Nickname: literarygamer

Review: Great article. I read your book about a year ago and it's great too. Keep up the good work!

Date reviewed: Dec 18, 2007 10:19 PM

Nickname: Beacon

Review: First of all, great article. Intelligent and well thought out. Now, as much as I hate to give Jack any kind of response, I felt it necessary to point something out: http://gamepolitics.com/2006/09/19/no-direct-causal-link-between-games-violence-in-apa-report/ The APA's findings suggest (their word, not mine) a correlation (not a causation) between violent video games and an increase in AGRESSIVE behavior (not to mention a decrease in helpful behavior). There is a very big difference between an increase in aggression and an increase in violence. I, myself, could stand to be more aggressive than I currently am (despite 18 years of video game playing), but becoming more violent would not help me.

Date reviewed: Sep 27, 2006 8:58 PM

Nickname: fireball

Review: First off, Jack, belittling others in your own opinion does nothing for your cause. I find it interesting that I somehow enjoyed years of the Doom and Quake series, Mortal Kombat, also WoW and DAoC, and yet have not killed anyone. Hmmmm.... Maybe I should try the SIMs. I would have to agree with others. The conclusion that violent games provoke violence in teens is, at best, just a guess. I find, in myself, while playing somewhat violent games, it's more of an aggression outlet than anything. It always has been, since I was a teenager myself, and into my adult life. If we don't give our kids safe ways to let out some of their own frustrations and anger, we might as well hand them a high powered rifle. It's repression, among other things, that helps fuel hate and violence, not games.

Date reviewed: Sep 19, 2006 6:46 AM

Nickname: stunner

Review: A quick question. I have to ask if anyone can tell me exactly what video game was Hitler playing? Maybe Stalin? I am positive there are many others out there I can name, but those two seem to come to mind.

Date reviewed: Sep 19, 2006 4:12 AM

Nickname: Rachel

Review: Thank you. It's so nice to see an eloquent, well-reasoned rebuttal to the alarmist nonsense the mainstream media has been bandying about. As a moderate but dedicated gamer, I'm especially happy to see someone make a distinction between the idea that people can become addicted to video games and the idea that the games, themselves, are addictive: to lump those together is one of the worst errors that Grusser-Sinopoli and Co. have made. One thing I think you neglected was Grusser-Sinopoli's claim that the games' creators had deliberately designed their products to be dangerously addictive. That in itself seems to betray startling ignorance about the very field that she's so hot to attack.

Date reviewed: Sep 18, 2006 11:47 PM

Nickname: dbps1000

Review: Pro-lifers should be made to pay for the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual well being of all children born to parents who don't care what their kids play, do, see, say and believe.

Date reviewed: Sep 18, 2006 3:26 PM

Nickname: Mr. Peabody

Review: Yes, interesting that crime rate has dropped even with the advent of video games. I'm not sure this fact means that violent games aren't bad, but I agree with the premise that we keep looking for the singular and perfect scapegoat for our social ills. My pet peeve in church is when cetain ministers get on the theme of, "... if only we didn't have television we wouldn't have [insert favorite social ill]..." I do think there's plenty of cruelty in the world, and am not sure why anyone would feel the need to use cruelty as a medium for entertainment, but thankfully that's a right that we still enjoy in many parts of the world. A final thought would be, I wonder what the ratio of violent to non-violent games is. Seems to me there are plenty of non-violent games for consoles and computers. I've got a Game Cube and a hard drive full of computer games, and maybe 1 percent of them could be considered violent. So if many (or most?) games are not violent, does that mean anything?

Date reviewed: Sep 18, 2006 3:05 PM

Nickname: JackThompsonisaidiot

Review: You really just don't understand critical thinking at all. 'There is no proof to the contrary'? Are you really so stupid as to not understand that you can't prove a negative? There is very, very, very little evidence (despite your protest) that there is a problem, and there are lots and lots and lots of studies that couldn't find any connections at all. Just because you like what they say doesn't make a study sound. Even less so when they use your biased methods. And just because you don't like the huge numbers of studies that say otherwise doesn't mean they are wrong.

Date reviewed: Sep 18, 2006 1:22 PM

Nickname: Jon

Review: Like anything, video games can be addicting, but video games themselves aren't addicting. It all depends on the person's pesonality and what stimulates them the most.

Date reviewed: Sep 18, 2006 4:08 AM

Nickname: BenSwart

Review: Video games made a comeback in the 1980s, yet crime still falls. It is my opinion that teen violence is a result of real-life environmental "triggers". Child abuse in any form inc but not limited to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse leads to a more aggressive human. See childhoods' of Hitler, Stalin,& Saddam Hussein. The desensitization of young people, good or bad? This is absolutely dependent on the choice of that person. Having Self-Control over fear to the point it is nearly absent is an ability that is extremely valuable for ER surgeons, police officers, and soldiers. Addictive? We are creatures that "cash in" acts for dopamine. Most games are reward based, so if you succeed, you may or may not get a rise from it. If that is an addictive process, you should not reward anyone, including children, in any way if he or she does something right? absence of positive motivation, That sounds like a prefect society? you can just leave me out of it.

Date reviewed: Sep 17, 2006 11:49 PM