Thought I'd share an article with you

[Jayextee]

The following is an article I thought I'd write about school shootings/Doom. It's relevent and maybe a fresh insight, but it's long. Let me know what you think.

________________________________________________________________

So, there's been another 'incident', and again. Doom has got the blame.

To everybody who may read this, the Doom fans, this is a disgrace. How could our favourite game become the scapegoat for an unrelated incident? Why? It's very frustrating, of course - it jeopardises the future of the game we love. Where will it end? Are we forever doomed (No pun intended) to be labeled as potential killers ourselves, just because we worship a brainwashing game? In short, probably. But, these people that label Doom in such a way are the people that count where society is concerned, so this much cannot be helped. Even if it IS wrong...

Looking at facts, murders happen every day, or close to it. Some are unmotivated, some are revenge. They're all murders - so dressing them up with details such as a 'motive' are really covering up the issue, which is, people died. To me, this is the important part. Any loss of life, be it natural, accidental or intentional, is a big shame. Where time was spent finding some unrelated article to blame, it could have been used to support the victim's family and help them cope with loss. However it's not about the victim's family - it's about, instead, the image of the politicians.

Basically, all that matters to a politician is their public image - if the people dislike them, then they won't be voted. It's as simple as that. So, whenever such an incident will happe, the politician's first goal is to find a scapegoat, label it 'evil', and rally against it. The public, in seeing this, think that the politician is actually doing the public a favour, where in reality, it's a pointless crusade, when time could be spent, as mentioned, on more important issues.

On the other side of the coin, however, let's look at Doom itself. The game contains firearms, used by the player, to slaughter other living creatures in a variety of locations that contain satanic symbols and references. And it's this, shallow, basic analysis that fuels both the politicians, and the press, when it comes to rallying against this seemingly arbitrary scapegoat. Taking a further look, however reveals that the game isn't really too evil. Out of the creatures that are killed by the player, only three actually look like anything in the real world. As we know and love them, the Former Human, Former Sergeant and Former Commando are actually, to all intents and purposes, other people besides the player, and are there to be killed. Disturbing, and causes children to copy this act? This would indeed be the case, were normal everyday people walking the streets with a chaingun attached to their arms. As it stands, there is no sympathy for the deaths of these virtual soldiers - they often fire first, and are there to destroy you. On a similar note, think about it; if you were armed and fired upon in REAL LIFE, would you not fire back? However, it seems that the media want us to play a game that doesn't promote self-defence.

As well as this, the satanic references in Doom are taken well out of context. Put short, you are supposed to be DESTORYING this 'hell-spawn', not worshipping them. Although this is not apparent, neither is the fact that the only real satanic references are demons with goat legs, and an inverted cross the player has to walk through. In fact, prime-time ratings winner Buffy The Vampire Slayer is more satanic - and how many shootings has that been blamed for? Oh, right, Buffy doesn't contain guns, leading me nicely on to the subject.

Doom's use of guns was never intended to be a military killing simulation. Instead, it's more of an action-comic scenario. Of the weapons available, very little of them are actually real, or believable. It's a common complaint of Doom fans, that in the game, the pistol and chaingun never reload, the chainsaw doesn't need fuel, and you can carry 100 explosive warheads at once - not only do we not think it's real, we constantly 'poke fun' at these details. Also, weapons such as the plasma gun, rocket launcher and BFG9000 (Which is, in essence, a glorified energy cannonball) are lifted from science fiction films and comics. A weapon similar to the Doom weapons is sure to be found in at least one of the politician's favourite films, I can guarantee.

Doom also borrows from other sources. The Baron of Hell is a common representation of the average movie demon, the Cacodemon is an adaptation of the 'Beholder' monster from the popular Dungeons-and-Dragons fantasy role play games, and as for the Lost Souls - we've all seen flying skulls in cheap horror flicks. Doom has so much in common with other forms of entertainment, one would presume it actually is another form of entertainment. And that's because it is.

