#to be clear labelled mature because these were done for a mature rated comic. the headshots are not inherently mature

[trapdoornumberthree]

A whole bunch of headshots for the character page of a comic series my guy's been working on ^^ Deerg and Skyler [top row] are his, the rest are my freaks <3

[scaryscarecrows]

Bat-recs

Y’know, for fun! Add your favorites; we were all new to this hell at some point, maybe this could be useful for someone.

Batman: Gothic

This was actually the second one I bought; it came across my table when I volunteered at a used library books organization. Two bucks. Immortal murderer? Haunted underwater monastery? Generally freaky? Sign me up! NOT RECOMMENDED FOR THE WEE BABES, we got child murder, mentions of sexual assaults, and a literal head in the trash can. Poor Bruce. This story put him through the absolute wringer and I want to hug him.

The Cult

Also freaky! Bane says he broke Batman. Bane broke Batman a few years LATER; Blackfire...jeeze, man. (So far, two for two on the whole ‘immortal evil religious figure’. Hm.) Psychological horror out to HERE, and there’s a couple of pages that just WORK so WELL, when Robin!Jason finally finds poor Bruce. Also not for children, here there be a lotta bodies. And rats. And Bruce being...uh...well, we don’t need to talk about that now.

Scarecrow Year One

MY FIRST AND FAVORITE. (Ahh, evil religious individual! But not immortal this time.) Jonathan Crane’s backstory-one of them-with bonus Batdad content. Sean Murphy's sketchy artwork works really, really well for, well, Scarecrow, and Baby Crane is a little cutie. Protect him at all costs. Eh, if you or your kid’s a frightened type, the swarms of attacking crows might be a bit much, but there’s no corpse-stacks or child murder this time.

Li’l Gotham

Tired of everything hurting? Say no more. Tooth-rotting fluff is HERE. Batfamily getting along. Damian loves his mom and she loves him back and I am HAPPY ABOUT IT. This is what you’d think DC is like all the time, based on fic. Worth having for when they inevitably ruin something else. The same team has since done Once Upon a Crime, which is also precious.

White Knight

Did I see ‘Sean Murphy’ and smash the preorder? Yeah. Do I decree that this Ivy design is the best Ivy? Yeah. Elseworlds/Black Label, so he’s free to deconstruct Batman...and Batman’s proclivity for destroying Gotham in the pursuit of one asshole. (I feel a little called out, given my driving in Arkham Knight.) Has a sequel, and I’m waiting for the TP, but I’m sure I’ll love it just the same. Harley’s looking good here, guys; she is taking no shit AND she’s not being treated as a bimbo. She has brains and she’s not afraid to use them! Eh, mild nudity and violence, but barring Jason Todd’s standard woes, I’d rate it about the same as SYO in terms of ‘will this traumatize my kid?’

Under the Red Hood

1) No kids. There’s a bag o’ severed heads lovingly detailed like, five pages in. Red Hood ain’t Batman, a fact that he would like to make very clear.

2) THE SASS. THE SAAAAAAASS. EVERYBODY IS A SNARKY BASTARD AND I LOVE IT ALL. Well, almost all. I will grant that the animated film fixed my one big grievance with the ending. :) Seriously, though, ‘oh, my goodness gracious! I’ve been bamboozled!’ is golden and I’m WAITING for that line to make it to screen. Don’t be cowards, DC.

Haunted Knight

Everyone’s gonna rec The Long Halloween, as well they ought, but Haunted Knight-same team-is also great. Scarecrow’s design is...I’m torn between loving it and wanting to yeet it into the sun, but it works for him. This is a short story collection featuring Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, and and a Bat-ified Christmas Carol.

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth

OKAY. This is sort of like The Long Halloween in that it’s frequently considered ‘required reading’, but I do legitimately enjoy it; it’s very, very, creepy. THIS is where the Arkham Asylum game takes a lot of its inspiration; the Rogues do not go to Batman. He goes to them. This also establishes Arkham’s history. I will say that you should pick up a newer edition with the annotated script included (most of them have it now) because there’s a LOT of symbolism in the art that you might miss, and knowing it really adds to the experience. I’d totally teach this in a psych class, though. Or an English class. It’s great. Bonus for everybody having their own style of dialogue: Joker does not have speech bubbles, for instance, Bruce is  black and white. Really gives you an idea of how they talk. It’s also nice that most of the Gallery gets some page time, even if they don’t talk; Scarecrow, for instance, has no dialogue, but he doesn’t need it. His presence is enough. Hard R-rating for scary images and implied childhood sexual abuse.

