Vice President Joe Biden Meets With Gaming Industry

Joe Biden is not listening to a single word these people say. He is only meeting with them in order to say "after careful consideration and meeting with the leaders of the industry..." before he decrees whatever will gain him the most political capital. That is it. Politics is nothing but cronyism and a popularity contest, whichever side presents the fewest rewards is the one he'll come down on and demand concessions from. If the American public believed that the Sandy Hook shooting was caused by the consumption of lima beans, and the lima bean industry wasn't about to get him in their pocket, Joe Biden would be 'looking into sweeping reforms to the lima bean industry to protect the children of America'. Common sense, logic and honesty have nothing to do with it.

This is a dog and pony show before he does the thing he would do anyways.

@jsnyder82 said:

Also, fuck the hypocritical NRA. With an old, rough wooden spoon.

Got tolerance?

Hey what the hell? He mentioned videogames once! BARELY!

I don't get this video, he just listed a bunch of people they've spoken with. I didn't really get any sense of what the conversation is at all. Is there a second half?

Politics ruin my buzz...damn the man! And fuck the NRA for passing the buck.and I fucking love guns.

@crow13 said:@wumbo3000 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

If somehow kids are playing that, then their parents have already messed up. Modern Warfare 2 is an M-rated game. Kids under the age of 18 can't buy those games. It means that parents have bought those games for them. The responsibility ultimately falls upon the parents.

And I just need to say this. If some person actually plays that No Russian level and then gets the thought, "Oh wow, playing this mission makes me want to go outside and do this! Yeah!", then that person has some serious problems. There have been far more gruesome things and events in so many other types of media, and I don't think that holding a gamepad really simulates using a gun to kill people.

It's not even just kids, I felt that mission was really infuriating. You couldn't even shoot the terrorists you just had to play along with massacring this airport. It's just real fucking bad taste. To say that isn't fucked up, is really being ignorant.

Bad tastes perhaps, but if we are to look at games as art, as many gamers (myself included) do, you have to understand that games, as an art form, are a form of expression and developers are free to express whatever they want. That in mind people vote with their money on what games get made. That of course is common sense. I think the bigger issue here is to educate regular american citizens, those who may not be gamers, that are buying games for themselves or their kids that not all games are for kids. That is an old social stereotype. Also that games (Like other forms of media) are going to have behavior impacts on impressionable minds, be they children or mentally disturb individuals.

Nothing about that segment is art, it was so blatantly obvious the only reason that mission was in there was to get the mainstream media shock story out of it, like Fox News did with the lesbian sex scene in Mass Effect which though its controversy drove the sales of the game up after it aired. Nothing about that mission was anything apart from controversy = free advertising.

That mission should not be in there because when shit like this happens it is so easy to blame videogames and who can blame them? You show this footage to anyone that knows nothing about games, and they are supposed to just ignore it?

Dungeons and Dragons taught me to shoot people!!!

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

There is also a warning about the level's content, an option to skip the level with no negative consequences to the player and the entire thing is occurring in a video game that is rated at a level where children should not be playing it. I know that kids will still play it but that is three different safety devices in place.

@FengShuiGod said:

Not sure why there is an implicit criticism of the NRA app. Plenty of mini game collections and online games targeted at children have similar content and many are more violent, but Patrick has been mum on those. Why the NRA's criticism of games is silly, they have condemned the overwhelming violence in games that are overtly sadistic and sometimes eerily mimetic of real life violence (think No Russian or Manhunt) instead of games that are more like Olympic compilations or Wii Sports, so I don't really see any hypocrisy on their part, especially when the NRA game hopes to educate and stresses gun safety.

This. The jab at the NRA app makes zero sense........

@Totoni said:

Wait. First they blame video games for the shooting, and then they release their own video game? It's just a target practice game, but that's just as hypocritical as it can be. Also ages four and up? That's just... I can't... What... Ahh, I give up.

