The Affects of Games

When one hears the word video games what is normally thought of? “Donkey Kong” possibly, or maybe the newer games like “Call of Duty” (COD) or “Halo” and “Grand Theft Auto” (GTA). Either way video games have gone though many advancements over the years. Since back in the 80’s when arcade games and games like “Donkey Kong” were around games could only go linearly up and down or left and right. For insistence in “Super Mario” the character could not move backwards only forwards and up and down (jumping). Now when looking back to those old, classic games they seem cheap, glossy and even not appealing to the new gamers of the current generation. This is because of the new development in games, such as, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider” where the graphics, sounds, vibrations from the controller makes the game so realistic. It’s almost as if those playing are in the game and are experiencing what ever it is the main character is going through. These games however fun and realistic they are, seem have a bad side affect to the youth. Games like GTA can affect the upbringing of young children who play even though they are not yet at a development stage to handle the level of violence in the game. There have been cases where children have reenacted the games, and many children who play start to think that the violence is okay.

Teenagers and young children are at developmental stages where they are the most vulnerable to outside influences. Frances E. Jensen said a few things that caught my attention; “The teenage brain is not just an adult brain with fewer miles on it… It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them.” These students can be very smart academically and...

... middle of paper ...

...ough games such as GTA do not give a good impression to the youth who tend to play them, it has not been proved that it affects them negatively to the point of them doing criminal acts. However, it is noticeable that a lot of younger teens and children play these games like GTA and COD, although it is not meant for their age. I believe even if there is no solid proof that it negatively effects them to the point of breaking the law, that they should not be allowed to play them because there is still enough evidence to show that it does negative effect their attitude. This is not to say that the game stores are not doing a good job in making sure that the people that buy these games are old enough, but there is no way of stopping parents from buying these types of games for their kids. Parents should do some research and look at what they are buying for their children.