I’ve been playing games now for almost 20 years. Games back then were bleeps and bloops, bright flashy colors, and a simple concept – usually without end or resolution. Just as new hardware has pushed the envelope for graphics and gaming style, so has the content of these games.

I remember the shock of seeing Mortal Kombat in the arcades for the first time. Nothing up to that point had been so blatantly violent. Of course as a 12-year-old, I was drawn to it as a moth to a flame.

Now, at the present time, this is nothing. In fact, Mortal Kombat looks pretty awful compared to what has come out since then. The blood and violence is over the top, and every light punch seems to cut the opponents jugular. Mortal Kombat is the grand-daddy of violent games, as it was the first one to be truly successful, and is still going to this day. It introduced us to the concept of finishing moves, and had a story line that – although convoluted – seemed to be right out of a mythical story.

Mortal Kombat, along with Street Fighter II, paved the way for the early and mid 90’s fascination with fighting games. A look through magazine covers during that period will show this. It wasn’t long before game companies tried to syphon off some of the success of Mortal Kombat by increasing the amount of blood in their fighting game in hopes that people would see it in the same light.

Violent games do not stick to one genre, and if there is one that has actually changed the gaming industry, it’d be Doom. Created by Id, Doom brought to the table everything that made Wolfenstein 3D so popular and made it better. There was no Halo/Half-Life story line here. It was mindless killing of zombie and demons while navigating maze like corridors.

The direct result of Doom, and it’s sister Quake, is pretty much most of the FPS you see today. For the longest time, any FPS that came out was called a ‘doom-clone’. Health, armor, power ups, it’s all here. Quake coined the term death-match, and was the first game to be heavily played over LAN.

The indirect result of Doom is (along with that silly game Night Trap) the video game ratings, and you can’t go to an R rated movie without a parent if you’re under 17. How? Well, if you’re to believe the crack team of head doctors, the genius kids who decided to kill a bunch of people at Columbine High School did so because of such games as Doom. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

Harris and Klebold were fans of violent video games such as “Doom”. (Harris often created levels for the game; these were widely distributed, and can still occasionally be found on the Internet as the Harris levels. Rumors that the layout of these levels resembled that of Columbine High School circulated but have been debunked. Some analysts argued that part of the killers’ problem may have been a result of their constant exposure to violent imagery in such video games, as well as music, and movies, theorizing that their obsession with these forms of media may have led to them having difficulty telling the difference between reality and fantasy. Several unsuccessful lawsuits against several video game manufacturers were filed as a result by parents of some of the victims.

— Wikipedia Article

This goes back to a blog I made about if you’re fat, file a lawsuit because it’s not your fault. We live in a society that tells you you’re a victim! Instead of taking responsibility for your own stupidity, it’s always the fault of anyone but you. I played the Dooms, the Mortal Kombats, the Grand Theft Autos, and I don’t believe I’ve been corrupted. I understand entertainment when it’s entertainment. My mother taught me what was right, and what was wrong. She had no problem with me playing these games, and in fact my mother and I used to play Mortal Kombat II on the Super Nintendo during the wee hours of the morning on my summer vacation. (She couldn’t play Doom, it gave her motion sickness.)

So it comes down to this. Does games cause brain rot? I’m going to say no. But the head doctors will most likely tell you other wise. To me, it’s along the lines of salt. You can eat as much salt as you want, and it’s not going to be a problem, but if you already have hypertension, then the salt is very bad for you. Salt doesn’t give you hypertension, but if you have it, salt is pretty deadly. Same thing with exposure to violence in games, and in any media in general. If there isn’t already an underlying problem, then the media you’re playing/watching is no problem. But if there is already an existing problem, maybe these violent images will send you farther along the path to doing something stupid.

It really all rests in the hands of the parents, when it comes to kids and teens. If you know your kids/teens understand the difference between fantasy and reality, if you know your offspring will not go off the deep end by playing these games, then it boils down to you choosing if you want your kid exposed to this. But take the responsibility and put it in your hands. Don’t wait for legislation to tell game stores to not sell the games to kids, take the initiation and don’t allow your child to buy it. Games do not cause violence, bad parenting does.