@mrfizzy said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

There is also a warning about the level's content, an option to skip the level with no negative consequences to the player and the entire thing is occurring in a video game that is rated at a level where children should not be playing it. I know that kids will still play it but that is three different safety devices in place.

Who the hell is going to skip content in a game?

John Riccitello looks maaaad nervous

Those god durn vidja gaems are desensitising today's youth. We gotta get rid of em!

An app is an application not (necessarily) a game.

Unless of course you're playing the game Apple Maps and the game is try and really find the location you're looking for.

@Bourbon_Warrior: I don't think anyone can say what art is or isn't. Are you a professional art critic? As I said art is expression, sometimes expression is violent. Sometimes expression doesn't make sense. Sometimes expression looks like filth. You don't have to watch, you don't have to play it, you don't have to buy it for your kids. You also don't have to judge it.

God bless America.

@BD_Mr_Bubbles said:

@Totoni said:

Wait. First they blame video games for the shooting, and then they release their own video game? It's just a target practice game, but that's just as hypocritical as it can be. Also ages four and up? That's just... I can't... What... Ahh, I give up.

They blamed violent video games. This is a target practice app riddled with gun safety tips.

They're not saying Olympic target shooting is the problem.......

Edit: The NRA is a powerful and determined organization. Misconstruing their argument (no matter if you believe it to be a weak one) and writing them off as hypocritical helps who? They're not going to walk away from this debate so easily.

@crow13 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: I don't think anyone can say what art is or isn't. Are you a professional art critic? As I said art is expression, sometimes expression is violent. Sometimes expression doesn't make sense. Sometimes expression looks like filth. You don't have to watch, you don't have to play it, you don't have to buy it for your kids. You also don't have to judge it.

In my opinion a massacre simulator is not art, this mission wasn't in a arthouse indy game it was in the most sold game that year. The key phrase in that "In my opinion", if that kind of thing is your idea of art all the more power to you.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@Devise22 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@wumbo3000 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

If somehow kids are playing that, then their parents have already messed up. Modern Warfare 2 is an M-rated game. Kids under the age of 18 can't buy those games. It means that parents have bought those games for them. The responsibility ultimately falls upon the parents.

And I just need to say this. If some person actually plays that No Russian level and then gets the thought, "Oh wow, playing this mission makes me want to go outside and do this! Yeah!", then that person has some serious problems. There have been far more gruesome things and events in so many other types of media, and I don't think that holding a gamepad really simulates using a gun to kill people.

It's not even just kids, I felt that mission was really infuriating. You couldn't even shoot the terrorists you just had to play along with massacring this airport. It's just real fucking bad taste. To say that isn't fucked up, is really being ignorant.

Yes but that isn't the issue. In all forms of media people will find their own personal hang ups on certain missions. I liked the No Russian Mission because I felt it added some element of realism missing from the big blockbuster COD games. The fact that you had the choice NOT to shoot any people at all I felt soiled the moment. You don't think things like this go on a day to day basis? How many innocent bystanders have died in Iraq because of the ongoing conflict there? Welcome to the world we live in.

As an adult consumer you have the choice to play that mission or not. You also know that mission IS NOT reality. That mission does not give you the prerogative to go out and shoot people. Aka your old enough, mature enough and smart enough to decide if your comfortable playing that mission. (which you can turn off by the way) Parents buying them for children is the major issue on how it can influence future generations.

Either way though society needs to start looking itself in the mirror and stop blaming other entities for its issues. During this awful shooting everyone got up in arms about how the media coverage was and how they were turning the shooter into a celebrity and all the focus was on him all the time. Just like now the focus is on what impacts people to make these decisions. At what point do people get the blame for the things they do? When does society take responsibility? The media covers what people are willing to watch, stop watching and they will have to adapt to change their coverage. If you don't like the way something is handled in a game stop playing it. We as people need to learn to take responsibility for what we do in our lives more and stop blaming external influences.