The Animated Series

Yup. Start here. START. HERE. Every major rogue (and several obscure ones) gets an episode in the limelight, Bruce is at his absolute best-that perfect combo of ‘gettin’ real tired of your shit, Villain of the Week’ and the compassion that’s gone missing lately-Harley looks great (and, y’know, LIKE A HARLEQUIN), and although it is kid-friendly, it doesn’t treat the viewer like a kid, so you can enjoy it as an adult. (You’re a lying liar who lies if Baby Doll’s episodes didn’t make you teary-eyed. It’s okay. There’s no shame to be had.) Bonus: Dick Grayson is a little ray of sunshine compared to Batman, but that’s not all he is and the writers remembered that. :) And, well...

Iconic.

The Arkham Series

These are almost the animated series for a more mature audience (complete with a lot of the same voice casting!); murder is now allowed to be confirmed. If you’re intimidated by the comics, this is also a good place to start. Again, all the major rogues and a few lesser-knowns get some time to shine, the characterization is working (Bruce is not here for Joker’s shit, but he can still take a minute to calm down a panicking guard), and yeah, I love the designs.

Look at my baby. THAT is legitimately frightening. 10/10, would run from again. Bonus: not only do we get Alfred, we get three whole Robins AND Oracle. That said, while the games give you PLENTY of options to go ‘I’m Batman’, Bruce takes almost none of them, so you have to do it. You gotta. It’s the law.

EDITED TO INCLUDE

Gotham County Line

Batman deals with the psychological guilt of not being able to save everyone, and there are...zombies. Sort of. Amazingly, Scarecrow is nowhere to be seen, yet Bruce does admit, straight-up, ‘I’m afraid’. Me too, Bruce. Me, too. 

10/10 for creep factor here. I went into this unaware it was possible to be scared of Alfred. It is. It is possible. I am a changed woman now. Nothing really...comes of it...but I swear, I turned the page, and this was waiting for me:

Mommy...

Also unsettling; the hanged man in general. A+ unsettling artwork, I’m sure that guy will haunt me. Added bonus: Zombie Robin Jason popping in to save Bruce’s bacon, because he is a good boy, and Zombie Waynes being proud parents. I did not expect the Feels Crowbar...but it was a nice surprise.

[cygnuswheel]

no one’s here and no one’s going to save you. this is a nightmare waiting to happen, isn’t it? but he can’t wake up any more than he already has. everything’s spinning. it’s hopeless.

oscar sits in a bathroom, post volume 6.

( note: this was inspired by @flame-cat‘s recent comic that they posted on their art blog! i had a lot of thoughts about it and wanted to see where i’d go with one particular spin of mine. please make sure to check out their work!! )

oscar. oscar.

oscar, listen to me.

it’s a haze. the rush and the hurt and the panic can only lead to hyperventilation, to discomfort and to a hollowed spite. the air comes in and out, but he isn’t breathing. it’s like he’s drowning in his own presence.

what did this mean? how could he let this happen now, when everything was hinging tomorrow going perfectly? this isn’t the time for this. it was never the time for this, for the tears and the loathing and the absolute feeling of disgust. his thoughts are racing, trying so hard to come to some sort of conclusion, some way to feel better. yet, every time he tells himself to calm down, that his thoughts don’t matter and that this whole thing doesn’t matter, it comes back. a plague that sticks in his chest and summons forth a pain that sits in his torso, soaked by the sobs and heaves and chattering teeth. 

oscar.

it’s all useless. why even try this at all? the relic, the plan, the whole fate of the world-- why, none of it really seemed to be all that important anymore, but, at the same time, it’s the biggest thing that he’ll ever be a part of in his entire life. it matters. it doesn’t matter. everything matters. everything matters but you. how would he be able to contribute to this, to any of this? his job was to be a vessel, a messenger of higher thought and information that the team relied on, but everything’s been so out of order lately. the information is lies. the promises are lies. the bonds he formed with everyone was a lie. he’s nothing without this great and powerful curse placed upon him. he’s just a boy. a fourteen year old boy that doesn’t know how to do anything. and he would never know how to do anything.

