals and whatnot, and I'm going to stick with those.

I don't really know how much video games turn your brain to putty or whatever else studies argue. But I think there is some validity in the increase in exposure to such things and the lack of censorship by parents. It's really all up to you and what you believe, but I might at least try to take the same liberties that my parents did, in hopes that I'll raise some real class children. After all, parents just want the best for their kids, right?