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FATHER SUFFOCATES SON

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In April of 2014, Cody Wygeant suffocated his sixteen month old son. Wygeant was playing online on his Xbox, and when his son’s crying started disturbing him, he covered the infant’s mouth and nose for a number of minutes to make him stop, and then proceeded to cover him with several layers of bedding. When Wygeant checked on the boy many hours later, he was unresponsive.

Remember when you were a kid and you maybe played a game that had some violence in it? And perhaps you killed someone in that game? Then you went outside and murdered everyone in sight? Of course you don’t, you’re not an absolute lunatic that is subliminally programmed to be a murderer by video games.

Not very surprisingly at all, more research into the link between violence and video games has yielded nothing of consequence. While most people are content to sit back and ignore the fear-mongering that’s constantly being poured out of, well, morons if I’m being frank.

But it’s nice to see the person conducting the research point out that as game sales went up amongst kids, crime and violence committed by them went down, “strongly” suggesting that games, in fact, help reduce violent tendencies. I imagine as an outlet. Nothing beats listening to sore losers vent.

You can read the study here.

Topics such as video games as art, the future of gaming, stereotypes within the industry and the debate about video games and violence dot the film, which is the result of a year of on-camera interview with celebrities, developers and various icons within the gaming industry.

This includes geek icons like Wil Wheaton, Chris Hardwick and Alison Haislip along with professionals such as founder of Atari Nolan Bushnell, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford, Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and more.

Director Jeremy Snead stated that, “We have spent the past year gathering footage, speaking with industry founders, influencers, and pundits to get their take on what we’ve collectively created as an industry and where we’re headed. We’ve amassed an amazing library of footage that we think will help bring the true story of the video game industry into clear focus.”

The Kickstarter target currently stands at $43,595 pledged of the $60,000 goal with 26 days to go.

Not that he regrets it though. Pope quit Rockstar Games nearly 10 years ago and recently founded his own start-up with Rally Games in 2011.

Speaking to GamesIndustry International, Pope discusses what made him first decide to quit working on violent video games. “I think at the time it was really only an inkling that I had. I was still in my early to mid-20s, I had grown up playing all types of games, violent games included, and worked on Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto, etc.

“I would always kind of defend the games we were making and I was pretty proud of being involved, but then when I would visit my grandmother in highly religious Alabama and have to explain what I do for a living, I didn’t feel so great about explaining to them that I was a part of ‘that game’ they’ve been hearing about. I think that’s what sort of planted the seeds of me wanting to work on different types of games.”

Though he supports innovation and pushing the envelope, Pope has a hard time condoning violence that doesn’t hold any ties in the bigger scheme of things.

“I do agree that we need to be pushing ourselves [as an industry]. With any storytelling medium or any medium at all, you want to have conflict because that’s how you can generate interest, and oftentimes the simplest or most base way to do that is through violence that isn’t necessarily tied into a deeper, more meaningful story.

“I think it’s often easier to do violence than it is to generate meaningful, interesting conflict through nonviolent ways. I would agree in that sense that we need to push ourselves and get away from sequels and rehashing, and taking what technology affords us and using that as a primary means to justify another rehash; in other words, we’re just souping up what’s already been done.”