stop.

the word grips him like a hand placed firmly upon the shoulder. oscar’s eyes are wide, lips pulled back to show a sorrowful grimace, a face full of tears. his chest feels like it’s going to burst from the pause. he looks from one side to the other, nothing. the bathroom is empty other than himself, light dimly illuminating his strife as the rest of the party slept, surely anxious enough that they didn’t need any of the shit that he could dump on them. it wasn’t worth it for them, surely. he was barely going to be around in the long run anyway. there’s no need to bond with some pathetic creature that didn’t have much time left in the world anyway. and it’s not like he was any fun to be around either, with misery wrapping around him like a homespun cape--

you’re not a miserable person to be around, oscar.

there it is again. the boy squeaks in surprise, voice cracking in a startled motion as he curls further into himself, breathing ragged and wetness beginning to soak into the cloth of his knees. really? right now? his throat is rubbed raw and even the very labor of getting a wheeze out feels like absolute agony, so verbal communication here doesn’t seem like an option that he can take right now. still, his thoughts are loud and clear, defensive and bitter and oh so sorry: what the fuck. what the fuck. what do you want?

... you already know, don’t you? a sigh escape’s ozpin’s lips, presence light and shy, clearly a bit sheepish at the fact that he was around at all. after that grand disappearing act ( something that everyone else labeled as unfair abandonment, though oscar has a slightly different opinion on that matter ), it’s only natural that the wizard is reluctant to be around. to be here for you, something that i had previously failed at quite spectacularly. oscar scoffs. right. that must be it. what a joke. it was already obvious to him, clear as day. they were bound together, linked by an unfortunate rope of fate that put one of the most powerful men on the planet with some pathetic weakling that can’t even do his job without getting cold feet--

oscar, please. it’s a pressing, imploring tone, edging out to something that could possibly be described as sad. ( it still feels euphoric. it’s an addicting sort of validation that only draws in guilt. he doesn’t deserve any of this if he’s practically begging for it through the use of a panic attack. how deplorable. ) ozpin continues on, quiet yet firm: you’ve done more than what anyone could have ever asked you to do. never mind the addition of your age or life circumstances-- this, to any human being, would have had them meet their breaking point much, much earlier than you.

you’ve been strong. liar. more than i could have ever expected from you. stop. stop. i’ve been alive for far too long to not be able to recognize your efforts. you’ve been overworking yourself. but he’s not, he’s really not. it wasn’t true. if he was, then--

‘ then why is everything i’m doing never enough? ‘

his breath hitches. oscar is forced to stare at the wall tiling, the vague image of a warped reflection looking all too brown and black. discomfort dancing from one organ to the next, he tries to imagine dark greens, soft silvers. it’s a warmth that he’s desperate to have. some guidance. some way to keep going forward so he can ignore this ugly mess inside of his chest. inside his mind, he feels from ozpin a sensation that could only be described as a forlorn look gazing down at him, unsure but all too familiar. what would be enough, oscar? tell me.

the question leaves the boy a strange sense of winded, eyebrows knitting together as the frown remains on his face. he sniffles, bare hand coming up to rub at his eyes, hiccuping as he forces out words, something to regain control of the conversation, to regain footing on his very own uncertainty. “ i-i-- i would have been able to, i don’t know, fix this easier. i would have been able to tell them what they could do so they d-didn’t have to risk their lives like this. i would have been strong enough to be able to lead them to wherever the lamp needed to go. “ it sounds ridiculous. he knows it is, but it keeps spilling out, as if someone had forcefully broken open his dam. “ i would h-have been able to tell him that you were gone, and that it was j-just me. “ ( while the pain has disappeared, he will never, ever forget the sensation of having his back shoved against that wall, fury in the blond’s eyes and the reach that oz had made during it. ruby had yelled at him, made him stop in his tracks. oscar hadn’t been able to do anything. anything at all. ) “ i-i would have known what to do-- “

i didn’t know what to do, oscar. ozpin interrupts, clearly not wanting to hear anything more from the boy at the moment. his presence is heavier now, closer to the surface and beside the child. vague instructions and sprinklings of hope. ha ha. it would be unfair of me to think that you would know either. another sigh. this time, it’s both of them in sync. oscar feels his heart rate begin to settle more and more. it still hurts. i left you. after all the measures i had taken to control you. a pause. ... both physically and mentally. 

