Philips Magnavox Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution Trigger Happy - Manual (Page 359)

Trigger Happy
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motivated to kill by their experience of playing that
game; they are ordered to do so by their superiors.
Fencing, of course, is a sport whose kinetic form is
derived from a long, bloodthirsty history of actual
sword fighting, combat and duels. But we class it as a
morally neutral sport because its content is nonviolent:
the risk of injury is very low (far lower than with
boxing), and the intent of the fencer is not to kill or
maim but simply to win. The same is true of
videogames. When I am playing Time Crisis 2 or
Perfect Dark, my intent is not to kill. For there is
nothing to kill; there are only patterns of light on the
screen. Similarly, the consequences of my actions have
no moral content either, because no one dies.
So to blame videogames directly for childhood
violence is absurd, unless one is prepared also to
legislate against laser tag, paintball, martial arts and
even bodybuilding—in fact, every type of recreation
that could theoretically increase one’s ability to kill
another human being but has no direct causal
connection with murderous activity.
On the other hand, videogames may be one of a
complex of causal factors, any one of which in
isolation does not produce a killer but which in
combination become lethal. Clearly, for instance,