It's dead obvious to anyone paying attention that video gaming influence is at an all time high. Video game movies are beginning to roll out with furious frequency, the classic gaming nostalgia movement is thriving on the Internet, and the channel G4 is heavily involved with the current gaming scene. This would mean that the number of gamers is also at an all time high. Unfortunately, lots of gamers are being accused of doing lots of less than flattering things. But is it fair to point the finger and blame this stuff on the gaming community?

The first thing that the media has to understand is that gaming in this day and age relies heavily on the use of the Internet to increase the replay value of games. Some franchises, such as the Call of Duty and Halo series, are famous for being able to go online and dominate the scene as the community's online game of choice. The next thing the media has to understand is that people have been using the Internet to meet up with one another for quite some time now. Obviously, not all of these meetings are good and, as one would imagine, legal.

Such a case came to fruition when a twenty-seven year old man met a fourteen year old girl and assisted in transporting her from Boise, Idaho to Franklin County, Washington. Morgan Douglas Jones met young Saddie Julian through World of Warcraft, and the two eventually agreed to meet up. The man drove from Alabama, picked up the young girl in his car, and took her across state line without turning his brain on to think about the consequences. Police finally broke the rules of Instances by finding the two camping in Washington and arresting the man. Julian was unharmed during her raid with Jones.

Certainly, actions like this are shameful and something that shouldn't be encouraged or repeated, but certainly the media could raise the question of, "Is this what the average gamer does?" The swift answer would be, "Absolutely not. This has happened time and time again whether World of Warcraft was involved or not, and chances are it will continue to happen again as long as teens are silly enough to go along with the plans of their future kidnappers. I'm certainly not suggesting that these kids deserve this but rather pointing out the fact that they're willing to go along with this. Parents need to further explain that not everyone in this world is a friend ? or sane for that matter.

It is always unfortunate and saddening when a young person makes the ultimate decision to end their own life. Teen suicide numbers have been on the rise for years now, and the media seems to enjoy reminding us of this on occasion. The media has tried to spin that video games have something to do with these numbers, but it's simply not true ? the term "bullshit" comes to mind actually.

A Chinese World of Warcraft fan decided to end his life by plunging out of the 24th story window of an apartment building. The Beijing Times reported that the teenager had played the game for thirty six hours straight before committing suicide. The paper along with The Inquirer also reported that the child's surviving family planned to sue the game's distributor on grounds that they were unaware that the game had a ESRB rating of T for Teen and was suitable for children over thirteen years of age only.

What the parents, the Beijing Times and The Inquirer all fail to mention is that the T for Teen rating under the ESRB means that a game is suitable for anyone of age thirteen and up ? nice fact checking, guys. It is also beyond stupid to even bring the game's rating into the argument since the ESRB is not backed by any United States laws. The parents claim that there were inherent "dangers" to WoW, but this is completely made up garbage to make themselves feel better. This blame shouldn't be pointed toward the gamers at all. It would be better to point the blame at parents who simply don't wish to understand their child. Does the child have a history of mental illness? Was the child depressed? Do these parents even know? If none of these questions can be answered with certainty, then why should we blame the video games for this death?

Another grand example of when the gamer gets the blame is when attorneys Jack Thompson and Steven Sanders blamed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for causing fourteen year old Cody Posey to murder his family. As I reported last time, Thompson argued that the game "disconnected violence from consequences" and caused Posey to "act out, copycat, replicate and emulate violence." Yet the suit was still filed against Posey along with several other defendants.

The brutal truth behind this fa?ade created by Thompson and Sanders is that Posey was the victim of abuse by his father for years. His father went too far one day, and Posey had a violent mental breakdown. This hardly means that Posey was innocent of the crimes, but GTA: Vice City didn't have a damn thing to do with the crime. Vice City didn't disconnect him from his reality ? his blind rage did.

The second brutal behind this fa?ade is that Thompson and Sanders were attacking video games simply because they ? or at least Thompson ? have an unhealthy hatred for video games. If the game was truly the culprit behind this triple murder and had complete control over Posey as they suggest in the suit, they why did they include Posey with Rockstar and Take-Two Interactive. Hopefully it's obvious to anyone by now that there is a gaping hole in Thompson's logic. The videogame should walk away innocent, and the real criminal should take the punishment ? as he did.

