Blame who?

迷恋网络游戏相信死能复生　14岁男生竟闹跳楼

14岁男生玩网络游戏走火入魔，考试考不好竟留遗书要跳楼，以为能死而复生！

这名学生是因今年5月期中考试成绩不理想，觉得在老师和同学面前抬不起头来。加上回家后又被姐姐嘲笑，妈妈也禁止他上网玩游戏。

于是他写好遗书放在桌上，搬张椅子欲从8楼窗口跳楼自杀。幸亏姐姐及时发现，才阻止惨剧发生。

父母过后带他到翱翔辅导中心接受辅导。资深辅导员袁凤珠和男生面谈后，发现竟是暴力电玩游戏惹的祸。

“男生一点也不觉得死亡是很严肃的事，他竟然认为自己能死而复生。”

她说，很多青少年，尤其是很多中学男生喜欢暴力、血腥的电玩游戏，久而久之甚至分不清虚拟和现实。有些电玩游戏“一刀一枪打出去，就鲜血四溅，”他们从中感受到刺激，却因此滋长了暴力倾向。

她还发现到，上网成瘾是青少年问题中，最令父母紧张的问题。

“我们开办的有关青少年社交或恋爱问题的讲座，每次只能吸引到50多人，但青少年上网成瘾的讲座，每次都能吸引将近90人参加。”

---

Recently there are so many cases of deaths and incidents related to computer games. Are these 'violent' games really to be blamed? Or does the fault lie mainly on gamers who cannot practice self-control? It's just like a kitchen knife. While housewives use it to prepare food, some delinquents use it as a weapon. We cannot control how people use the item, but we can stop its sale, or even modify it to make it 'safe'. The modification might defeat its original purpose however, like making a knife so blunt such that it cannot even cut.

Few days ago there was a report about a NSF found dead at the bottom of his flat, for no apparent cause. (source: http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory201011291521-203654.html) It was mentioned that he was playing Warcraft (Dota) the night before, and the article seemed to point towards the game as the main culprit. Thus, if a person played computer games before his death, the game becomes the most likely cause. Unfortunately this is the impression often created by games.

At least the situation in SG is not as bad as in South Korea, where game addiction has become a major social issue. Cases that shock the world include, a couple who let their child starve to death while being too engrossed in feeding their virtual children, and a boy who murdered his mother when she refused to let him play computer games.

It's really upsetting to see people who cannot differentiate between virtual and reality, and think that the concepts in computers can be similarly applied in the real world, such as having multiple lives. I believe we have the intrinsic ability to distinguish what is real and what is fake, but those few who lack this ability are the ones that are constantly triggering such 'outstanding' incidents and twisting the effects of our creations and imagination.

Life is more than just computer games. Don't let a non-existent virtual entity ruin your reality.