It's been awhile.

Violence in video games

Censorship in video games is an ongoing debate in the American Government, many people believe that violence in video games has a direct correlation to children growing up to have violent tendencies, thus the more violent video games that come out, the more our youth is corrupted, and the more likely they are to commit crimes, and become statistics. This is completely false for a plethora of reasons. Many studies have shown that violence in video games could in fact decreases the likelihood of someone committing crimes, "With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence," he says, "Instead, violence has declined."" (Sciencedaily.com, "Could Violent Video Games Reduce Rather Than Increase Violence?" 4). An explanation for this would be that kids take their aggression out on games instead making their violent fantasies realities. Also, many kids who commit crimes and blame their actions on video games are mentally unstable to begin with, and finally, many kids get exposed to much more violence in the real world, and throughout other sources of media. So, in my opinion, it is completely frivoulous to blame video games, and video games alone, on our children's violence, it's time for parents to start taking responsibility for their children and realize that it was their job as a parent to control what him or her was exposed to, based on their mental stability and maturity.
Most people see a direct correlation between playing violent video games, and committing crimes. People think that it is obvious that an eight year old would want to copy things he sees in video games, like his favorite character shooting someone. If this were true, games like Grand Theft Auto would have caused a massive spike in crime. Instead, crime has not gone up a bit. In fact, youth violence has been in a decline, according to this article. "Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s," says Kierkegaard, "while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use. For example, in 2005, there were 1,360,088 violent crimes reported in the USA compared with 1,423,677 the year before.""(Sciencedaily.com, "Could Violent Video Games Reduce Rather Than Increase Violence?" 4). One theory is that violent video games actually help relieve aggression.

"While other religious and political leaders around the world are busy creating moral panics around violent video games, it appears that one Buddhist leader feels quite differently about them. The third ranking Buddhist, Ogyen Trinley Dorje (and, according to the article, the only Buddhist leader recognized by China, Tibet and India), apparently sees video games as therapeutic and a way to let out aggression." (Techdirt.com, "Buddhist Leader Says Playing Video Games Lets Out Aggression; Better Method Than Meditation" 1)

Also, many people who commit crimes and blame them on video games are mentally unstable in the first place. Take the infamous "Columbine" incident for example. Many people like to jump the gun on this and say that just because they played violent video games, they were influenced to take the lives of innocent people. This couldn't be further from the truth, Harris and Klebold were both socially unaccepted by the student body of Columbine High. "Dylan often sat alone in the school cafeteria. She would go over and sit with him and play cards." (findarticles.com "Burying A Killer" 8). It was the combined mentally instability of Harris and Klebold, plus the social desolation that led to them shooting all those students, not a silly video game.People need to think deeper into this process, from the time a child is born, they are taught right and wrong, the average, eight year old in good mental health doesn't believe that killing people is ok. This is taught through the basic actions of society, and the behavior of his parents. Anyone who can't separate the violence in video games and the violence in real life, is mentally unstable.
Many people tend to use video games as the main source of violence in teen's lives. An arguement can be made that video games are indeed more interactive than say, a movie, or a song, but video games are definitely not the only violent thing a teen gets exposed to in his life. Violence is rampant in all other forms of media as well, "61 percent of television programs contain some violence, and only 4 percent of television programs with violent content feature an "antiviolence" theme." (Surgeongeneral.gov "MEDIA VIOLENCE: EXPOSURE AND CONTENT" 3). So to say that video games are the main source of violent media for a teen is completely frivolous. Also, people are naive to what goes on in the read world in my opinion. Many people don't realize how often their children are exposed to violence at school, or at their local hangout. "Over the past three years, suspensions for fighting among all grade levels dropped from 3,057 in 2006-07 to 2,256 this school year." (Barri Bronston, "Young students' brawls exceed middle, high school fights" 7) That is a lot of fights. So to say that your child is violent just because he plays video games, is to wear rose colored glasses.
Many people argue that censorship should be implemented in the video game culture because it would keep violent video games out of youth's hands, which would in turn stop "mentally unstable" people from getting a hold of these games, and doing something drastic as a result. This is deeply flawed. Why should the government have to step in on this? Many regular people play violent video games daily, and are completely law abiding citizens. I believe it is up to the parent to decide what is right for his/her child. What happened to good old fashioned parenting? Why does everything have to be regulated by the government? If you don't want your kid playing something, stop him. Don't make the government do your job of parenting.
In conclusion, censoring video games would be a pointless activity that would just lead to a lot of law abiding citizens being unhappy. If someone is going to do something drastic, like harm themselves or another human being, they are going to do it reguardless. If a video game doesn't influence them, a movie, song, bullying, or something of that nature will, because it is not the video game that influences these people, but a pre-determined pattern of violence in their pychosis. Therefore I believe that it is the parents job to step in and decide what is best for their children, not the government.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuse action=vids.individual&videoid=6065724 7

This is my band Bamboo Carousel, if you would check us out and tell us whatcha think, it'd be mucho mucho appreciated!

