Video Games Violence

At least every child has played video games once in their lives. There are various genres and types of video games such as action, first person shooters, adventure, education, role-playing, strategy, and many more. 89% of video games contain some violent content (Slife, 2008). The most addictive, common, and popular video games among children are the violent video games (Slife, 2008). A lot of video games these days depict “real-life violence” meaning that the settings and plots of these video games are taken from real-life wars and events. For example, in Call of Duty, the plot is being in World War 2 and doing campaign missions identical to World War 2 events. While playing a video game, no matter what the genre is, the person is bound to get immersed in the game. But I don’t think video games lead to violence, but rather to little aggressive thoughts and behaviors, which are temporary. It also depends on the person’s mentality if video games lead to violent acts or not and most people who play video games do not become violent whatsoever.

Violent video games do not lead to any substantial real-world violence. As of 2001, about 79% of America’s youth play video games and most of the games they play are violent ones (Layton). But do you see any kids shooting others or stabbing each other on a daily basis (Olson, 2004, pg.360). They don’t go out and kill random people or rob a bank. Most kids who play violent video games do not act irrationally or exhibit serious real-life violence towards others. When talking to people in my class who played violent video games, it had no effect on them after they finished playing. The overwhelming majority of youth who play video games do NOT exhibit any violence and it is merely just a game to...

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...tudies because aggression does not equal violence.

Nowadays, violent video games are a big trend and most kids play them, but there is no evidence or proof of these millions of kids playing video games randomly killing people or committing violent acts. Violent video games do create some aggressive thoughts but those thoughts depending on the person can transform to violence or they can simply disappear. There are no longitudinal studies or scientific proof that violent video games are the mere cause of violence or if they do indeed cause violence in the first place. Further research and studies are required in order to know more about the effects of video games. But I think that video games affect each person differently and that the mentality of a person plays a role as well as other factors such as the environment for a person to become violent or not violent.