Quote:
Originally Posted by Billjr13
Are you forgetting about the protests from parents and politicians over Doom and Grand Theft Auto? Games like these were blamed for all of societies ills, from the Columbine High School murders to gang violence.
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Yes, they were blamed and they were protested -- but they were not banned nor were they gathered into large piles and burned. I wouldn't suggest that games can't be revolutionary but books seem to be held and viewed differently than most anything else. (Although I do remember several antiwar songs being banned in Boston in the 1960s
.)
Books are different because they stimulate thought (and I'll grant that there are many mind-numbing books written as well as many books that stimulate no thought whatsoever), which sometimes leads to action and change. Reading requires pausing to parse meaning, video games do not. No video game yet, as far as I know, has had the same effect on society as Upton Sinclair's
The Jungle. It was Patrick Moynihan's writings on poverty that brought about the War on Poverty (and I'm not interested in arguing whether this was good or bad, successful or unsuccessful), and Stephen Covey's management books that brought about a revolution in corporate management styles (whether for good or bad).
As for being blamed for all of societies ills, video games are in good company -- television has been accused of that as well.