The gaming industry has been surprisingly quiet, as compared to previous years, in terms of lawsuits for video games and their connection to violence, so I thought this would be a good time to reflect on everything we have learned and witnessed from the crusade on games and the politicians and opponents who seek their destruction.

In the past decade or so, the gaming industry has been the target of countless lawsuits, petitions, and protests. The situations may change, but the reasons never do; the effects videogames have on our minds. With no research to completely back either side, the battle continues to go grow even bitterer with each act of defiance, and the battle becomes more about personal views and vendettas. Any hardcore gamer will tell you of their disdain for Jack Thompson and vice-versa. To gain a better understanding of where all these feelings came from you must first go back to events that may have started it all.

What is possibly the most notorious case of video games connection to violence also happened to be the worst. On April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a rampage shooting 36 people before turning the weapons on themselves. Of the 36 people, 13 were killed, 12 students and one teacher, with the other 26 being wounded. At the time, it was the third most fatal school shooting in the United States history. People immediately began to wonder what could drive these two teenagers to commit such atrocities. What was discovered about the two boys would change the gaming industry forever. Up until this point, games had only been thought to make people more irritable but never capable of taking someone’s life.