i never stopped to think anything about praise and encouragement past our shared duty. i never celebrated you for who you were, simply a means to an end by my own action. but that was fine, oscar thinks, incredulous at the statement. it’s fine, because he won’t exist in time, so ozpin could do whatever he wanted, right? right? the wizard frowns. of course not. do you really think i’m above being held accountable for my actions? should miss xiao long and everyone else not been furious with me?

oscar pauses, swallowing a hard lump that had begun to grow in his throat during the conversation that he had neglected to pay any mind to earlier. he can’t say that. he can’t say that because he felt the very same anger right in the beginning, when he had dragged himself out of the depths of his mind and stopped ozpin from taking back the relic. he was angry because it was wrong. he was angry because he thought they were fighting for a justice that deserved honesty. he understood why his cheek had been sore for days after qrow had rushed ahead to give oz a strong right hook. they had been betrayed. 

you had been betrayed.

after i had insisted that you could trust me. it’s a wan, self-loathing sound that echoes through oscar’s mind. he isn’t used to this. this overt display of... well, anything human. it had stopped after the ex-headmaster had run away. his crying had been a phenomenon that oscar had not completely grown to accept as normal yet. whether or not i’m proud of my actions doesn’t excuse what i’ve done to everyone. you especially, oscar.

please don’t try to hold a burden that no single person should bear. oscar closes his eyes. please don’t ignore how much you’re hurting. he’s shaking. there’s tears again, reintroduced. please don’t make the same mistakes i did. 

“ i-i don’t know what else to do. “ the boy chokes out, no longer hyperventilating but so, so sad. he’s holding the cracking pieces of his spirit and begging for direction. “ there’s so much to do, w-we don’t have time for this. “

i do, oz says. i have more than enough ‘time for this’, oscar. especially after everything. a puzzled quirk of the child’s brow. i...

... i want you to be able to grow on your own, oscar. what a kind, gentle voice. my interruptions do little to help you with your autonomy. i’m enough of an overbearing presence already without the whole subject of possession. a sniff from the smaller one. i understand that it feels both too early and too late, with the complications i’ve thrown into the mix, but... you deserve to be able to mature into your own self. 

so please don’t ignore your own feelings, the entity pleads, and in that moment, oscar, more than anything, just wants to hug the other and not let go. it’s overwhelming. to be honest, i’d be insulted if you decided to go down the path of being as foolish as me. he feels a tingling in his arm, not too forceful but still a bit leading. he follows the sensation and, in a strange movement, ends up rubbing his own hair. a confused look. i can’t manage much more at the moment without being disrespectful, ozpin answers, letting the smallest suggestions of a smile begin to hint at his voice. but i’ve always been a good listener, if you ever need an ear from the local curse in your mind. 

something bubbles in him. oscar doesn’t know what until midway of it happening-- a chuckle. it doesn’t sound the most delicate, as his throat had recently been assaulted by his own dread, but it’s so much sweeter compared to all the previous panicked babble and anxiety coming from his own mouth. the corners of them are beginning to upturn into the smallest grin. “ o-okay. i’ll try. “

i’m yours for the rest of the night and always after, mister pine.

“ ... alright. “ 

in the unspoken recesses of his thoughts, he makes a promise, a tiny thing, but nevertheless dear and precious beyond anything else.

‘ i’ll try. ‘

[niamhuncensored]

While I’m in the mood to bitch about comics, let’s talk about Batman Damned

If you haven’t heard of it or read it, Here is the link to read it in its entirety (disregard issue 4, for some reason the site thinks it’s still ongoing). It’s a black label production, so use your discretion.

Once you’ve read it, Here’s a list of reasons why it might’ve been a flop. if you still haven’t read it, spoilers ahead.

Nothing is real

Here’s a panel from the first issue.

