Ok, i know this is a bit off topic, but we are all gamers after all.

I just saw the monday November 21st episode of CSI: Miami.
Personaly i was appalled at how they show gammers as being.
From what CBS shows, gamers as a group have no sense of reality, no sense of moral judgement, no sense of remorse, easiely get lost in game worlds, ect ect.
We do get involved in our games, but we work, and pay taxes just as much as non-gamers do.
I sent an e-mail reply to CBS conserning how they show gamers.
My e-mail went like this.


I just watched your CSI: Miami episode and was appalled. I have been a big fan of cbs shows, especialy the CSI series, but your lack of respect for gammers is simply unforgivable. The episode shows gammers as geeks who dont know right from wrong, dont have a sense of reality, and dont have a sense of moral ethics. I think your staff should look into things like this better before you make an episode about gamers. Gamers actully are less likely to commit violent crimes, even minor crimes then non-gamers. However what medias like yourself fail to realize is that other groups (Religious, Political, and so on), actully have violent criminal behavior that is in many cases as much as 25% higher rates then actual gamers.
If you want examples, ill give them to you. The mendez brothers, the BTK killer, and O.J. Simpson all where loyal to their respected religious beliefs, yet look at the violent crimes they commited. I challenge you to name some gamers (By name) who have commited crimes even close to being as violent as the people i named above.
For now i am stoping from looking at any cbs show, particulary the csi series, and while i do a personal boycot of your show i will be contacting all my friends and getting them all to sign a petition for cbs and csi: miami to publicly on tv air an appology for your misrepresentation of gamers everywhere.


As stated in my e-mail, im going to be starting a petition for cbs and CSI:Miami to publicly applogise, in the time being however, i urge every gamer to send in e-mail complaints to CBS.
You can do that by going to CBS.com
Click on the feedback link on the bottom.

Tielee

If you can successfully hold Computer Games responsible when some kid shoots a policeman, then you've got to hold a thousand hack authors responsible when a serial killer turns up. Critic's to say the games are "training" the kids to kill, but no video game gets as instructive and detailed about how to commit the crime as the paperbacks at your local Book Shop.
This is the fatal flaw of censorship. There is no logical stopping point. All drama contains conflict and much of that conflict is expressed as violence. Ask any Shakespeare fan. Besides, will any game "train" me on how to get away with a crime as well as the average episode of CSI? So where do you stop?.

Im old enough to remember what it was like before video games, back then people used to blame Moviesand TV for violant tendencies in people, before that i bet people used to blame books, if thats the case how would you explain some violant tribes in say africa or southern america that have no contact with civilisation?.

tielee wrote

After watching the latest episode of CSI: Miami, I honestly thought it was interesting that the writers created a story about non-remorseful, addicted, murdering gamers. Even though the story is "make believe," there is some truth to it..

It showed a HARSH that gamers can get lost in the addicting fun. And for many of us, we know that there are people who exist soley online and probably ignore reality. It is a growing trend in the world where games are taking precedence over real lives. As our society is focusing more toward entertainment and the first gaming generation (nintendo, SNES) is getting older, there is a new one taking its place (XBOX 360). New problems are arising regardless if you are aware of them or not. I read on CNN a month or two ago that in Japan and Malaysia, there is a growing epidemic of Internet addiction amongst teenagers and has to be clinically treated so these teens can improve their lives and their health.

About two years ago there was a story my local news station that talked about a kid who lived on Everquest. Played everday and basically had no social life. Lived in his room from dawn til dusk. He suffered from depression and eventually killed himself because he failed at the game and his own life.

Personally I remember when SNES first came out and me and my friends were playing Mortal Combat for the first time. We played it for hours on end from morning to dusk without realizing how much time had passed. I can't imagine what it would be like to play day after day non-stop for weeks at a time. I've done it once in my life (for two days) and vowed never to do it again, felt sick and detached from reality.

So if you really thing that this episode of CSI was that far fetched, I only ask that you think of the possiblities.

I did it for 2 years. While i was living in the city would live on the pc mostly and play games all the time i wasnt working. Turned out i just hated city life

there are actually different type of gamers. Gamers that have no idea of a world that is out there and gamers that actually just are normal people (which are most of them). I agree that some gamers truly have health, social, etc.. problems because of gaming. Those are facts. I also think that some gamers were inspired to do certain 'things' because of games. Games can have a positive but also negative effect on people, it's just that people are to busy pointing out that it's either bad or good, and not both. This is because real crazy gamers can have a no-reality feeling, thus almost thinking that the world where they are living in is an game. So criminal actions tend not to feel really as criminial as it is in their cases. Yet there is also a side where you can relax with playing a game and you can just put all the tention aside. So there are two sides in this, not one, i think.

Oh there are horror stories I agree, kids in america getting guns and killing kids at school, or the guy who murdered another over the theft of a magical sword, but on the other hand how many people have been murdered over a careless word or a dog being kicked, it's like saying cars are to blame over road rage. a lot of the rumours that computer games influence most violance is pure myth. aaaaaaaaaaaaactualy I remember in the "old days" people blamed Dungeons & Dragons for exactly the same thing, even went as far as to make a movie over it.