I don't see how innocent bystanders getting killed in Iraq has anything to do in a game situation that involves massacring people. When they open they open the elevator doors and just unload on civilians in some pretty realistic graphics I find that disturbing, what I am saying is to just completely write off video games in this discussion is ignorant. That is the only game that made me think this really shouldn't be in a game.

Its ridiculous to solely focus on video games just because it "puts the player in control". I've seen things in movies that i personally find more disturbing than anything i've seen in video games(think the Saw or Hostel ) just because they are in the "horror movie" genre they get a relative pass for graphic torture sequences?

The bigger question you should be asking is if our media in general should be portraying the murder of political or "moral enemies" as justifiable and clean killing that should be celebrated(because those people dont agree with us and are our enemies. THOSE BAD BAD PEOPLE WITH A DIFFERENT WORLD VIEW, HOW DARE THEY!). Shouldn't there be more movies and games that take their violence seriously instead of just as a bloody puzzle to propel plot points. This is where i partially applaud "no russian", it attempted to take its violence seriously, although some would argue it was just an attempt at making their gristly war game "more edgy" but people could go back and forth about that all day.

In the book "Grand Theft Childhood" Dr Lawrence Cutner and Dr Cheryl Olson discribed the findings of their research on the effects of violent video games on *actual children*(previous research up to that point hadn't used adolescents). Their findings were that Violent video games could cause some problems with children, it raised some risk factors for violent behavior(getting in fights ,etc) but it was a negligible amount compared to their sample size. Most children it had no effect on, and there was very little evidence of causality(its possible that children predisposed to being violent are just more likely to play violent games). Heres where the fun stuff comes in: they also noted many positives to violent video game play, raising creativity, allowing kids to get out anger, etc. They posited an idea that violent video games with blood and guts may even be better for kids, than lower rated violent video games. Games where you shoot aliens or where there is no blood, because blood shows the kids that there are consequences to violent actions. Obviously non-violent, appropriately rated games were the best for kids. They summerized (as every good study about the subject) that parents should PLAY GAMES WITH THEIR KIDS, FIND OUT WHAT THEY ARE PLAYING, AND DECIDE IF THOSE GAMES ARE APPROPRIATE FOR THEIR KIDS. They urge parents to PAY ATTENTION TO THE RATINGS. You know...be a parent? The problem with violent media isnt the violent media, its shitty parents that put their kids in front of a television all day instead of interacting with them.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@crow13 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: I don't think anyone can say what art is or isn't. Are you a professional art critic? As I said art is expression, sometimes expression is violent. Sometimes expression doesn't make sense. Sometimes expression looks like filth. You don't have to watch, you don't have to play it, you don't have to buy it for your kids. You also don't have to judge it.

In my opinion a massacre simulator is not art, this mission wasn't in a arthouse indy game it was in the most sold game that year. The key phrase in that "In my opinion", if that kind of thing is your idea of art all the more power to you.

It doesn't matter because that game isn't rated for kids, and shouldn't be played by kids. That's what's important here. The existence of that mission isn't a mistake, especially since the mission can be easily skipped and people are warned of its contents beforehand, letting kids play that mission is a mistake.

And are we still talking about this, really?

@Bourbon_Warrior: Actually that mission is in there as part of the narrative. The emotional impact of it is a part of the narrative as well.

And regardless if you like it or not, it is art for one, and protected as free speech for two. I don't know if you just have never argued with an adult, but when discussing art "that's not art" is not an acceptable response. Pretending that art only exists in the things that please you is insane Stalinist diatribe.

Sometimes I think that people who are so ready to hand over their right to free speech so that they never get offended should live in a culture where free speech isn't allowed.

I'm no fan of the NRA, but their game looks like it focuses on teaching people gun safety, so I dont really see the problem?

@Phished0ne: The point I am trying to make is you can't just write off the implications that these things affect certain individuals, with missions like No Russian, which involves a massacre scene that you can control.

