Fair enough. But at what point do we say 'this is dumb, and counter-productive'?
Should thinking be invalidated because this is a 'video game website'?
Note that I'm only talking about Pitchford and the moronic paragraph appearing with this article.
Seeing as how you aren't a raving lunatic like Hellbinder, I guess you are least worth talking to. The problem is not so much that people disagree with you that society is fubar, but that they are being lectured that somehow their choice of entertainment is indicative of their own moral depravity. A morally depraved person may well get an inordinate amount of jollies from running over people and other virtual violent behavior, but that is not anything close the the majority of us here. The insinuation that if you enjoy violent gaming then you must be predisposed to violent behaviors in real life is naive at best and insulting at worst. There is no moral equivalency between shooting a person in a game and shooting someone in real life, and someone not insane is not in any way made more capable of committing acts of real violence through their videogame experiences. For normal people (the VAST majority of gamers) the enjoyment of playing a violent game does not equate to enjoyment of real violence, and no correlation has ever been made or ever will be made.
TL;DR version: Lighten up. It's just a game, not some deep social commentary.
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi