Violent games are gateway to gateway drugs, study claims

"Yeah potheads are the most violent people I know."

HAHA!!! That's a great line dude.

Hmm...funny...I've played violent games for a LONG time, I've never done drugs (even with living with roommates for 2 years who smoked pot...around me) and I didn't start drinking alcohol till I was almost 21.

I'm sorry but whenever some so-called "educated person" does a study trying to link games to violent behavior (or something similar)...I laugh b/c they always look like complete idiots.

id just like to add, here in the UK alcohol is buyable at 18 legally, and if you look old enough you could sometimes buy it at as early as 16. going back to when i was 16, weed was easier to get. much easier.

so if u never tried it then, blame GTA? ha

(and rockstar, the sheer amount of publicity you get from this game is incredible. this game will go down in history as an icon of our generation, and i gladly owned and played them. (gta1 to gta3 and vice city anyway))

In other news "Does wearing purple sweaters put you at risk of pancreatic cancer? We talk to two patients, one who is wearing a purple sweater and has cancer, and one who has a canker sore."

The thing is, if you approach a scientific study with the answer you want in mind, you're going to "prove" your answer (intentionally or not) unless you try to disprove your own theory. I don't see any objectivity in any of these studies. They all ask the question "Do video games cause X violent behaviour" {YESYESYES} . They're all sensational for the purpose of being sensational, and they acheive the result that they WANTED.
I'd like to see a study where they went into it, as usual, assuming that games did cause drug use or violence and then validated that conclusion by being unable to prove themselves wrong.

When I was an undergrad I was too busy drinking, taking drugs, stealing cars and killing prostitutes to really have time to play GTA.

All right everybody, say it with me now!
Correlation does not imply causation.

Not another 'study'.

I'm going to sound like just another pro-gamer here but:

In my time I've played all the violent games that get talked about in the media. I've seen all the viloent films that are supposed to turn every one that watches them in homicidal maniacs. I went to quite a rough school where taking drugs was virtually mandatory, and lost a lot of friends because I wouldn't take drugs.

The result? I'm hapily married, have a good job, a nice home, I don't like slasher films, I love violent games. I don't have a criminal record and I don't do drugs. I do drink (beer) but not spirits. By brother and sister are the same. I'm good fun at parties as I have a good sense of humour.

A guy down my road when I grew up was not allowed to watch any violent TV/Films, and viloent games were not really around in those days when we were kids. His step-dad was an arsehols (not syaing he hit the kids or anything, he was just and idiot and not fit to be a father). The result? A 12 year old kid who is obsessed with talking about sex and how he is going to stab people and blow up animals with fireworks.

People are people, blaming society's problems on someone else is what we do best. It used to be alcohol (prohibition), then it was The Nazis, then vilonet slasher-films when VHS became popular. Now it is terrorists and video games.

Also, this study says these guys are more likely to try drink. Erm, isn't booze a legal substance that anyone can buy (providing they have ID)? What about pizza? I'm sure after playing GTA3 all night, they may be hungry. And pizza isn't exactly good for you is it?

When little kids go into their schools and shoot their classmates, don't blame the video games, blame the people that gave them the bloody guns to do it with (usually the parents, who also did the wonderful job raising the children so they knew right from wrong.)

As to why this study took place (why any study takes place, to prove/disprove anything): Money. Once you have your doctorate, you have to do something with it. So you have to invent things to study to secure funding, so you can pay your bills and afford to eat. Such as the effects of sewing shut the eyes of monkeys (apparnetly they cannot see).

ok now the big brains that knows it all are following me inside my freaking computer. ohhhh my my.

but i think the hot doctor should have had a bad experience with video games, maybe the boy freind neglegted her and just concentrated on its game, LoL
oh my, thats funny, but i think thats why most girls hate video games, girls always want to be the central focal point, and if you concentrate on somthing else for hours they get mad hahah.

and maybe im not an expert in statistics but do these guys (or laydies) who are making this study have any basic concepts about the video game culture?

im very disappointed about our medical corp, while the world is struggling for drugs, we are making stupid studies that will make some rich guy richer,
--do we have a cure for aids? NOP
--do we have a cure for IBOLA? NOP
--do we have a cure for X? NOP
--do we have a cure for Y? NOP
--have there been any major cure discoveries this last decade? NOP

--why?
simply because our governement is putting our health on sold, well if i were a business man, and i have the choice of either making a final cure to the HIV virus or just make an extreamly expensive half cure thats gonna ensure that the patient doesnt die any soon but keeps paying for the rest of his zombie life, i would say : to hell the cure... and keep the healthy ones busy, tell them about VIDEO GAMES VIOLENCE, hooo, YOU ARE IN DANGER. GTA is a TERRORIST.

I am a 37 year old woman and love playing all the GTA games. I don't drink that much, and don't smoke pot. Can the "experts" please instruct me as to what I should be doing after gameplay? I'm feeling ignored...

Well, if i had a choice between GTA3 and Hit and run, i would play hit and run, trust me, i have both of these games, and if i had a choice, no way wil i play GTA next to hitand run (i like the simpsons), but on the other hand... GTA:SA is another matter.... (but i'll stilll probably play hit and run)