Having established Doom as just another form of entertainment, the subject returns to the game being used as a scapegoat for these high-school shootings. As a child, most of us are taught, when having done something wrong, not to blame others, but deal with problems. Solve them. Yet, this is exactly what the media, and the politicians are doing. Thus, completely missing the root of the problem. If less time was spent blaming some random game, and more time was used in attempting to solve the problem, then further shootings could even be prevented. Were they not so concerned with ratings, both the press and the politicians would agree that this is the better goal.

So, what exactly IS the problem? From accounts of people that knew the teen killers, they were generally unpopular, and bullied by the school 'jocks' for being 'wierd'. Any child who has been bullied at school will tell you that this is, without a doubt, an obvious reason 'why'. It doesn't justify what was done, but points to the root of the problem. The school 'jock' is always a physically orientated, sporty type, and as such is very popular - because he (and it is always a he) is the image of a young sporting idol. No doubt that the sporting 'heroes' you see on television will have started out as a youngster like this school 'jock'. Even if the guy isn't actually able to string a real sentence together, he is popular and loved by millions. Thus, it is the ideal that children at schools aim to attain. As a result, intelligence is pushed aside for physical ability, and the child will eventually grow up to be this representation of 'the American dream'. And if this type of person is a hero, then what can be said about the opposite type? The unpopular, smart kid, or 'nerd' must, conversely, be viewed as the opposite of the hero. The villain. The enemy. This is a subconscious ideal that fuels most jocks' hatred towards the class nerd.

The idea of the 'hero' and the 'villain' goes back to the very dawn of storytelling. Everybody knows at least one story where the hero saved his nation in a battle-to-the-death with his enemy. So, the idea of labeling somebody as a 'villain' and victimising them is a self-righteous method of satisfaction for those that can physically do it. And, for this villain, the nerd, it can be frustrating - he does well in class, studies, and does as he's told, and yet still he is the enemy. The nerdy type doesn't have the physical ability to fight back against this type of abuse, and a weak attempt at this will produce humiliation that will only make a situation worse. The nerd can't reason with the bully - words are as easily ignored as they are spoken - and so, any resolve to the situation is welcome. And what better resolve than one so... final?

So, although we can never justify such a killing, we can at least understand, in part, what may have caused it. And it is a complicated problem, one that won't go away easily. Because the 'heroes' are more physically strong than they are mentally, the average intellect of society is a little low to deal with such a complex problem. And so, the scapegoat method it is, next time this happens. And the next.

In the mean time, I will buy Doom3 the day of it's release, safe in the knowledge that, when it gets banned after the next incident, I'll actually have a copy. And this is all I can do...

[Arioch]

When where what?

Who?

[Jayextee]

And more importantly... why?

[Guest Adriannus]

Despite the questions, good point on behalf of the article writer.

[Jayextee]

No, the article writer is an idiot. I know him personally.

[Guest Adriannus]

Oh...okay.

[Zaldron]

<<The following is an article I thought I'd write about school shootings/Doom>>

Nuff' said. :)

[Lüt]

Jayextee said:

It's relevent and maybe a fresh insight, but it's long. Let me know what you think

It's long.

It's definately long.

Sounded OK from the first 3 paragraphs. I'll save it for later reference. SUVs are the real problem the nation faces though. I'm working on my anti-SUV website next week. You can contribute if you want :|

[Guest giltygear]

The article is ok. It made *SOME* light of the fact that the media and the rest of the general public use the game as a scapegoat so they can have something else to blame other than their own stupidity and ignorance of the factors that led up to the shootings themselves - the constant "bullying" and torment that these two went through at the hands of a lot of these "finger pointer's" own children.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning or defending their decsion to shoot up their school at all. Hell, if I were one of those two, instead of getting a gun, I'd start to work out, get all jacked and as angry as i can get, then when I see them at just the right time (after graduation or whatever), I'd beat them within an inch of their life. And I'd do that every single time I saw them - just like they did to me.

Now that I've said my piece...

[Castlevania]

the world's too evil for my liking.
i dont understand why this world is so unkind.
i am glad we have school shootings, it shocks the shit out
of people. maybe good change will come of it.
some dumbasses think death is so bad, but living a sad life is
worse, and some of those dumbfucks just don't get it.