Joel Brodie, Founder Gamezebo.com

The NRA’s position that games (and movies, and TV, and everything else in the world aside from the fact we have more legal guns in this country than people) is the cause for violence is terrible.
The official games industry position, however, that games are not a factor, is almost just as bad.
Games don’t necessarily cause gun violence.  There are many studies around this, games are played in countries with less gun violence, and playing Mario does not make me want to eat mushrooms (ha ha, we all have heard that joke before).
But the new breed of photo-realistic, misogynistic, and ultra-violent games take violence to a new level.  Compare Doom to the original Call of Duty (WWII shooter) to Call of Duty today the amount of guns and blood and guts is unreal.  And this is just one multi-billion dollar property.
We make our money in games, but to deny that this could be psychologically bad for teenagers and people with mentally ill problems, or that this is not “target practice” for people who do want to shoot people up, is moralistically wrong.  You can cite all the studies in the world.  Play Call of Duty on an XBox for a day or watch a kid do it, and you can’t deny something is wrong.
Now that I have a little son, this is a real issue for me.  When we watch TV, I have to pause or change the channel when a game commercial goes on because of the violence (more an issue than movies).  And there is no way I will let him grow up and play these violent games in the same way I wouldn’t give him a gun or teach him to drive before the age of 16.
That’s the real litmus test to ask someone in the games industry about violence and games.  When you ask would you let your son or daughter play Call of Duty, the answer is almost always no, regardless of the studies.
I don’t believe you can or should ban violent games.  And to raise games even remotely to the level of guns in this debate is crazy.  It’s a factor that should be addressed, but not the main reason for these horrible shoot-ups in theaters and kindergarden classes.
I think one possible solution in the right direction is that the games industry needs to take its rating system which is a joke to the next level, like TV and movies have done.  It’s not enough to see a “E” icon on a box (when most games now and in future will be digitally distributed).
When I was watching Game of Thrones last night on HBO, the first screen I see is that its violent, has nudity, bad language, etc.  We should have these screens display every time a game shows up, just like TV and movies do.  That way, parents will have a real reminder and guide in terms of what is in each of these games and can make the best decisions.  And the games industry can start to act more responsibly like the movies and TV industries and not use the NRA as a role model as it does now in this debate.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts.
Best,
Joel Brody, Founder Gamezeebo

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