They literally tell us from the start that not only is Bruce questioning his sanity, but that the voice-over/narrator is also possibly lying to us.

Unreliable narrators can be fun, but seems like this is a cheap tactic for the writers to do whatever they want. The readers are left without anything to hold onto. Nothing is properly real, which leads to a confusing story.

Case in point: the character (Enchantress?) who was haunting Bruce. Was she really haunting him in his childhood? And why? Or is Bruce hallucinating her as part of his guilty conscience? What does she want with him? And why does no word out of her mouth make sense?

Lesson to writers who use unreliable narrators: if your audience has no way of knowing what’s real and what’s not, you’ve failed at writing an unreliable narrator.

missing stories and transitions

We don’t even know for sure what the fuck happened to Joker. It’s kind of stated at the end that Bruce let Joker fall into the river, but when we see the fall scene in the first issue, it’s as if batman is falling, and it’s implied to be a flashback. So what happened and why were they fighting in the first place.

Then, at the end of the first issue, we get to this page, where batman is chasing a possible witness.

That’s immediately followed with this scene, where he seems to be entering batcave and begins stripping down (we’ll get to that in a bit.)

sidenote: how can a heart rate be two numbers? It’s one number. They could’ve just said blood pressure. but I digress.

Isn’t he still chasing that guy? It wasn’t like he burst through the wood to a blank wall, so the guy could still be in there and your plan, Bruce, is to - ahem - intimidate him?

Then, after talking to Zatanna (more on her, later) we get to this panel.

This is supposed to imply that Joker is still alive, but then the plot completely forgets that 3 people were kidnapped. We don’t even see them when Harley rolls around.

At the end of the second issue, Harley attempts to r*pe batman (which I will not be showing) but he turns it on her and we get this panel where he’s choking her out on the batsignal

But then the next issue starts and we get...this...

What the fuck?! This isn’t a hallucination or anything, this is supposed to be real, and it feels like we started a whole other comic. John is no help, either. He only cheekily implies that they had sex (not what happened) and moves on to annoying the shit out of swamp thing.

There’s just no transition from a rooftop with Harley Quinn to a pine box. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Not to mention, Deadman says that there’s a plot against Batman. What plot? We don’t know.

Swamp Thing says that “both sides lay claim.” On what? Bruce’s soul? Is that even on the table, since he’s alive? It’s still unclear. The narrative is quick to open up these loops and quicker to forget to close them.

Pointless Nudity

Remember the “bata-wang” jokes after the first issue dropped? if not, here’s the background: Batman walks into his cave (somehow) and requests a full body scan. The scan completes while he’s still mostly clothed, so he strips down to his birthday suit for basically no reason.

He also sits totally naked in his own house, wherein only one chair is uncovered(Where the fuck is Alfred? or the rest of the batfam? wtf?!). Of course, we also get Zatanna’s cleavage and ass, because, as we all know, women are always wearing fishnets and thongs at all times, right? As well as most of Harley’s torso.

If you’re going to have nudity, it has to have a reason. never go full frontal without a reason.

The Devil went down to Gotham

Remember the guy that Batman was chasing? When we first see him, we think he’s just some hobo who saw something.

Turns out, by the end, he’s some kind of judgemental deity, who may have been talking about himself when he said “The devil’s in gotham city.”

This came out of fucking nowhere and we’re just supposed to take this? The guy looks like Kessler in inFamous and we’re supposed to understand that he’s the Devil? or is he supposed to be God? God’s been a puppy in Constantine’s new 52 run so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.

Also, in the second issue, he was speaking in green text. Was that supposed to mean something? What was different about him then that isn’t in the first or third installment?

Whatever the answer is, we’re not finding out quickly.

Happily Married is an Oxymoron

In the comic, it’s pretty clearly stated that Thomas was actually cheating on Martha, and implied that they were getting a divorce. It seems like Enchantress was intending to distract Bruce from seeing the full scope of things, but it’s unclear.

Honestly, I was okay with this perspective on their relationship, but i think it was so out of the ordinary that it just further distances readers from the story.