@Brodehouse said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: Actually that mission is in there as part of the narrative. The emotional impact of it is a part of the narrative as well.

And regardless if you like it or not, it is art for one, and protected as free speech for two. I don't know if you just have never argued with an adult, but when discussing art "that's not art" is not an acceptable response. Pretending that art only exists in the things that please you is insane Stalinist diatribe.

Sometimes I think that people who are so ready to hand over their right to free speech so that they never get offended should live in a culture where free speech isn't allowed.

I am putting my opinion on the mission and why I thought it was fucked, like I said before if you read what I said "in my opinion a massacre simulator is not art", I will stand by that no COD game is art, it is a interactive toy. This is my opinion like any form of art I am the one that chooses what is art like you get to as well.

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

Everything you said would be valid if this was actually a game for kids.. its not a game for kids so they shouldn't be playing it in the first place. Parents and store employees need to make sure they stick with the age on the box. You don't give your 5 year old kid a kitchen knife to play with either.. some things just aren't for kids.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

@Talis12 said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

The mission No Russian in COD MW2 is deplorable. Kids are playing that, it's interactive and can't be compared to violent movies because you are the one choosing to shoot all the bystanders in the airport in a mass shooting simulator, it is bad taste and was only in that game to create the controversy or as head honchos like to call "free advertising".

Everything you said would be valid if this was actually a game for kids.. its not a game for kids so they shouldn't be playing it in the first place. Parents and store employees need to make sure they stick with the age on the box. You don't give your 5 year old kid a kitchen knife to play with either.. some things just aren't for kids.

Exactly and I hope this talk puts that into perspective, tougher penalties to parents letting their kids directly play violent video games and watch violent films, but like any thing on main stream media that is controversial, kids will go out of their way to get it, it was Eminem getting banned from all mainstream stores when I was a kid, I didn't really care about Eminem before it but as soon as it was on TV with people saying kids shouldn't listen to this, I wanted to get that CD more than anything.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

No one is making you click on the big boy articles.

@Bourbon_Warrior: That I respect. For the record I don't think highly of this particular scene in this game either, and it certainly doesn't belong in the hands of children, I just don't think that removing things like this from games is the solution to the problems being brought up.

edit: wanted to rephrase, as others have pointed out that technically it is still art.

Joe Biden is Walter Mitty. He is a good BS artist, but he is the last person I would want to head something like this. Though these dog and pony shows don't accomplish anything anyway. At least this one will end in nothing but feelings and awareness raising, instead of more mindless scapegoating.

And, as per usual, one group (NRA) responds to hysterical scapegoating by....scapegoating the next most popular target!

And thee, uhh, umm, uhhh, um, of of. OK, I just wanted to fill you guys in of what we're about, and uhhh. Movies good, video games bad. End results. That's my decision, nanny nanny boo boo I gotta go take a poo poo before my pants are filled.

"Mister Vice President! Mister Vice President!"

Eh. That target practice game doesn't scream hypocrisy to me. It looks about as violent as Duck Hunt from what I've seen, maybe not even so. Of course the NRA's going to try to put something out that they think is an "appropriate" gun game to try to show the public what gun games should be (in their minds), and this looks about as innocuous as it gets. That's a pretty weak gotcha moment there. I don't agree with Patrick that it's very weird at all.

With that aside, the NRA's pretty much nuts, and do indeed espouse and disseminate blatantly hypocritical nonsense on a regular basis.

Biden's a good guy to be leading these discussions. It sounds like he's trying to keep things pretty objective. Can't ask for much more than that under the circumstances. Overall, I'm not too worried about things after the Supreme Court decision last year. It doesn't seem like any draconian restrictions are going to fly. Probably just a bunch of recommendations and maybe some bigger stickers on games and that kind of thing.

As a game developer, I honestly took a long hard look inward and tried to assess our medium and its cultural impact. And I found that games, more than any other media, are plagued with brutal violence. More than movies, more than comics, more than anything. Graphic slaying is the norm in our industry.

