To whom it may concern,
My name is Todd Keller and I'm currently in central Florida, Tampa. I'm 26, work full-time as a unix administrator,
and for the record, did not go to college. I'm also one of the most hardcore gamers you'll ever meet. After following
a link on the security site (
www.antionline.com) that I post on (I'm Vorlin on there), I decided that some response
was required as I feel this is yet another bad display towards gamers and gaming as a whole. The link I followed
was
http://www.winchesterstar.com/thewin...ont_police.asp . Parenting is to blame for what
that kid did, not the games he's played. His lack of a self-esteem maybe is part to blame for what he did, not the
books he read. I myself found the London Dungeon in London, England to be fascinating and I guarantee you that's
a TON more violent-oriented than anything he read (for reference, the London Dungeon page can be found at
http://www.thedungeons.com/ and will show you more about medieval torture than you probably ever wanted to know).
Now, to break down the video games (all of which I played and beat), here's a brief history on each one.
1) Diablo 2: fictional real-time action game where you pick a profession (barbarian, sorceress, amazon, paladin, necromancer
and assassin, druid with the expansion pack) and go off to fight through four acts (fifth one in expansion) to destroy Diablo.
Anyone who finds this more realistic than life needs to be thrown in a padded room as you'll fight things that are as far
from anything real as you can get. Weaponry includes staves, swords, axes, daggers and other medieval type items.
Company that made this game: Blizzard
2) Warcraft 2: fictional real-time strategy game where you pick either the Orcs or the Humans and (in single-player) march
your way up the campaign to beat the game. Each level gets harder and harder with objectives such as "Keep so-and-so
alive" or "Get this amount of resources". Resources allow you to build more troops (archers, mages, warriors, etc) and
allow you to expand your kingdom. Once again, since orcs don't exist, anyone who thinks this realistic needs to join the
person who thought Diablo 2 was realistic.
Company that made this game: Blizzard
3) Starcraft: fictional real-time strategy game where you pick either Zerg, Terrans, or Protoss and basically do the same thing
that is mentioned above for Warcraft 2. One of the best and most popular games in the real-time strategy as far as sci-fi goes.
Company that made this game: Blizzard
4) Age of Empires 2: based-on-real-information real-time strategy game where you pick one of thirteen or so races and based
on those races, you get specific bonuses/detriments. I learned more about history because of this game alone than I ever did
in four years of high school. I seriously suggest you go get the strategy guide to Age of Empires 2: Conquerors and read it...
cover to cover...and I think you'll agree. Races include byzantines, mongols, britons, aztecs, koreans, spanish, mayans, japanese,
turks, chinese, franks, teutons, persians, celts, and vikings (continued list here)... Play it. You'll be setting up LAN parties at
the press forgetting to put out tomorrow's paper all because you're about to roll up in player X's camp with a bunch of pissed off
berserkers (viking special), trebuchets, cavalry, archers, and battering rams (can we say raiding party?) and he's egging you
on because he's got his towers, castles, and defending parties ready to go. Company that made this game: Ensemble Studios
Now, I could list all the games I play but that list would be more than this email could allow. Most of these are viciously violent
and definitely are displayed in all their gore by my $400 video card (NVidia's Geforce4 ti4600) and I love every second of it.
Games are made for entertainment and people that think that they're more realistic than reality didn't have the right upbringing,
social structures, or whatever. Blame the families and blame the life they put themselves in. Don't blame the games because
that hardly has anything to do with it. Also, what a person reads doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to do something.
Every book you named could be found at
www.amazon.com or at Waldenbook's and by your article, books of any violent
nature should be removed from bookshelves. There went fiction, nonfiction, sci-fi, etc... Am I left to read those soft-porn romance
novels that women like to read?
Moral of this email: There's always another side to the story and I have yet to read anyone's rebuttal in defense of gamers. This
email serves as that defense because we are not like this kid who was apparently warped from the word 'go' and his parents
didn't do much of anything for him. If you're wanting, you can quote me on anything in this email (although I doubt it'd be printed,
it seems only the negative stuff ever makes it to the pages), all I ask is that due credit remains. Thanks for your time and I'll be
off gaming the night away while someone's reading this.
--Todd
System administration -- it's not just my job, it's how I buy video games.
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The Decline and Fall of Civilization
