Last week, word came down that a group in Southington, Connecticut planned to hold a rally where violent videogames would be destroyed. Now, those plans have been cancelled.

“Today, after just one week, we are pleased to announce that awareness has been raised significantly, thanks to the support of the media and widely disseminated e-mail communications within our community through our local SouthingtonSOS member organizations,” proclaimed the press release from the group, SouthingtonSOS. “The result has been a swift, positive and supportive response of parents, young people and the general population of our community. Our mission now continues as a work in progress in the hands of a very caring Southington community.”

As someone who didn’t exactly agree with either the intention or execution of the Violent Video Games Return Program, I’m glad to see that those plans have now been cancelled. However, I’m a little hesitant on the reasons given for that cancellation. Speaking to Polygon, SouthingtonSOS spokesman Dick Fortunato had this to say:

“We succeeded in our program. Our mission was to create strong awareness in Southington for parents and families and citizens and children. And we accomplished that. Our other objective was to promote discussion of violent video games and media with children and with the families at the home. And we’ve accomplished that in spades.

“So we deemed it became unnecessary to have the physical return on Saturday of violent games. Also because it would create an unnecessary amount of logistical details for us.”

I fully support the idea of more conversations concerning violent videogames and media being had, especially between parents and children—but I’m unsure how that has happened as an effect of the group’s plans. A lot of the media attention they received was about how their attempts were misguided, not about how they were promoting an increased amount of positive discussion.

Thus, saying that the event has been cancelled because an arbitrary goal has been reached feels somewhat disingenuous. Either way, games have now been spared a cruel and undeserved fate, and that’s a good thing.

Source: Polygon