| Editorial: Hitler Didn't Play Doom
by Jim "Twitch" Tittle |
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18 WHEELER AT 12 O'CLOCK HIGH I have countless times been mentally battered in the Los Angeles traffic in a manner that no sim could match. I've been cut off, flipped off, and pissed off. But I get home and into my virtual world and start thumping on enemy bombers. Sure, I've said I'd like to have a MK 103 30mm from an Me 262 behind my car's grille. The reality is that those danged trucks become B-17s and the yuppy lane cutter in the Bimmer becomes a wise guy Fw 190 pilot. Oh yeah!
 That bumper to bumper gaggle of vehicles is transformed into a big box of B-24s and I'm blasting a path through them! Those cars going 15 MPH under the limit on a clear freeway are later a vehicle convoy that I'm strafing. That jerk riding my bumper at 70 MPH no matter what lane I choose is a Bf 109 I'm soon combating in the sim. That careless guy weaving along well above the traffic flow speed is soon a MiG eating my AIM 9M. And when I'm simming I want to kill the enemy. I have continued to pump rounds into planes so they'll explode and the polygon pilot will perish. I've been known to gun them in their chutes too. But after a session with the joystick I'm a much relieved cowboy. Certainly I am not driven to steal a Piper and kamikaze into a 747. But this is tantamount to what is being said about these criminals as a contributing cause.  Rogue Spear First person shooter games are different but not so much as you think. The goal of the action is the same as in a military combat sim: kill the bad guys and stay alive. Granted, they are more graphic in terms of blood and gore; it still does not equal a cause/effect relationship and that playing them inspires murder in the real world. BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS There are a lot of catch phrases that the media use to connote political correctness or to imply "badness." This subliminal approach to education conjures up images of the Bureau of Peace in Orwell's 1984. Granted, the "hunters" that destroy property or illegally kill game are "criminals." "Motorists" that lead police on 300 mile chases are "criminals." "Students" that burglarize a building are "criminals." All these "people" truly are criminals. But it is never stated that the perpetrants actually did this or that; the news media is just hell bent on labeling. Will "video game players" be the next innuendo ("those damn "VGPs!!")? |
 Image Property of Detroit News I am certain that the "Safety Police," those self appointed saviors, will want to take some reactionary, draconian measures concerning video games other than just putting a parental advisory sticker on them. After all, your insurance company forces you to pay high rates because certain cars are deemed dangerous. Never mind your excellent past driving record. Don't auto racing simulations cause people to recklessly race in the streets? Never mind that 99.xxx% of all firearms are never used in crimes. There is a contingent that think they are all bad and you should not have them. They've made toy guns garish colors so kids will less identify with "real." I'm certain that they'd love to include "simulated weapons" in their crusade. ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS Yes, you there with the simulated Brownings, Mausers, Vulcans, Atolls and Mark 84s. A simulated machine gun makes you want to get an illegal Uzi from a guy on the street and wreak real world mayhem, right? If your car and firearm doesn't "look" like some do-gooder's myopic concept that must be bad. The Internet has just too much information for some people. It makes them nervous to think that you, the average person, can access data from all over the world for free. After all, someone might do something bad with information they found on the web. Of course they just might do something good with it. But we are criminals by association. It's the same rhetoric. There is this misguided need to place a singular blame and compartmentalize the whole thing. There is no ONE cause for the homicides we see on TV news. In actuality, violent crime has decreased across America while, as a country, we may be desensitized to violence over all through multi-mediums of exposure. Passing some "feel good" legislation does zero to quell the causes. To believe that these things we put blame on are themselves meaningful is a national self-delusion. I do not know the causes for multiple homicides. I know that in 1959 nobody went to school and began shooting classmates. You could walk to the neighborhood hardware store and buy any rifle, pistol or shotgun they had and walk out with it. There were no video games and the most violent thing on TV was Davey Crockett. Hitler Didn't Play Doom Hmm. A loner roaming unregulated throughout the vast country hunting with muskets and knives. If you attempted to live like that today it would be "red alert" time. Throughout world history there has been gratuitous violence. Long before repeating arms, Dirty-Harry movies, TV violence, and lowly video games there was a constant parade of homicide. Atilla and Nero lacked modern firearms, as did the English king who strapped William Wallace to his bed of torture. In spite of that they managed just fine. Alexander and Napoleon were never inspired by the movies toward world conquest. And Hitler did not play Doom! Go to Page Three
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