Quote Originally Posted by Aussie2B View Post
How about we, you know, focus on the REAL victims here instead of gamers instantly painting themselves out as victims of these tragedies because video games get blamed? Who gives a flying flip if somebody blames video games? I guarantee it will not affect your ability to play games in the slightest.
Here's the problem. I don't disagree with you that we should be focusing on the real victims. I'm doing my best to do that. My daughter's 7 years old, around the same age as many of the students who died yesterday. It's very easy for me to put myself in the place of those families, and to empathize.

But here's the other side of the equation. I was watching television with my grandmother this morning, when some guy on CNN starts spouting off about how Adam Lanza was a known gamer, and spent a lot of time playing violent games. My grandmother turns and looks at me, and says, "You know, *you* spend a lot of time playing video games. And you let your daughter play games. How can you let her do that? What's wrong with you?" You're fortunate to not have people in your life who will willingly throw that in your face anytime something like this happens and they hear someone on TV blame this stuff. And good luck trying to rationalize with someone who's never played a video game in their life and who believes everything that comes out of the mouth of an "expert" on CNN.

I'm sure I'm not the only gamer in this position today. And while of course that's massively overshadowed by the actual shooting (as it should be), it's still frustrating because it's directly in my face all the time. Turning off the person on TV spouting the garbage doesn't solve the issue. The person criticizing me is sitting in the room with me and won't drop it. And she's not the only family member who will do that. I'm sure my daughter's great aunt, despite the fact that her kids all played video games, will have a field day with the fact I bought a Wii U for my daughter for Christmas. Christmas will turn into a lecture about how I need to limit her access to games because they're dangerous and a bad influence, and look what happens to people who play them. And so suddenly, what is my main hobby and great form of stress relief for me and something that my daughter and I bond over becomes constantly under attack for at least the next few weeks. I got yelled at a bit ago because my daughter was playing Cut the Rope on her iPod Touch. Seriously. I can't make this stuff up. So yes, it affects my ability to play and enjoy games. It affects my daughter, who doesn't understand suddenly why someone's yelling at her and telling her that she's doing something bad (when she's not).