Gamer Sentenced to Death

In 2003 a young man named Devin Moore killed 3 police officers after being brought in on suspicion of stealing a car. Prior to his heinous crime he had played a violent videogame. So clearly this is cause, isn't it?

Oh, I forgot to mention that Moore was physically and mentally abused his entire childhood. Perhaps that might have had a little more to do with his mental breakdown than playing a videogame.

There are millions of gamers, myself included, who have grown up playing videogames and violent ones at that. I can safely say that 99% of us have never even been in a fist fight much less picked up a gun and blown someone away or have ever had any inclination to do so.

But Lincoln, gaming is escapism that trains kids to kill- not exactly.

How easy is it to play a videogame? Quite, you push buttons and, well, there you are. By the same token, how hard is it to shoot a handgun (or any gun for that matter) with accuracy? Extremely. Police officers and licensed handgun owners must go through rigorous training in order to use a handgun with any sort of accuracy.

As far as escapism goes- absolutely games are escapism. If they weren’t no one would play them. Some times you need to get away from the humdrum redundancy that is daily life. But that’s wrong isn’t it? Well aren’t movies and books escapism? Well, the good ones are anyway and there is nothing wrong with that.

We need to take a look at ourselves instead of looking for somewhere to place the blame. Parents- look at what your kids are playing. If you love them, you’ll be interested in everything they’re doing, including the games they’re playing. There is a rating system in place but it is only as good as the people who enforce it. Let’s start cracking down on the M rated games being sold to minors and not blame the games themselves.

More Gadgets

Recently my cell phone began to break down. First the earpiece started acting up and then the antennae fell off and then the end call/powerbutton stopped working. Needless to say it was time for a new phone...


I love eBay. I got this phone, which was only released in the UK. It's the Motorola V80. It rocks my face off. Bluetooth is the best thing ever. One of the coolest things about this phone is that it has these lights around the screen that come on when you get a call

It plays real music files and has a great camera with zoom. I've never had a phone that does more than make calls, and being the gadget freak that I am, I'm loving it.

People Are Idiots

If you don't know who Jack Thompson is, he's a lawyer who has decided that he's going to make it his career to get violent videogames off the market. As an avid gamer for most of my life, you'd think I might be worried for by beloved videogame, but I'm not. Why? Because Jack Thompson is a raving lunatic with one foot in the nursing home.

Also it seems that if you take away violent videogames that you should do away with rated "R" movies, Smoking, Alcohol, Strip Clubs and Pornography. While I don't approve of all of those things it is an adults right to participate in them if they so choose and if you messed with them America would go nuts.

However if my games are ever in jeopardy I can assure you that there will be swift action by the united gamming community of the United States and there will be a Million Gamer March on Washington. The simple fact is and I quote:

“There are millions of gamers just like me, and we’re getting sick of people like you blaming your problems on us. Ignorance causes violence, not videogames. Man up and take responsibility. We outnumber you, and the people who think like you. Don’t (mess) with us.”

- Tim Buckley, author of CTRL-ALT-DEL

Dusting off my Soap Box...

A recent encounter has made me think a lot about how I live my life in relation to the needs of others. I think of myself as a selfless person and I do a lot to volunteer and reach out to the community. However another encounter with Janice made me take a step back and make a true evaluation of how I really live. Spending all my money on new gadgets while people all around me are struggling to survive doesn't seem to mesh with the views I hold.

Janice is an old black woman who works part time at Fuzzy's Taco Shop. She doesn't have any way to get from her "home" to work and back again yet she lives miles away. She also has AIDS and has so many sores on her body that she can barely walk see Janice about once a week late on Wednesday nights after I get out of church. She's always smiling and has never asked me for money, just a ride across town.

I don't have any grand ideas for stopping poverty or hunger or AIDS for that matter but I just think that we should all take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Focus on more than our own lives and what we're going through and help those around us in hopes that someday when we're down on our luck in some fashion that someone might stop to help us.

Strings and Things

There's a TCU Symphony Orchestra concert in Ed Landreth Auditorium tonight at 7:30pm. There will be some great soloists playing on some unique instruments that are really amazing to hear. The harmonica soloist is Robert Bonfiglio and his harmonica is the size of a subway sandwich. Anyway we'd love for you to come out and support the Orchestra before we leave on our tour to Puerto Rico.

Not -so-Quiet Reflection

Blogging, while not new to you or I is still an infant in the world of the mass media. So many people still look at you with a puzzled face when you spout off the word “blog.” They are gaining notoriety in certain circles yet still considered fiction by many. The bloggosphere is a universe torn between worlds; that of the internet café dweller and that of the housewife. It is amazing to see how different people reading the same material can come to such different conclusions.

During my research I found that while my topic is a big deal to me, others aren’t too concerned about it, if they’re even aware of it at all. Research is a fickle mistress and when I went to her seeking tomes of information I was given scraps of halve-truths and hearsay. While at first this proved disappointing I found that what I was given was not so inappropriate and misplaced after all. Writing is still a love of mine, even after freshman comp. This project has impacted my writing style in ways I didn’t expect.

Studying your subject matter and gleaning first hand information is harder than I expected and in all my reading and pondering I still feel that I came up short of empirical data in many ways.

My philosophy in paper-writing, as well as in life is never to regret what you’ve already done, because you wouldn’t be the same person (or in this case writer) that you are today with out the victorious triumphs and failed tribulations of the past.

For the future pupils of the bloggosphere I hope that they will not take the class lightly and that they will grab hold of the information revolution that is changing the mass media, and not write it off as some technological fad.

Sex, Drugs and Intellectual Property

Blogging has had an amazing affect on the world in the last few years. From politics to media to religion and everything in between the members of the blogging community are making their voices heard and these voices will not go silently into the night anytime soon. With the freedom to express themselves in a variety of mediums and the ability to take others expressions and use them as they see fit begs the question “How has the blog impacted intellectual property?” By studying a variety of different blogs containing different subject matter discussing the topic of intellectual property and blogs I have found that the new medium while allowing an unquantifiable number of people to express their feelings with the world it has also provided a new avenue for intellectual property theft.