If only to show sympathy for the community in Newtown, Connecticut, a call was made this month for a one-day ceasefire of video games that involve first-person and online shooters. It was aimed at extending emotional support to the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootout and their families.
The call was spearheaded by a well known video game blog GamerFitNation. The site which promotes video games and health living was founded by Antwand Pearman.
The 24-hour ceasefire took place on December 21st and was a great success, according to the blog owner. His words were “You can’t be afraid, you know, to come out and speak against something in fear of what’s going to happen, you can’t let the media define who you are. You define who you are.”
Pearman earlier created a nine-minute video to appeal to gamers especially online shooters to take a one-day break from their usual routine. He said his goal is to pay respect to the victims of the tragedy that occurred on December 14. The video has close to 11,000 views already and 300 comments.
Pearman made clear, however, that his call does not mean admission that violent video games had a role in the school shooting incident. He stressed the move is just a consolidated show of peace to the world and that he has a high respect for video game developers for all the hard work they do to come up with great games for both kids and adults. Pearman also clarified that his call had nothing to do with the December 21 supposedly doomsday.
This social media campaign used the hashtag #OSCEASEFIRE and gained more than 3,000 supporters on Facebook. Twitter and YouTube communities also showed their support.
But while the campaign gained support from many gamers, the others did not take part saying it has no purpose than to claim the violence caused by video games.
What about you? What did you think of the ceasefire?
Photo via Facebook.com