Maybe for FlameDuck who is man of 30 years this is escapism, but for someone young who's parents don't have time to baby sit him or pick his games this will become the reality because he was trained and society accepts it,
FlameDuck wasn't born a man of 30 years old. In his day the evil murder simulator was Mortal Kombat - a game he played at great lengths, it even partially motivated him to take up healthy exercise. Yet for some reason he doesn't run around tearing peoples still-beating hearts out through their chest, or ripping peoples heads off, with their spinal cords still attached. As the reporter said these kids are training in virtual reality to become societies worst nightmares.
Have you ever actually trained someone to kill? Or been trained by someone to kill? I was in the Royal Danish Marines, and I can promise you violent videogames, were not the order of the day. In fact the only "vile" media we were subjected to as part of our Infantryman training, was an informational video on why you should take care of your feet, so as to not contract gangrene. It was in black and white, and was to this day, the most disturbing thing I've ever seen. Why? Because the soldier whose foot just feel apart, was not virtual. Games like GTA would work well as a training tool.
Sure. For training people to play GTA. Not for much else, certainly not to kill someone, or even jack a car. some that stray will have a lot easier time getting around their concience (if they have one) if they have been desensitized by games and violent movies that celebrate the kind of behaviour they have previously admired in fantasy.
Video games / Movies / Evening News does not desensitize you to violence. Paranoia and fear desensitize you to violence. Once they produce a credible case where someone has developed acute Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, from playing a video game, then lets talk. Until then, video games are escapism. Yeah, I don't really object to GTA on the basis that it is violent, it is more that it reflects the gangsterization of America and England.
Yes. Because without games like GTA IV there wouldn't be a "Russkaya Mafiya". Think of all the lives that could have been saved, if people who played too much GTA : San Andreas hadn't been duped into thinking that rioting and pillaging are socially acceptable, and tore up downtown LA, simply because four upstanding officers of the peace helped a poor black man stand after he'd fallen down and beaten himself repeatedly with a police baton. It's like there is a frightening mental illness spreading through the human race.
Sure. But since the human race, predates video games by about 6 million years (6000 years if you're a new earth creationist) the "cause and effect" is fairly simple to determine. George Bush decided to wage war on Iraq because he played too much Stratego as a child? Get real! What video game was Cain playing?