Connecticut Cancels Video Game Burning
Late last week I reported that Southington, Connecticut was holding a public burning of violent video games, movies and CD’s. However the SouthingtonSOS (group in charge of the event) held a press conference today, canceling the event that was scheduled to be held on January 12. Though the event was cancelled, the group has said they are happy with the outcome and awareness on the issues at hand have been raised.
Which one to burn first? So many choices!
SouthingtonSOS released the following statement once the cancellation was announced:
“Today, after just one week, we are pleased to announce that awareness has been raised significantly, thanks to the support of the media and widely disseminated e-mail communications within our community through our local SouthingtonSOS member organizations. The result has been a swift, positive and supportive response of parents, young people and the general population of our community. Our mission now continues as a work in progress in the hands of a very caring Southington community.”
“We succeeded in our program,” spokesman for SouthingtonSOS Dick Fortunato told Polygon, though the event won’t take place they still believe they accomplished what they set out to do. “Our mission was to create strong awareness in Southington for parents and families and citizens and children. And we accomplished that. Our other objective was to promote discussion of violent video games and media with children and with the families at the home. And we’ve accomplished that in spades. So we deemed it became unnecessary to have the physical return on Saturday of violent games. Also because it would create an unnecessary amount of logistical details for us.”
The event was originally taking place at the Southington theater, where the violent video games would be broken, placed into a dumpster and then incinerated. In return those who took part, would be given $25 gift certificates to such things as the local water park. The group have decided that their goal of giving parents a better understanding of the games their children are playing was accomplished, concluding that “if parents are comfortable, we’re comfortable.”
So seems like they wanted to create enough buzz to get their message across, yet they never actually planned on following through. Guess I purchased those bargain bin games for no reason, guess I shall burn Army: Gun Cops myself. (Army: Gun Cops is NOT a real game)
Jamie Briggs manages Analog Addiction where you can find all his latest reviews, interviews and features and also like them on Facebook. Also follow his daily life on Twitter @AnalogAddiction and their videos on YouTube.