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Games "destigmatize" violence, says Conneticut governor

Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy has said some video games "destigmatize" violence.

Malloy made the comment during the US Conference of Mayors this weekend, as reported by CTPost.

"If we spent as much time and energy on destigmatizing mental health treatment as we do in the proliferation of these video games that destigmatize violence, we as a society would make great gains," he said.

The politician made mention of the December tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in his home state of Connecticut, saying that "there were games available that actually allowed people to go into a school in the game and shoot 'em up" on the day the massacre occurred.

"Why do we do that? When we're willing to destigmatize violence and willing to bring it home to your living room or your den and put it on a 50-inch screen [and play games that award points for] when you hit someone with your semiautomatic and more points depending on how many times you hit someone with your semiautomatic, where is the social value in that? Is this the kind of thing we want to be involved in as a nation?"

Malloy's comments come in the wake of US vice president Joe Biden's recommendations to the White House for the reduction of violent gun crime. Biden's proposals made no mention of video games; he had met with industry representatives to discuss claims regarding games and violence and apparently came away satisfied with the oft-repeated fact that no scientific study has credibly linked the two.

Thanks, Gamespot.

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

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Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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