Gamers vs. Blamers Poster (49k)

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THE VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE DEBATE

Are Violent Video Games Training Killers or Simply Entertaining?

The $9 billion video game industry is the biggest segment of the entertainment industry today and the most controversial. From Columbine to the Beltway Sniper, the blamers say tragic events like these happened at the hands of people-mainly teens-who become desensitized to killing by playing games like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Quake. The gamers say America is a free society and people can entertain themselves any way they wish. Both sides agree this issue is far-reaching, touching on matters from violence in America to media responsibility and corporate culpability. Who's right and whose game is over?

Blamers

Jack Thompson (top photo) aims to destroy and seldom misses his mark. In nearly two decades as the nation's leading anti-entertainment industry litigator, he's squashed shock radio stations under heavy FCC fines and raged against obscene lyrics, notably forcing Time Warner to yank Ice-T's Cop Killer off shelves. Today his main target is the video game industry and the makers of Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games, as he continues his mission to hold accountable the entertainment industry for the harm he asserts it does to our children.

Gamers

David Kushner (bottom photo) is the leading voice on video games and digital and popular culture, writing for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Wired, and Spin, where he is contributing editor. His critically acclaimed new book is Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture. It tells the story of the creators of the games Doom and Quake and the rise of the video game industry. Kushner's unique perspective of these controversial and best-selling games, which have been blamed for inspiring high school shooters from Paducah to Columbine, fuels his assertion that video games are fantasy and their makers bear no responsibility in an individual's decision to act violently in real life.