{"id":527848,"date":"2010-04-14T18:11:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T22:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011607862_responsetolettervideogameshelped.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-04-14T18:11:37","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T22:11:37","slug":"response-to-letter-video-games-helped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/527848","title":{"rendered":"Response to letter, ‘Video games helped’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Military service not a breeding ground for killers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like most political extremists, Daniel Ruuska characterizes evidence in a way that supports his warped views [\u201cVideo Games Helped,\u201d Northwest Voices, April 8].<\/p>\n

First, the 2005 University of Michigan study was more than a bit light in its statistical base: A total of 39 male undergraduates were sampled. The study is suggestive, but generalizing to a larger population without further research is irresponsible.<\/p>\n

Second, the best way to breed anti-social behavior \u2014especially in male children \u2014is to raise them without a present and responsible father figure who could discourage addictive behavior of all kinds. It is difficult to be a good parent these days, but decades of research have shown that an effective sociological father is a key to raising responsible adults.<\/p>\n

Third, the military service does use video games as a recruiting tool, but it is simply employing current technology to attract the attention of young people it would like to enlist. Modern targeting systems are also high-tech, but they are not \u201cvideo games.\u201d Service members are trained to use these weapons and instructed on rules of engagement. If they violate those rules, punishment is called for.<\/p>\n

Finally, Ruuska claims there is a \u201ckilling is fun\u201d mindset needed for military service. Only a psychotic among the millions who have worn the uniform of our country ever had thoughts like that. It is apparent that Ruuska never spent a single day in uniform. He should be ashamed of making that statement.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Phillip Johnson, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

War, violence existed before first-person shooter video games<\/strong><\/p>\n

In response to Daniel Ruuska\u2019s letter, stating that first-person shooter (FPS) games create the \u201ckilling is fun\u201d mindset and that they are responsible for the incident in the Middle East is illogical.<\/p>\n

Not only is there no proof that the soldiers in question played these games, the first FPS game widely released was \u201cWolfenstein 3-D\u201d in 1992. The military has existed for far longer, as have violent assaults upon innocents. An example would be the My Lai Massacre, which occurred in 1968 \u201424 years before \u201cWolfenstein\u201d was released and four years before the concept of FPS was invented.<\/p>\n

\u2014Alex Halbhuber, Sammamish<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military service not a breeding ground for killers Like most political extremists, Daniel Ruuska characterizes evidence in a way that supports his warped views [\u201cVideo Games Helped,\u201d Northwest Voices, April 8]. First, the 2005 University of Michigan study was more than a bit light in its statistical base: A total of 39 male undergraduates were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}