in response to Kate's Blog, Violent Video Game

http://katenicola89-kate.blogspot.com/2009/04/violent-video-games.html

this is also something which concerns me, the fact that the more we are exposed to things like this, allowing young children, to shot people, cut off their heads etc etc, we become desensitised to the reality of the action.

All to often it is reported in the news that violent crime has been commited after playing such games, and yet there seems to be very little control over what game companies are allowed to produce.

I guess one argument could be that this sort of over the top violence is no different to what we used to watch as kids in "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, but then it was so riduculous we knew it was fantasy, and in the next episode there they were again, right as rain.

These games are too close to reality, so that eventually the line between that and fantasy gets blurred. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/4611161/Rapelay-virtual-rape-game-banned-by-Amazon.html

There is great discussion about whether these games encourage violent behaviour in real life, and whether they should be banned or not, but no-one asks the question "What sort of sick individual thinks it might actually be fun to make a game where people rape, murder etc?" A reflection of our society. SICK