After the Newtown attack, I want to help make sure any event so tragic never happens in US history again. If entertainment is the problem, I'd say censor it. If mental health care is the issue, raise the taxes. Nothing should be off the table when discussing losing multiple thousands of lives every year to gun violence.

But game studios splatter blood over virtual lives throughout the world. In fact, all of the aforementioned media is not only present everywhere on the planet, its prevalent. That's when I ran across this Washington Post article by Fareed Zakaria. In it, he analyses the three main reasons given by media, the government, and corporations that explain this tragedy: entertainment, mental health availability, and gun laws. The article is short but packed with details and statistics, and Zakaria concludes, and I agree, that the one differentiator between the USA and every other first-world nation is its gun laws. Those laws are what make gun violence so tragically high in the US. Not movies, not games, not hospitals, but guns. He even gives Australia as an example of a country with rampant gun violence in its past, who enacted a set of strict regulations, and saw their gun violence numbers plummet.

So when Joe Biden says "We know there's no single answer", I have to argue that. There is a simple answer because this is a simple problem with examples throughout history and the world. Guns are made to kill people, especially assault weapons, and they're damned well designed.

Newtown was a wakeup call. People kill people. And people with assault rifles are better at it.

Its time for the government and everyone else to do what Sam Jackson taught us:

Wake. The fuck. Up.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@Brodehouse said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: Actually that mission is in there as part of the narrative. The emotional impact of it is a part of the narrative as well.

And regardless if you like it or not, it is art for one, and protected as free speech for two. I don't know if you just have never argued with an adult, but when discussing art "that's not art" is not an acceptable response. Pretending that art only exists in the things that please you is insane Stalinist diatribe.

Sometimes I think that people who are so ready to hand over their right to free speech so that they never get offended should live in a culture where free speech isn't allowed.

I am putting my opinion on the mission and why I thought it was fucked, like I said before if you read what I said "in my opinion a massacre simulator is not art", I will stand by that no COD game is art, it is a interactive toy. This is my opinion like any form of art I am the one that chooses what is art like you get to as well.

No, no, no. You're misunderstanding the difference between a qualitative statement and a qualifying statement. "Your opinion" extends to what is qualitative, not qualifying. "In my opinion, this piece of art is bad" is a subjective qualitative statement that makes sense. "This piece of art is not art" demands it to be an objective, qualifying statement, your opinion really has nothing to do with it, objective statements are either factual or not. And "this art is not art" is completely nonfactual and fallacious. Do you know what the definition of art is? A work of human creation designed to garner an emotional response from an audience. It doesn't matter in what form the work is or what specific response it generates. You sit there and tell me how any video game does not qualify.

And this might blow your mind; but toys are art, too. Joy is a human emotion. Creating something that creates joy in its use or observance is an artistic endeavor.

@triclops41: haven't even read your whole comment and i have to say...

SOMEONE ELSE HAS SEEN THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY?!?!?!?!

This dude sucks, "finally i have something to do as VP". The movie industry is just sitting back and not taking shit piling the backlash on the video game industry which is probably eating up billions of their movie money.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

These are comments on an article about video games and politics. It can't really be avoided.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

It's Patrick's job to report the news in the industry. When you set up your own videogame website you can ignore all the politics you want or just not click on these stories, both are pretty effective.

@Brodehouse said:

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@Brodehouse said:

@Bourbon_Warrior: Actually that mission is in there as part of the narrative. The emotional impact of it is a part of the narrative as well.

And regardless if you like it or not, it is art for one, and protected as free speech for two. I don't know if you just have never argued with an adult, but when discussing art "that's not art" is not an acceptable response. Pretending that art only exists in the things that please you is insane Stalinist diatribe.

Sometimes I think that people who are so ready to hand over their right to free speech so that they never get offended should live in a culture where free speech isn't allowed.