:)
-LJ

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Check out our band?

I'm sitting here, extremely bored...trying to figure out something to do. Then I remembered I hadn't put up a very "important" post I have been putting off for quite some time.
And there is really no good reason I haven't posted it, other than sheer laziness. And I feel I'm cheating you fellow Ngers by not posting this.

Travis' top ten relatively unheard of artists/bands you should listen to before you die:
1.)Heatmiser
2.)Elliott Smith
3.)Common Rider
4.)The Mississippi Sheiks
5.)Bright Eyes
6.)Beck
7.)Jack Johnson
8.)Tommy Johnson
9.)Robert Johnson
10.)blind willie mctell

All Johnson's have no relation to eachother. I do believe that these are very important and amazing people that you should have a listen to. Feel free to leave comments with bands that I can check out...I always appreciate new music.

-Travis

So I've neglected going on for quite some time...I think the last time I've been on before this recent stint was 2007. So I'd like to offically announce my triumphant return to the BBS!

Yes hold your applause until a later time.

Anyways, not much has been going on lately. I just turned 16 and yeah fun times, I'm in a band called Bamboo Carousel, we have two songs up on Newgrounds, don't be silly! Go check them out now :).

That's really about it, leave me a comment or something, we'll become friends!

-Travis

If someone has noticed (which I'm sure no one has) I have not been on in quite a while. The highschool thing gets very hectic sometimes and it's coming down to the bare priorities. Which is basicaly teh pronz, schoolwork, and my social life. Which doesn't leave much leway for the BBS. So I'll probably only be on late weekends... but anyways I'd just thought I'd update in case any of you thought I quit or other silly things like that.

If anyone cares my birthday is coming up soon, Halloween for those of you who care... leave me some beautiful comments for me to feel proud over.

-Travis

Today is kinda shitty... its one of those on off rainy days where it's just like you can't really do anything because it might downpour on your ass... also i woke up wit a blazingly soar throat... I can barely talk above a whisper, and I'm at my grandmas house so it's completly fucking boring here... the only upside for today is that I got to goto Guitar Center and see my baby... Epiphone Les Paul always cheers me up... oh well, leave some comments and cheer me up? =]]

-Travis

I've been crazy for the same girl for the past year... last winter we had this thing for one night... then the next day she told me she was confused that night and that she doesn't really think of me that way, so we've just been friends all this time. Until just recently we've been hanging out a lot, and this last time we hung out (two days ago) she wanted to come back to my house... so we went there and basically made food and hung out on my couch. Then as a joke I took her shoe and she tried to get it back and we ended up wrestling... I somehow ended up on top of her with our hands locked from me trying to keep the shoe, we made eye contact for a good 10 long seconds and then........ her phone rang. We ended up leaving and hanging out with one of our friends.

You guys seriously don't know how bad I like her, and I can't tell if she's feeding me signals or not so I'm kind of stressed out about it and too much of a pussy to do much about it besides wait and see, and if it's like do I wait and see and maybe miss a chance? Or do I take the chance and fuck up everything? I don't know it's been the main thing on my mind for the past couple days.

EVIL LEVEL 07

Sign-Up Date: 12/30/05

Total Posts: 649

Experience: 490 / 550

So I went to family values yesterday... so now for your entertainment I shall give you a review of the bands that played! They will get a rating out of 5 stars.

Flyleaf: Missed em... good ridance.

Droid: A more underground band... they fucking rocked, after the show I met someone from the band and got a sticker which I haven't decided where to put it yet. Intense 3 1/2 stars.

Atreyu: Now I never really liked Atreyu, but I must say i was VERY surprised by their performance. They got the whole place pumped. They did a cover of You Give Love a Bad Name, by Bon Jovi, they nailed it and the crowd pumped. 4 stars.

---------------------------HEADLINERS AND A SURPRISING ENDING-----------------------------

Evanesence- They BOMBED... I hate them on an album, but Amy Lee's Voice was OFF... she couldn't hit a note to save her life and it sucked... ugh, she did a cover of the Doors and killed it.... it brought the crowd down by alot... 1 star

Korn- I never really listened to Korn before today, but the first few songs were INSANE... everyone was on their feet going insane... i loved it.

(now for the personal story):

So me and my brother were sitting there enjoying Korn, and they had just finished playing my favorite song (undone) so I decided it was about time i had to piss. My brother had to also so we both left to go piss. Now mind you we have lawn seats very far from the stage... it was still good but not very exciting, and this is my first big concert. On the way to the bathroom two guys stop us, they say "We have to leave early and we want someone to have a really good time so take these tickets... they're seventh row. Great seats." So we gladly took them. We were litterally 15 feet from the stage and going WILD... It was the best time ever!!!

back to Korn:

The first song we heard up front was Pink Floyd's The Wall!! It was better than the original! The last songs I didn't know but they ROCKED. Me and my bro were sitting there going insaaaaaaane screaming and jumping. 5 stars for Korn.