Are Role Playing Games With Simulated Violence Perilous Or Diverting?

While some argue that violent role playing games are a positive game to play, I feel that they have a negative impact on teens. In the article “High-Jinks: Shoot-out” by Guy Martin they did an experiment where students played a shooting game in school. Some teams were getting 13 kills in 4 days. This is so bitter that a high school students goal is to “kill” people. By teens doing this, it is teaching them that it is ok to kill someone. Pretending or not this may lead teens to be more capable of killing someone in real life.

Some teens and children are not yet mature enough to understand that those video games are edited and made with animation and that real people can not do all the stuff their character does. Some start to take cues from their games. These games are teaching them how to be extremely violent. According to the article

Did you know that according to Dr. Bret Conrad, the majority of gamers believe that video game violence has few, if any harmful effects on them personally? Well, many people today play games with simulated violence ranging from games like “Killer” to games like Grand Theft Auto. One example, “Killer”, takes place in multiple New York City high schools at the end of the year. It consists of two teams, each student is assigned a person to shoot and they have to shoot them before they are shot. The students have to use water pistols to shoot their person. Once they are killed, their game is over. While some agree that games with simulated violence are perilous for teens, games with simulated violence are beneficial for teens because they help kids with problem solving skills, keep them busy and helps them help others.

Role-playing games are played by kids of all ages all of the time. But do these games start to cross the line when they become violent? Role-playing games with violence have many negative outcomes and they influence bad behavior.

If a child who has no interest or knowledge in guns and weaponry begins to play a "shoot-em-up" video game where the sole purpose is to kill other people that child could become interested in guns and move on to something more realistic such as pellet and paint ball weaponry. From there the child could move into actual guns when he/she is able to acquire such weapons and this could lead to an act of violence against another human being. Violent video games can foster an interest in guns and violence in children, which can lead them to more realistic violence.

I believe that role-playing games with simulated violence are healthy. In other words, they are a very good diverting distraction from school, stress, or problems going on in your own life. They can do many positive things for your mind including getting you off of technology and outside more, you have the opportunity to make lots of new friends, and the best part is, most of these “games” are optional so it’s not like you are forced to participate in them.

Role playing games with simulated violence are diverting for kids. I believe they’re good teamwork building activities, there’s no legitimate physical harm to the people playing, they’re a breathtaking escape from everyday life, and they don’t teach any sensible violent skills to people playing.

“Although the game appears to be a fun and exciting activity for teens, there have been incidents recently that add a very dangerous element.” Principal, Kathy Charlton of Hempfield Area High school remarked. These incidents included students running around near school buses and ambushing each other in and around restaurants and local malls. It is my belief that violent role playing games should not be executed. Furthermore, it initiates transgressive habits and it also teaches students how to kill and set up for violence.

Children use their imagination when they play and may not be mature enough to understand that a BB-guns may be a lethal weapon. When they use roleplay whilst playing with bb-guns it gives the message that violence is “fun” and “cool” and can encourage killing. It also teaches that violence is the best way to solve a problem.

Violent video games cause dangerous and, aggressive thoughts to appear, and may make people act out in violent ways causing them to become harmful to their surroundings. In addition to making the player aggressive, violent video games are also linked to criminal activity. According to the article, "Do Games like 'Grand Theft Auto V' Cause Real-World Violence?", “The Aurora shooter, James Holmes, the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, they’re all described as essentially being addicted to video games” (Kain 1). Becoming addicted to video games, like these people, can reflect in actions, making gamers dangerous. On top of causing aggression playing violent video games, “Increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder or assault” (Carey 1). Playing violent video games is harmful to the player and, their surroundings because they can have sudden outbursts causing harm to others. Video games, especially addictive, and violent games, are linked to criminal activity and, make people addicted, and harmful.Some people think that if they distract children with enjoyable video games it will cause them to be too distracted to do anything else, like violent behavior.

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

“I like video games, but they’re really violent. I’d like to play a videogame where you help the people who were shot in all other games. It’d be called Really Busy Hospital.”-Demitri Martin. Role playing games have been a source of fun and entertainment for children and adults. There are more safe and calm games such as Just Dance, and there are more Perilous games such as Call of Duty. Role playing games such as killer are perilous for school age children putting them in danger, teaching violence, and teaching reckless behavior.

“Head shot! That guy was destroyed!” These are just some examples of the dialogue spoken between children who play video games like “Call of Duty” or “Halo.” Children brag about the number of people they have killed in these games. Playing violent video games may cause children to act violently. First, violent video games train players to act aggressively by repeatedly killing an enemy over and over. Second, children mimic what they see, whether it’s in real life or on a video screen. Third, being exposed to the violent behaviors of the game, dead bodies, and blood, make the players insensitive to violence. Because the violence from video games affects the behavior of children, violent video games should not be available for purchase by anyone under age eighteen.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

The graphics in games now make the game almost look as if it were real life. That has brought the video game industry a lot more players and part of those new gamers are young children. The issue is when a child is presented with a violent video game that has really good graphics the child has a better understanding of what is going on in that game. Because children can relate what is going in the video game to the real world, that leads children to believe that the actions being done in that video game are accepted in society. If the children believe that its right from them to do violent actions that they learned from the game there attitude starts becoming more aggressive. Anne Harding says “children who watch violence in the media can internalize the message that the world is a hostile place...”.