The Video Game Made Me Do It

15 Jan

I’d like to get on my soapbox.

The Games tag in my Google Reader has been full of headlines lately telling of the evils of video games. I think video games, like TV and the Internet, have gotten a bad rap because some folks think they are acceptable substitutes for, you know, actual parenting.

Growing up, my parents always knew what I was up to. (Hell, I’m sure they’d like to have that knowledge now.) They made sure we went out beyond the four walls of our house and interacted with other kids. We watched TV only after doing our homework and we were never allowed to have our own TVs in our room. My parents made sure we got to bed at an appropriate time every night.

Two recent stories that have left me dumbfounded are those of Daniel Petric, who killed his mother and wounded his father after they took away his Halo 3 game, and Brandon Crisp who ran away from home after his parents refused to give him back his X-Box 360 for his incessant playing of Call of Duty 4. Petric would play Halo 3 for 18 hours a day when he had the chance. Crisp would play CoD online until 4 am and would often skip school to play.

Both teens’ parents took their son’s games away in an attempt to get them to do something else, like go to school. Petric managed to unlock the drawer his game had been hidden in and then took the gun that was in with the game and shot both of his parents in the head. Crisp ran away from home and his body was found a few weeks later. It looks like he died from injuries after falling out of a tree.

Were both of these kids addicted to their games? Sounds like it. But how did it get to that point? How does a kid get away with playing for 18 hours a day? Or staying up until 4 am? Why did no one take charge of the situation sooner?

Video games are a form of entertainment. I love my PS3 and I’ve made it known just how much I like the God of War games. But do I miss work because I’d rather sit of front of my TV leading Kratos through Hades? Do I let it interfere with how often I see my friends? More importantly, do I let it get in the way of updating my blog? No. I know better than to be consumed by something which is solely a vehicle of entertainment. When I was a teen, I had my mother’s swift hand upside my head to keep me inline if I ever did spend too much time playing Crash Bandicoot.

Petric’s lawyers tried to spin the tale that playing Halo 3 for as long as he did made him insane and he didn’t know what he was doing. Too bad there was proof that he’d planned the murders for weeks. Leave it to lawyers to try to get someone off of a murder charge by blaming video games.

Maybe when a six year old decides to steal a car and drive himself to school because he learned how to do it playing Grand Theft Auto, the “video games made me do it” excuse can be used as a defense. A 16 and 15 year old know what they’re doing when they decide to shoot their parents or run away from home.

As long as there are parents like Isabelle Clingerman, a woman who recently discovered that the Nintendo games she purchased for her kids were not “not a substitute for reading a book or doing an outdoor activity with your child,” there will always be kids like Petric and Crisp.

So parents, don’t be afraid to get your kids video game consoles (do be sure you get them a PS3). Keep in mind though that the video game isn’t going to relieve you of parenting duty. Don’t wait until your kid spends more time playing his favorite game then he does sleeping to intervene. Otherwise, yours might be the next story to make the news.