A Dark Showcase (And I don’t mean Batman’s Dick)

If you’ve played the Arkham Games, you might’ve felt like the main goal of the games was at least partially to show off the rogues gallery, rather than to tell a story (which they did anyway but i digress). Batman Damned feels an awful lot like that.

in all honesty, that was kind of what kept me reading. I turned off the part of my brain that was going “What’s going on” and resorted to the part that was just going “look, it’s Constantine! Look, it’s batman! Look, it’s Zatanna!”

On a the third issue, however, the reasoning side of my brain took over and I couldn’t ignore the flaws. using characters as easter eggs with no real story can only get you so far.

In addition, some of the appearances make little sense. Take Zatanna, for instance.

In the first issue, she was a street performer who looked like a prostitute who put on makeup for a stage play. when she reappeared in the third issue, she was a professional - performer? Medium? it’s not quite clear - with a more revealing but better put together outfit.

I refused to believe that those two appearances were of the same person. why would Zatanna be doing street magic for tips, while she has a steady gig at a tavern? It makes no sense.

Deadman shows up, and vanishes. Shows up, and vanishes. Shows up, and vanishes again, doing exactly squat, each time. Same with Swamp Thing. He saves Batman from being buried alive, and saves Constantine from a killer statue, and does fuck-all else. Enchantress is basically there to be creepy and that’s about it. Etrigan is basically there to pull Batman out of the fire and not much else. And Constantine is basically there for deus ex machina and comic relief, and carries little weight for the story.

Even in the Arkham Games, the villains served a purpose. The fact that the characters are just there as easter eggs makes the showcase worse, i think.

How to fix it.

First off, make things clearer. Questioning a character’s sanity can be fun, but it’s only fun if it’s clear what’s real and what isn’t upon reread, or even first read. the goal is dramatic irony, not confusion.

Second, keep track of the doors you open and make sure close them. Transitions should make sense and drastic plot details should be addressed. It’s okay to leave an audience with some questions, but this many of this scale is evidence of a failed story.

Thirdly, thoroughly justify the nudity or cut it out completely. I know this is black label, and that that gives you more wiggle room for mature stuff, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

Lastly, CUT THE DEAD FUCKING WEIGHT. With the above fixes and minimal rewriting, this could have literally just had Batman and Zatanna in it. Honestly, that would have been a much better story.

If you keep Constantine, here’s a gentle reminder that CONSTANTINE IS ALSO CAPABLE OF MAGIC! If he had been doing all or most of the magic that Zatanna had done, and had done it from the beginning, this could have been one issue long. And then you’d have space for the other characters to be effective in their own rights.

[newlaptopreviews]

Trump is wrong about video games and violence

President Donald Trump has suggested that video games cause violence like mass shootings, and said he will meet with industry representatives to discuss the issue.

President Donald Trump is expected to speak with members of the video game industry this week to discuss the medium’s relationship to the kind of violence that occurred when Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

But such a meeting is likely nothing more than a politically motivated waste of time, according to psychologists.

Violent games and violent behavior

“There is very clearly no evidence to suggest that violent video games or violent movies or violent television contribute to violent crime,” said Stetson University psychology professor and expert on video game violence Chris Ferguson. “That seems to be, at this point, the consensus view among a majority of scholars.”

Trump’s suggestion that violent video games need to be looked at came up during a conversation about the Parkland shooting. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later stated that Trump will meet with representatives from the video game industry to discuss the topic.

But Dan Hewitt, vice president of communication for the Entertainment Software Association, the trade group that represents the gaming industry, said no ESA members have been contacted by the Trump administration.

‘Doom’ has been referenced multiple times as a reason for youth violence despite no evidence of such links existing.

The ESA has a ratings arm called the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, or ESRB, which provides content ratings for games that are clearly displayed. Ratings run from “Everyone,” “Everyone 10+” and “Teen” to “Mature” and “Adults Only.” Rating labels also include content descriptions such as “comic mischief,” “mild language” or “intense violence.”

“This is absolutely a dead end and I think it’s a pretty blatant political move to try to bring it up,” Ferguson said.

The idea that violent video games leads to or influences individuals to commit violent acts has been circulating for at least as far back as the Columbine High School shooting in 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris killed 13 people before committing suicide. At that point, the discussion revolved around whether the perpetrators were influenced by the game “Doom.”