I am putting my opinion on the mission and why I thought it was fucked, like I said before if you read what I said "in my opinion a massacre simulator is not art", I will stand by that no COD game is art, it is a interactive toy. This is my opinion like any form of art I am the one that chooses what is art like you get to as well.

No, no, no. You're misunderstanding the difference between a qualitative statement and a qualifying statement. "Your opinion" extends to what is qualitative, not qualifying. "In my opinion, this piece of art is bad" is a subjective qualitative statement that makes sense. "This piece of art is not art" demands it to be an objective, qualifying statement, your opinion really has nothing to do with it, objective statements are either factual or not. And "this art is not art" is completely nonfactual and fallacious. Do you know what the definition of art is? A work of human creation designed to garner an emotional response from an audience. It doesn't matter in what form the work is or what specific response it generates. You sit there and tell me how any video game does not qualify.

And this might blow your mind; but toys are art, too. Joy is a human emotion. Creating something that creates joy in its use or observance is an artistic endeavor.

So you are saying I have no opinion of what has artistic merit, dude just stop your hipster 1st year art class bull shit.

You know, they play a lot of fucking video games in Japan as well. And South Korea. And pretty much everywhere else in the world. No place has as many of these kind of episodes as the USA as far as I know. Oh yes, I'm sure it's the video games that are to blame. Not the fact that getting a gun in this country is almost as easy as buying candy.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

Not when politics has an effect on what Giant Bomb is all about.

@Walreese55 said:

IN what world is Joe Biden called upon to be a voice of reason and to lead? Joe Fucking Biden, the man who literally could not keep his mouth open for more than five minutes without embarrassing himself

This made me laugh so hard. Well done.

So is this suppose to be about violence in games, or violence in games in relation to guns? Because if it is the former, then people might want to turn their attention to games like Manhunt 1 & 2.

The NRA is just PETA for gun nuts. It's best to just ignore anything they say or do.

@Sherban said:

If entertainment is the problem, I'd say censor it.

If free speech is the problem, I'd say censor it.

I... I am so unbelievably startled. I see people hand over their free speech all the time in ways they don't understand, but this isn't even a complex self-delusion. "Please Mr. Government, do not let us say whatever we want, because it makes us unsafe." I just want to tear my hair out and scream "THIS IS HOW YOU TURN FREE PEOPLE INTO SLAVES!" God, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here.

I found that pretty much unwatchable. The video game suits must have been thinking "why the fuck am I here?"

Before video games, kids like Jo had little toy guns that went bang they would point them at their little friends pull the trigger and shout "You're dead" a real looking gun pointing, not at some polygons on a screen, but a real kid, all in 3D "bang bang you're dead".

I belive he said "maybe you guys may be able to help us" - I can help you Jo, why dont you fuck off and sort out your shambles of a mental healthcare system and gun control instead. You see when we shoot each other in a video game people dont fucking die.

If video games are so dangerous then why are the security Guards at PAX not wearing body armour?

@Sherban: FZ thinks only 3 variables matter? Sorry, but the notion that its gun laws (at least those commonly proffered) is easily disproven by history. Rebanning AW or limiting magazine sizes are feel good measures. WtFu indeed. Having the same laws doesn't bring the same results. There really aren't easy solutions unless you ignore secondary consequences.

@YOU_DIED said:

can we try to keep politics off of Giant Bomb? fucks sakes, the discussions always devolve into massive shitstorms made of generalizations and emotionally charged nonsense

Sometimes video games and politics cross paths. The internet doing what the internet does isn't a good reason not to write articles about it.

@Mushir said:

You know, they play a lot of fucking video games in Japan as well. And South Korea. And pretty much everywhere else in the world. No place has as many of these kind of episodes as the USA as far as I know. Oh yes, I'm sure it's the video games that are to blame. Not the fact that getting a gun in this country is almost as easy as buying candy.

I like this one.

Biden is not the guy I would have chosen. Maybe that's why I'm not in politics.