Connecticut Town Cancels Game-Destroying

           Community leaders in the town of Southington, Conn. have announced cancellation of a planned event involving the collection and destruction of video games and other media.
          As spokesperson in the group's press conference held yesterday morning explained to tech site Polygon, the group feels they have succeeded in their primary task of encouraging an increased discussion about violent video games and media, leading them to feel the physical event is now unnecessary.
         "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," spokesperson Dick Fortunato said in a conversation with Polygon.
          "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."
           The event, planned for January 12th, would have had volunteers at the Southington Drive-in who would accept any video games, CDs, or DVDs that parents or children wished to rid of. According to the group's plans, the discs would then have been destroyed, and families particapting in the event would have recieved gift cards to local attractions and businesses.
           The event was conceived just weeks after the December 14th school massacre in Newtown Conn., approximately 35-miles to the north, that left 20 children and six adults dead.
            In addition to a larger movement of renewed discussion regarding national gun laws, video games have seen increased criticism and discourse about their possible influences on violent acts in the wake of the Newtown tragedy. Also on the morning of January 9, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said on national television that video games should be examined  along side increased discussion about mental illness in an effort to reduce violence, while Vice President Joe Biden plans to meet with video game industry leaders to discuss violent games as part of a task force aimed at examining the role of violent media in mass shootings.