On the Importance of Differentiating Fantasy from Reality

I don't believe that games don't have an effect: if I thought a cultural object didn't have an effect on me, whether it's a film, a novel or video game, I wouldn't bother engaging with it. I want to be entertained, or scared, or surprised, or made to laugh or to have my mind expanded, whatever. In fact, if the cultural artifact fails to do this well enough then it's probably no good as a cultural artifact. God knows, advertisers seem pretty convinced that their work has an effect. But the reason the Stefan Pakeerah case made the front pages of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror and rated mentions in several other media publications is precisely that such an extreme response is so very unusual. Do we really want to ban a game on that basis? Furthermore, do we really want to ban a whole slew of games on that basis?

Over at Pop Matters, Colin Harvey discusses some of the nuance in the violence in videogames debate.