Since the development of video games in the 1960s, some early games promoted good
moral values or were simply fun. Other games, however, have become increasingly violent and
more realistic. Video game developers have created contents where people can kill zombies,
experience first-game shooting, and wound or kill the “enemy,” without mercy or remorse.
These types of games can cause the players to feel overly aggressive and negatively impact on
both their personal conscious and environmental settings. Craig Anderson, the director of the
Center for the Study of Violence, highlights behavioral changes that may emerge from playing
violent video games. He claims that he “…found hints that violent video games may set kids up
to react
He is an advocate for the beneficial use of video games. This disagreement raises
the question, how do video games influence violent behavior? Based on the current literature, I
argue that violent video games have the potential for causing behavioral problems in children
and adolescents and adversely affect their lives.
Violent video games can influence a player’s brain by simulating real life, consciously or
subconsciously. In his New York Times article, “Shooting in the Dark,” Benedict Carey wrote,
“The young men who opened fire at Columbine High School. . . were video gamers who seemed
to be acting out some dark digital fantasy” (1). Games that show excessive violence are
Jack Flanagan, the author of “Violent Video
Games Promote Antisocial behaviors” discusses how video games correlate with everything we
do which leads to his case that “video games mean trouble.” He contends, “Violent video games
are linked to real-world violence, and we should stop pretending otherwise.” Flanagan adds,
“Sitting at your console, it might be hard to believe that what you do next might actually impact
who you become in the real world.” Most children and adolescents appreciate and crave praise
for things they do. Most games give a sense of satisfaction and easy success. Players say things
like “Good shot!” and talk about the numbers in a kill streak. Praise and repetition can be a
harmful combination because the more praise a player receives for a certain behavior, the more
likely the behavior will be repeated. This cycle of praise and success may lead into a gaming
Additionally, and even more disturbing, researchers are discovering that violent video
games can be desensitizing toward real violence. Jeanne Brockmyer, a clinical child psychologist
and professor emeritus at the University of Toledo, concludes that “the research is getting
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
Children today are exposed to more graphic violence in video games compared to any past generations. This is because the media finds that making a profit, surpasses the lives of the adolescents that play these games. However, over time two set of views formed from the violence in video games. James D. Sauer, is a graduate of the School of Phycology. In his article, “Violent Video Games: The Effects of Narrative Context and Reward Structure On In-Game and Postgame Aggression,” Sauer, describes that adolescents gain forms of aggression and violence after playing certain games. Not every video game causes post game aggression, but documented in his article, “Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame
I can see where the adults are coming from when they say that these games are more violent, because they are more graphic. The increase of graphic violence is also a factor that has been looked at. Now that computers are “evolving” the amount of things they can do with games also increases. As c...
In today’s society, highly addicting video games involving strong violence and language, explicit sexuality and crime often lead to inappropriate behaviors. Role playing games or RPGs allow us to step into a virtual world, cutting ourselves off from worldly distractions. Nowadays, the age range for people who play these extremely graphic games are anywhere from six to eighteen and are surprisingly hazardous to young children’s health. A study gave a group of players playing a violent video game the chance to blast a painful sound into their opponent's ear in order to get the upper advantage. They also gave another group playing non violent games, the same opportunity. The study showed that overall the gamers playing violent video games were more prone to inflict more pain on their enemies, unlike the other group who inflicted considerably less pain. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D who did this study agrees, “violent video games desensitize players to violence, and makes them more violent in real life" (McGonigal). Young adults are exposed to these terrifying images, harming their mental health. In recent events, a young eight year old boy shot his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto. This game is the epitome of why young people should not be playing these games. It is comprised of murder, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal behavior, violence and general disrespect for women, and foul language. In summary, young people should not be playing these games in order to save their mental health. Furthermore, television contributes to desensitizing society with it’s ...
video games often warp their sense of reality. The kids think that if they shoot a person in a game and nothing really happens then nothing will really happen if they shoot a person in real life. When video games first became popular, people may not have seen this as much of a problem because games were not very realistic. With the advancement of technology, however, video games are becoming more and more realistic. If video games become more realistic, children will forget what is real and what is simulated; a child seeing somebody violently murder another human being in a video game will have the same effects as seeing somebody murder another human being in real life. Witnessing these brutal acts of violence either will traumatize or desensitize them to violence. However, this is contradictory to the “Play is labile” theory (Schroeder 4), which will be discussed, in further detail.
Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who demonstrate aggression and violent behavior.
In the article “Why we need violent video games,” Gilsdorf draws attention to the fact that violent video games are not the reason for aggressive behavior amongst youths; rather he suggests that they are an outlet for people’s aggression (Gilsdorf, 2013). Ethan Gilsdorf started out in journalism as a Paris-based travel writer and he is the author of the travel memoir investigation Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. He is known to be a writer, journalist and a critic (“About Ethan Gilsdorf”, n.d.). The author’s purpose in this article is to inform the readers that violent video games are not always related to the violence in reality. This is a timely argument as the article assesses the relation between violence and video games
One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that “nearly all children spend time playing video games” and studies have found that “8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games” (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them.
Violence in Video Games Do video games containing violence spark people today to commit violent acts? Violence in video games is blamed for some of today's violent crimes. Some people believe that these crimes are committed due to playing a video game. Others believe that video games are an easy excuse for the violent acts, and keep America from looking deeper into the minds of people committing these acts. Video games are also thought to be a good way to take out some hostility.
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
However, video games have not always been, and even today still aren’t, a completely accepted mode of recreation. These games have caused a large amount of controversy, dating back to one of the first games to come under fire back in the mid-1970s. The problem that certain groups in society saw with video games exploded with one of the more famous cases where a video game was brought to court over its contents in the early 1990s with the introduction of Mortal Kombat, one of the first household games that included blood. Even today, games continue to be criticized for characteristics that have been labeled as violent, sexist, or immoral and are blamed for instilling these ideas into those who play the games. However, these arguments do not have any merit. While video games may display actions and properties that have been deemed as cynical and detrimental, they do not cause significant negative behavioral changes in the players. It is the exact opposite: games have a positive effect on their players and the people around them.
The concerns of parents are that theses types of games are going to change their child’s life in a bad way. These ideas are true through tedious experiments that prove that violent games produce violent children. The games that cause the most fear are ones that give the players the opportunity to select their own weapon and decide what violent adventures they long to experience. A well known fact is that repetition increases the learning process. For example, when students are studying for a test they will incorporate the use of flashcards. Using the flashcards exposes the child to the information repeatedly until it is memorized. While playing these games, the player learns the patterns of games through repetition. By doing this they are unconsciously learning to act in the same way as the game. In March of 2014, the Center for Study of Violence at Iowa State participated in a study where they followed over 3,000 children over a three year period who played video games. Since the experiment was carried out over a long period of time, it was easy to spot out the effect of the games on the test subjects. The report discovered that the boys who played the hostile games had an increased amount of recorded aggressive behaviors, and although the girls in the experiment played less violent games than the boys, they still displayed violent behaviors (Gentile, 2014). The
...being one such example. Injuries and fighting reception and outdoors have up thanks to youngsters taking part in brutal video games (Anderson, Gentile, & Buckley, 2007). Some researchers but argue that video games will and do have positive effects on youngsters. They denote that youngsters don't seem to be isolated, as they develop on-line vice communities. youngsters also are ready to learn real-life skills whereas taking part in video games, as well as, learn the way to flee violence. However, what either side agree upon is that folks ought to guide their youngsters on the outcomes of taking part in video games. Personally, i feel that video games may be allowed once designated with caution and don't seem to be compete ofttimes. As long as video game doesn't replace a child’s real-life communication, video games will become a good possibility for a child’s leisure.
Violent video games are special games, which negatively influences to the attitude and behavior. These video games are popular between children and teenagers. Since 1980-s years violent games are in political discussion. Because when teenagers usually play violent video games, they are becoming aggressive and then they face with psychological problems. For this, some people claim that violent games are harmful for society and they affect to behavior and health.
The question is, “Do violent video games influence children to act aggressively?” and “Can repetitive killing train a person to be violent himself?” Although the violence in these video games is fictional, research has proven the violence to lead to more aggressive behavior in children. Violent acts depicted in these games allow young children to believe that killing and fighting is acceptable and fun.