The Hot & the Cold SGDQ ‘19 Hits $3 Million!
News
Speedrunning event Games Done Quick held their summer event and earned three million dollars for the organization “Doctors Without Borders.” This is a fantastic milestone for the event! 1
Minecraft with RTX Minecraft is getting an update! The game will be implementing ray tracing, a lighting upgrade that allows “real-time global illumination.” This means, realistic lighting. The update is said to release within the next year. 2
Disney Classic Remasters Disney announced their plans to re-release their classic Lion King and Aladdin games in remastered form in the fall. The games will be released for consoles and the PC. This comes after the animated counterparts were remade as “live action” movies earlier this year. 3
ProJared Comes Clean Back in May, the popular gaming YouTuber was accused of cheating on his wife as well as soliciting nudes from minors. Months later he returns with a video that claims he is innocent and blames “cancel culture” for his troubles. Is anyone else tired of these fake apologies? 4
Walmart & Violent Games Walmart made the decision to remove images of violent video games from their stores after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. The franchise still displays and sells guns. Something feels wrong with this picture...5
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ISSUE 3 | LEVEL STORY
“Video Games Could Be Linked to Mass Shootings” is Still a Thing Earlier this month, video games were once again made the scapegoat of mass shootings and violent behavior. After two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio happened only a day apart from one another, politicians were naturally asked to respond and offer solutions to this epidemic. Republican Kevin McCarthy of California came on Fox News and said, “The idea that these video games that dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals...We’ve watched studies show what it does to individuals, and you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within video games and others.” 6 It seems this argument will not be going away anytime soon. It is one that is tired and blames video games in order to push a specific agenda rather than truly confront the issue at hand. The New York Times published a piece back in early 2018 regarding this discussion. The piece pointed to research that says video games are not to blame. “Media scholars say the claims about video games and violent movies — a common one in the wake of mass shootings — does not hold up to scrutiny.” The article also looks at the Columbine shooting, where two students shot and killed 13 people at the Colorado High School of the same name. It was this event back in 1999 where violent media became a popular victim to blame for these horrific actions. 7 Video games as a medium are still new and growing. Due to this, it is easy to place blame on something that is relatively foreign. But it would be nice if our politicians pointed the finger at the real culprit instead of ignoring the issues that they directly benefit from. Something tells me this won’t be happening anytime soon.
