Counterstike: An Appeal for Violence

Just this morning, a ex-reporter friend told me to browse Yahoo news for a story about a new killing in Virginia. He said what startled him was that that the heinous crime was inspired by a computer game, which has been popular among teens and even young professionals long enough to have versions of it.

The game is called counterstrike. The Wikipedia has it: Counter-Strike, commonly abbreviated to CS, is a team-based, tactical first-person shooter video game which originated from a Half-Life mod of the same developers, Minh "Gooseman" Le and "Cliffe", featuring real-world weapons and shootouts. The game has been expanded into a series since its original release, which currently includes Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source.

If I'm not mistaken, it's the same computer game that got my brother hooked to the extent that he almost flunked out in all his subjects. After a few months, the government approved an ordinance on Internet cafes not to accept student customers during school hours. I don't know if that was only in our small barangay in Surigao; but I still recall that it has become a national concern.

I also remember clearly the Columbine High School massacre in the United States, wherein the psycho killers were students of the same school, one of the duo was hooked into a very violent computer game. After both of them died, a journal landed on the authority's hands. It was clear in its entries that the owner was so much consumed by ideas of violence and angst, which to put it straight is a natural phenomenon for those in puberty, brought about by hormonal imbalance and other physical and psycho-behavioral changes.

If there's one thing that the adult world can do to compensate for the detriment that advance technology can do for morality and social consciousness of the young, then it is perhaps that of teaching them to distinguish what is worth reading and not. It is important that they may know how freedom is at their hands in the World Wide Web but then no matter how advance technology can be, it still boils down to the age-old adage that Freedom Comes with Responsibility.

In fact, once they learn this adage by heart, it will extend more to other aspects and not just the use of time for worthwhile activities. It will become a mantra for life to them, and their every act would be defined by it.