Nearly 19 years later, the topic is still being discussed. But much has changed in terms of research since then, with experts arguing that no link exists between violent video games and societal violence like school shootings.

“The Media Psychology and Technology Division of the American Psychological Association released a statement last year [2017] asking news media and politicians to stop making those types of claims, very specifically,” Ferguson added.

Violence versus aggression

The American Psychological Association’s official stance on video game and media violence as it relates to real-world violence is that playing video games can lead to increased aggression, but that there is insufficient evidence to form a link between gaming and violence.

While Ferguson believes that even that issue is up for debate, Patrick Markey, a psychology professor at Villanova University says he believes such a link between playing violent games and increased aggression exists, but that it doesn’t equate to the kind of violence that occurred in Parkland.

The ‘Grand Theft Auto’ franchise is rated M for mature audiences.

“I think when we look at the research linking violent video games to horrific acts of violence like school shootings, homicides, aggravated assault, most of the research with those types of acts of violence suggests that there’s either no link, or it actually goes in the opposite direction from what we typically expect,” Markey said.

As far as aggressive acts, Markey explained that those could include laboratory tests in which a person played a violent game and was then asked to give hot sauce to a person who doesn’t like spicy food, or blast an annoying white noise for another individual.

“That there’s this very tiny causal relationship, I think it’s real,” Markey said. “But i think it’s really important to remember that it’s only temporary. It only lasts right after they are done playing the video game and it’s very minor.”

Markey said this increase in aggression is similar to a person feeling depressed after watching a sad movie, but then rebounding shortly thereafter.

“They are not becoming clinically depressed, it’s not changing who they are. And violent video games are doing the same thing. They are temporarily changing our mood, it’s not fundamentally changing us as people,” he said.

The American Psychological Association’s 2015 Resolution on Violent Video Games takes into account the kind of aggression Ferguson and Markey talk about, as well as “self-report questionnaires, peer nominations and teacher ratings of aggressiveness focused on behaviors including insults, threats, hitting, pushing, hair pulling, biting and other forms of verbal and physical aggression.”

The problem, the resolution indicates, is that throughout various studies there is never any clear definition between aggression and violence, which means researchers have trouble figuring out what kinds of behaviors subjects actually express.

In ‘The Witcher 3’ the player is tasked with fighting both demons and humans. It is rated M.

As Ferguson notes, the APA’s resolution was met with a great deal of controversy when it was released in 2015. An international group of some 230 scholars and experts in the field tried to persuade the APA not to publish its piece based on their collective belief that its findings were inaccurate and used weak or misleading evidence. They also claimed that the kind of meta-analysis used to craft the resolution could prove misleading.

Interestingly, both Ferguson and Markey point to the fact that while video games often come up in the wake of school shootings and similar incidents, school shooters actually play fewer games than the average adolescent male student.

“People who are average high school students are about three times more likely to play violent video games than school shooters,” Markey said.

“I think it’s important to point out though that nobody thinks that it’s because not playing violent video games causes you to be a school shooter,” he explained. “Probably the more likely explanation is simply that playing violent video games is a very normative activity for adolescent males. Again, most adolescent males are doing it.”

In other words, school shooters would display aberrant behavior compared to your average high school student. What’s more, the motivations and psychology of a mass shooter aren’t influenced by a single factor. A person’s mental state is the result of multiple inputs over their lives.

America first

Then there is the issue of mass shootings being a uniquely American phenomenon. Video games are an international medium that’s only gaining in popularity in developing countries. In fact, two of the countries with the high massive numbers of gamers, The Netherlands and South Korea, are among the least violent in the world.

The entire conversation about video game violence and school shootings, however, could become moot when the investigation into Cruz and the Parkland shooting comes to a close.

Ferguson says similar claims about video games and violence were made in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. But when the investigations were completed, neither perpetrator was found to be very interested in violent games.

Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, was more interested in games like “Sonic the Hedgehog,” while Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, primarily played “Dance Dance Revolution.” Neither title could be considered violent. Both games are rated “Everyone 10+.”

“This is really scientifically a dead issue,” said Ferguson. “It’s very clear at this point that the data does not suggest that violent video games contribute to societal violence.”

More from Dan:

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Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus bring major camera improvements

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Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley. Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn

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