Stephen King on violent video games @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on April 07, 2008

News: The king of horror defends video games from absentee parents and clueless lawmakers.

Stephen King has written an article for Entertainment Weekly that will appear in the next issue detailing his thoughts on violent video games. However, it is available at EW.com right now. The master of modern horror goes on to attack the anti-video game legislation currently pending in the Massachusetts state legislature and encourages parents to pay attention to what their kids are playing. Reasonable advice that will, no doubt, fall on deaf ears.

But what really gets the Constant Author enraged is the government's desire to blame any problems in the world today on pop culture:

What really makes me insane is how eager politicians are to use the pop culture Ч not just videogames but TV, movies, even Harry Potter Ч as a whipping boy. It's easy for them, even sort of fun, because the pop-cult always hollers nice and loud. Also, it allows legislators to ignore the elephants in the living room. Elephant One is the ever-deepening divide between the haves and have-nots in this country, a situation guys like Fiddy and Snoop have been indirectly rapping about for years. Elephant Two is America's almost pathological love of guns. It was too easy for critics to claim Ч falsely, it turned out Ч that Cho Seung-Hui (the Virginia Tech killer) was a fan of Counter-Strike; I just wish to God that legislators were as eager to point out that this nutball had no problem obtaining a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. Cho used it in a rampage that resulted in the murder of 32 people. If he'd been stuck with nothing but a plastic videogame gun, he wouldn't even have been able to kill himself.

Well said Mr. King, well said.

source: The Video Game Librarian