BMS's Weekly Column

This week's topic is the Colorado witch-hunt and it's relation to videogames. The situation is stupid. Some kids did something stupid and all students are being punished. Gamers could be next. Now at school I really have to watch what I say even moreso than before. Mention the word "bomb", someone hears you and spreads a rumor and all of a sudden you are at home suspended or in alternative. Yesterday at my school there was a bomb threat and some kid had a fake bomb (for an Oral Communication project). He told the SWAT team before they found it on their own. Guess what? He got arrested. He had a harmless shell of a bomb (no powder) and got arrested and because of the medias coverage he may have to do some time. My school will make sure of it to not look bad. None of this is game related, but I have added just to show that this is a witch hunt.

The politicians go law crazy when an incident like the one in Colorado takes place and guns probably won't be the only victim. They are naturally going to claim that games made these kids violent and maybe restrict the game developers and our first amendment rights. The so called "experts" claim that Doom and the gratuitous gun and pipebomb use within made this kids crazy. Saying that there are pipebombs in Doom ruins their credibility as it is. One even went as far as calling the first person shooters I love so dearly "killing-simulators". These games are pure fantasy, I have yet to see someone go postal with a BFG, railgun, or hyper blaster. The people that claim that the first person shooters make people better killers are full of crap, they probably have never played a fps or shot a gun. There is quite a difference. In FPSs you can easily manuever, easily jump, and things fire back. Shooting is pointing and clicking. Real guns are heavy and loud. They kick and it is almost imposible to aim while running. It is different completely than a fps. I hope a couple of psychos and the media don't ruin our hobby. Until next week,