At this point, I would assume that my readers are expecting me to continue defending video games and gamers alike from the horrible accusations that are tossed around on a somewhat yearly basis, but that isn't the case. There are plenty of people who do completely stupid things who probably wouldn't be doing these stupid things if the games didn't exist.

My first example comes from South Korea. A native South Korean couple who were avid fans of World of Warcraft decided to step out and play their favorite game at a local cyber caf?. Their short stint of WoW playing soon turned into an all day affair, and they returned home to find their four month old infant, who they knowingly left unattended to, suffocated to death in their home. The couple had lost their only child, and they were soon arrested for child neglect. "We were thinking of playing for just an hour or two and returning home like usual, but the game took longer that day," was the official statement from the couple. As shocking and offensive as this tale is, there is far worse.

An Illinois couple had their child dropped off to them after the baby had visited an unknown source. The couple had placed the baby ? car seat and all ? into his crib and decided to attend to some couch sitting and gaming. This session of couch sitting and gaming continued for eight days straight until the baby had died of starvation. The state then took action to take away the woman's three year old daughter who was staying with family members at the time.

I can become upset with someone who left their child somewhere unattended and let it die. I can wish that they face criminal charges for the remainder of their life. But I can't say anything good about a couple who was in the same house as a starving child and did nothing to prevent it. Did these heartless bastards turn the music up extra loud while this poor, little boy was lying there and screaming for his life? Did they laugh to themselves as they ate a filling, refreshing dinner as their son lay in his crib and slowly feel the clutch of death seize him as his body lost all nutrients? I won't fucking accept that. I won't accept either scenario. Letting another human being who is too small to care for himself die because you're too busy wasting your time on a video game is one of the most heinous crimes I have ever heard of in my entire twenty-four years of life. I know that I wouldn't let my damned child die due to my own pathetic vices because I would love him. I hope that prison is very unkind to these people.

Let's move on to a subject that won't cause me to curse at everything that moves. On September 25, 2006, a man from Vancouver was arrested for attempting to steal a car. Shylo Kujawski had profiled the area a couple of days prior, and Canadian authorities because highly suspicious of his activities after spotting the logo of the Grand Theft Auto series tattooed across his back. The stupid criminal was successful in breaking into the car and starting the engine, but he foolishly disabled the vehicle with the owner's steering wheel lock. He was quickly arrested and taken away so no one else would have to suffer the wrath of the stupid sandbox game-influenced criminal in the near future.

One could make a strong argument that the man was simply going to steal a car whether Grand Theft Auto was part of the mix or not. I argue that the man was working off of influence from the game mainly because of the tattoo on his back. Anyone I've ever met who has a tattoo of a video game or rock band has an insatiable love for the game or band. It would be their absolute favorite and second to none. Since Kujawski had a GTA tattoo on his back, I have to assume that the series was his favorite franchise of game to play. It also happens that a lot of cars are stolen in the game, and it looks pretty easy.

But wasn't I defending the games last time? I sure was, but this time it's the gamers who are doing wrong. It can be argued that perhaps this guy enjoyed trying to steal cars way before the first Grand Theft Auto game was released for PC, but the fact remains that he's an obvious gamer ? that is unless the tattoo represents some type of odd videogame cult. He's a gaming idiot who has played too many hours as Niko or Tommy and thought, "Psh, this is easy. I could do this without breaking a sweat." He also found that he's very wrong.

It is certainly a sad day when an individual becomes so absorbed by something that they end up doing something very stupid. Not to say that videogames caused the criminals to commit the acts, but the games do play a harmless part in each of the last three tales. These games were created as a form of entertainment, and I certainly don't remember World of Warcraft characters suggesting that the player starve a baby or GTA characters suggest that the player at home try their outrageous stunts. Yet it happens anyway. Videogames become a bad thing because of human stupidity.

But we have also learned just how hard the media is willing to spin the truth in order to make gamers look bad. I don't believe this is necessary because gamers can make themselves look extremely bad without help. Either way, the media and the uninformed alike should be ashamed at their attempts to shroud the truth with suggested fabrications and blatant misinformation to create a larger outrage. Welcome to what I call "kitchen table journalism." The media will do anything to sell a paper or a magazine without remorse. The paper lies. Throw it away.

Thank you for reading The Brutal Truth, and please Digg this article if you have enjoyed it. Until next time, love your children.