Analysis


TotalBiscuit, a funny yet one of the most well-known name in the gaming nation. A man who has spent his life playing game, and have been in the gaming industry for many years starting in the United Kingdom as a podcaster for one of the biggest Massive-multiplayer online, World of Warcraft, to one of biggest pc gaming coverage.

            Almost one year ago, TotalBiscuit release a youtube video call the “Tragedy and video game violence” that explains how the media is more at fault for causing violent behavior than video games. In the video he pulls together data from different trust worthy sources. He explains the competition between the gaming industry and the media, how the media is the greatest causation and the relationship between video games and violence.

            In the video, TotalBiscuit explain one of the main reason why the media would blame video games for the cause of the violent nature such as murder because they are competition. Since the rise of technology, a large amount of people are getting their information from the internet rather than from the television. With that, when given the chance of covering a story such as a mass murder, and that person is somehow connect to playing a “violent” game, they would label that as the cause of  violence rather than a different cause such as the mental state of the person or his way of thinking. By doing so they are trying to increase their rating while decrease the gaming industry.

            With the competition between the television network and the games industry, they will do whatever it takes to increase their rating. The video show a clip from the U.K that explains what the news should do when a mass killing has happen; do not make it into a national news, do try to make it local, cover only the victims’ family, do not make it about the killers, With that, the news are willing to make a mass murder into a 24/7 coverage to gain veiwers. That would be ok; using the news to help support the victims’ family but instead the news is about 98% about the killer themselves. They turn the killer into an anti-hero; rating him against past murders. They also go into great detail of how they did it; what they wore, how they hid their weapon, how they got the weapon, and when to strike. They cover the how, in such detail that anyone else can do it, that it is so detail it has turn into a step by step instruction for anyone and everyone that is watching to do themselves.  

            But what about video games? Is video games the main cause of violent behavior? With 3 sources of data, one from the secret services the answer is simple no. in fact video games is one of the least causing affect for violence. One source shows that 59% of attackers are cause by the media. Of that 59%; about ¼ is due to movies, ¼ from books, and 1/8 is due by video games. Another source is by the Washington post that tried to find the relationship between video game and gun-related murders. In the graph that they made with data from different countries, it shows a clear indication that there is no correlation.

 A great example against video games violence that TotalBiscuit gives us is South Korea. Starcraft 2; a real time strategy game that is South Korea main icon. The game has became one Korea main televise station, it has even became a career that people go against one another for fame and to be know the best. Players dedicate hours and days to practice that the game has been made into a career. It may be silly for a country to call playing games a career, but it is a passion for that nation. There is also another growing game that is already known by so many people, League of legends. A game that put 2 team against each other, a game with millions of player, a game that is played all over the world, a game that even the United State has issue it a working visa for players all around the world to come over to play in the world series that was even held at the staple center in Los Angles on the 1st week of October.

The video game itself maybe violent, but data, people, and even countries has shown that video games are not the main reason towards violence as the media try to make it as. The video games industry makes game that appeal to the player to gain rating and make money. They do not believe in what they are doing cause violence. In this 20 min video, TotalBiscuit show how the competition between the two industry will try to place the blame on the other to gain rating, how the media is aiding in violent behavior by giving them a step by step instructions and  how video games is the least cause for those violent behavior.

 

Cite

TotalBiscuit, dir. Tragedy and video game violence. Youtube, December 19, 2012. Web. 6 October 2013.

 

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