REVIEWED BY TERENCE HINES
BenBella Books, Dallas, TX,2017, 248pp, $16.95, softcover. ISBN 978-1-942952-98-5.
VIDEO GAMES, ESPECIALLY SO-CALLED “violent” games, are the latest in a long string of entertainment media to be accused of “ruining the youth of America.” Previously dime novels, comic books, violent TV shows, and movies and songs with racy lyrics were considered the cause of all sorts of societal ills. In 2002, Gerard Jones published Killing Monsters (Basic Books), the first book, as far as I know, to critically examine the hysteria over alleged effects of make-believe violence in the media on children. It focused on all media, not just video games, and concluded that such media posed no threat.