Following a recent titorial on obscenity, violence and sexual content in games I thought I’d dig through the internet and find events for which games had been blamed. I found instances of genuine violence, recklessness, tragedy and loss blamed on games.

• CVG – Video games blames for latest school shooting
•  The Telegraph – “Manhunt” computer game is blamed for brutal killing
• playeject.com – Games blamed for London riots

Coming from the UK I’m used to articles like this one that strives to tie horrible events to games, often in the most tenuous fashion. Despite this there’s been few cases of any one game being completely banned, unlike other nations who don’t enjoy our relative freedom of media.

My intention wasn’t to find these; I was searching for subjects on which games are blamed outside the normal sex, drugs and violence trio that dominate the news. I wanted stuff like this:

• Bad movies
• Poor national park attendance
• Divorce
• Poor England footballer performances
• Rickets
• Back pain
• Tooth decay
• Childhood obesity
• Bad driving
• Failed motorbike stunts
• Car chases
• The decline of men
• Child literacy

It’s not all bad news though. Look!