However, we have moral fiber that restrains us from our animal instincts.
Typically? Yes. But it's perfectly clear that our moral fiber isn't enough to stop people from murdering one another. Take
Caylee Anthony, for example. Let's not start an argument about the outcome of the trial for those who have been keeping up; I'm just trying to make a point. No matter who is at fault, it's clear that someone murdered a beautiful two-year-old girl. Who could do such a thing? Surely our high moral fiber would prevent such a horrible act from occurring.....right?
The thing is, everyone is psychologically different. But just because I can play violent video games and not have the desire to kill someone doesn't mean that everyone can. I'm incredibly sensitive to correction and rejection because of things that happened in my early childhood. Those things act like a trigger for older memories and scars that I've carried for a long time. Likewise, there are likely people for whom violent video games (or movies, TV shows, what have you) are a trigger for repressed emotions or a reminder of things in their past that bring up harsh feelings. It's just psychologically who they are. Now there's nothing wrong with that, as long as they can control themselves; everyone is allowed to feel anger and sadness and regret. But some things could push a person over the edge, and such a thing could be video games.
Consider some people who become obsessed,
even to the point of death, with games like World of Warcraft. People have died in real life because they became so engrossed and obsessed with the game that they didn't pay attention to their own health. That is an
enormous emotional investment. How could you become so focused on a video game that you completely lose touch with your body's own signals telling you that you need food and sleep? Again, I think it depends on the type of person she was. Maybe she didn't have any friends in the real world. Maybe she was bullied at school or had an atrocious home life and so she used World of Warcraft as her escape from reality. Or, conversely, maybe she was a person who was committed to seeing everything she did through to the end. That's not a bad trait at all, but perhaps she also tended to put that trait above anything and everything else, including her health. Whatever it was that caused her to neglect herself, World of Warcraft was the trigger for it.
Now I say all that to say this: video games are not to blame. The WoW girl could have just as easily found something else to obsess in that would have also led to her demise. It just happened to be WoW this time. The point I'm trying to make is that while we do have a moral fiber within our being that helps us distinguish right from wrong, there are times when certain things could trigger emotions or psychological distress within us that could be difficult to control. The mind is a strange beast. But every person is different and video games are certainly not the only thing that could be triggers. So it's not the fault of game developers, publishers or sellers. Everyone is responsible for him/herself. Do your best to know yourself, keep yourself in check and know your limits. Watch yourself. DawsonJ illustrated this point beautifully; he gets frustrated to the point of physical violence when playing fighting games. But he realized how destructive that behavior is, so he keeps it in check by not playing those games, and perhaps it's for the best that he made that decision. I'm not saying that there's something psychologically "wrong" with him, just that violent games are triggering something in him that is violent, to a greater extent than they might for other people. He knows his limits, and everyone needs to be responsible enough to know theirs.
As an aside, this is the point that people are getting hung up on when the debate about violent video games comes up. Many people point to game developers saying, "You shouldn't make games like that!" These are the same type of people who point to fast food restaurants and say, "You shouldn't make fatty foods like that!" Why not? They have every right to, and you and everyone else has the right to not buy such games or eat such food. It all comes down to a matter of control. Everyone needs to control themselves. Parents need to control their children while teaching them to control themselves. "Everything in moderation" is a wonderful rule. But sometimes people are so afraid of over-indulgence that they try to remove temptation instead of learning to be responsible for themselves and for what they play and eat and do and think. And that's the real issue here.
