So, a couple of months back, I’m waiting for the subway and there’s a rather cranky young woman yelling into, or more precisely AT her cell phone. Given today’s general lack of public decorum, I’m figuring it’s one of those angry conversations with a not so friendly relative or soon to be ex-formerly significant whatever that’s not supposed to be heard (and yet gets to be heard by all within earshot). Snip, snip and chop, chop- there goes someone’s entire wardrobe in the street and on fire later tonight, blah, blah, blah… whatever. And IN the freakin’ CAR, too? Yeesh. In any event (and as usual), I sidestep away so I can get some peace and quiet and not have to listen to someone sounding as if they’re auditioning for a new Quentin Tarantino film, when I hear the sound of a phone hitting the platform along with a string of expletives. Well, that’s one relationship busted… and a phone to go with it, I think… Wrong again.

Amusingly enough, no more than ten seconds pass when a NYC Transit cop strolls up and starts talking to the gal and it turns out that she wasn’t screaming at a human being at all. She was playing a game a friend recommended she try out and was doing quite badly about it. Yeah, yeah, I just HAD to eavesdrop at this point and found out the game she was sucking so hard at was Temple Run (or one of its lightning-paced variants), she missed a jump or whatever one too many times and zoom… BANG! went her formerly useful phone. This wasn’t the first mobile device I’d see thrown in rage (well, it was the first I’d seen thrown over a simple game like TR) and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but remembering this incident recently made me think about all the attention violent video games have been getting lately. As someone who’s been playing video games since 1972 and collecting them since the early 80’s, I can safely say that I haven’t seen much if anything that proves the media, politicians or concerned parents groups anything close to right about the GAMES actually having a causal effect in regards to CAUSING violence.

Granted, over time gaming has moved from the family friendly community of public arcades to couch-co-op play found in home consoles since their beginnings to the now more online-focused play where false screen names and assorted icons and avatars represent the bulk of players. There HAS been a huge shift in anonymous competition bringing forth plenty of jerks who throw caution and common sense to the wind as they force their sad personalities onto others as if it’s a good thing. But still, those modern miscreants can be dealt with by ignoring, blocking, banning or extreme cases, reporting them to the appropriate authorities who have generally done a good job at policing the community.

Now, are there are people who may be already on some sort of knife edge who use games to work out whatever not so nice fantasies are in their heads as some sort of revenge role play? I’d say a definite “yes”… but not in a “Aha!” manner at all. If it wasn’t a video game that got them to dive deeper into already sick world they were caught up in inside their minds before they touched a controller, it would be a TV show, movie, book (comic or otherwise) or other slice of media they’d turn to. Video games are a convenient scapegoat these days because some say the level of realism is too real for their tastes. On the other hand, there are plenty of developers who MAKE these violent games and QA testers who PLAY assorted builds for months and years that aren’t violent fiends at all, so that chunk of the anti-gaming argument doesn’t hold up either under scrutiny. You may as well try and blame hard metal music for violence (and that has been tried and failed in court)

As for that cellphone tossing incident, well, the last time I checked, Temple Run isn’t at all ANYTHING considered a violent game. Maybe there’s something else going on here everyone ranting and raving against games has overlooked? I see stuff like, oh… those many, many medications advertised on and off TV that have various (and also advertised in disclaimer form) side effects that include “thoughts of suicide” (which aren’t suicidal at all if you decide to bump off others and not [or along with] yourself), parents and doctors who advocate these poorly (or seemingly untested) medications without proper study, a low focus on mental health in general in this country (until something foes wrong) and too much finger pointing at the entertainment industry in general. But only as a tiny piece of a MUCH bigger social puzzle.

People have been killing each other in too many ways for too many years BEFORE video games existed and will continue to do so long after they’re gone (should that ever occur). Maybe we need to talk more about and with each other than just blame the first thing the media (which has been going after high ratings based on the tragedy of the week day over actual facts for some time now)… as always,we shall see…