Shepard As Teen Hero? The Mass Effect Trilogy As A Teen Epic

Thousands of teens in the United States play violent video games everyday, for hours on end. Teens and children playing violent games are now accepted as a part of life. They sit in front of a screen and watch blood and gore, with no emotions and without cringing. The games become increasingly more violent, as the age that children begin to play these games drops, from twelve to ten to eight. Now, we have six or seven-year-old children playing games rated M, for 17 and older. Teens should not be allowed to play violent role-playing games because it teaches them that violence is acceptable, that it is fun to be violent, as well as desensitizing them to violence.

Content analyses show that 89% of video games have some violent content. Half of the video games on the market have extreme violent actions toward other characters. Games, today, are allowing players to not only connect with the game physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. In essence, the player becomes the character. According to Nielson Media Research, at least 45 million households in the United States have at least one video game console (Markey & Charlotte, 2010). The average age of video game players has increased to age 34, and 60% of Americans play interactive games on a regular basis. However, researchers believe that younger children are more susceptible to the negative effects of playing violent video games compared to older teenagers and adults. Furthermore, games that include violence have raised serious concerns among

The release of early games, such as Pac-Man, Donkey-Kong, and Space Invaders, initiated the innovative and precedent era of video game popularity; however, modern games follow a distinctly uniform pattern in violent graphics and paucity of discretion. Whereas early media did little to affect the teenage psyche, the impact of modern media and its barbaric implications are considerably heightened by the large teen proclivity towards television, video games, and film. Surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation6 have shown that in today’s highly digitalized society, children ages eight to eighteen spend approximately six and a half to seven and a half hours a day using media devices. Correlatively, research from the Pew Internet Project reveal that 97% of American teenagers play video games. Such media saturation, while undoubtedly harmful to health and social interactions, has only become psychologically harmful in recent years with the emergence of violence in interactive and narrative media. Unable to actively participate in violent crimes in the real world, teenagers take solace in doing so in the imaginary one, effectively learning to disassociate themselves from the characters they brutalize and murder. This talent, unfortunately, has become useful to those whose minds have been

On the other hand, the aggression decreases tremendously in the player, when he decides not to take part in violent video games for a shorter amount of time (Rettner). Furthermore, this problem is only getting worse because throughout the United States of America almost 90 percent of children play at least some video games (Rettner). Unfortunately, more than 90 percent of these games condone violent settings. In addition, over 3,000 elementary, and middle school students were undergoing a part of a two year scientific study to prove if mature video games does lead to any type of aggression. As this study progressed through time, researchers noticed that an overwhelming number of participants of this survey became less aggressive. Researchers have concluded that only mature people should play violent video games because they know how to deal with problems instead of provoking violence (Park). The reason why mature video games are only distributed to people 17 years or older is because these people are mature enough to handle all of the violence that is placed within the video games itself.

Video Games. Children spend countless hours each day playing games such as mortal Kombat and Call of Duty. Whether you agree with them or not, it's hard to deny that they have become part of our daily life's. This all started back with SNES with games such as Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong. I have to add that these are not the first but are the most recognisable games. However, since they’ve been around they have also been the subject of scrutiny in the media due to violence, adult themes and racial slurs. Today, I will discussing both sides of the argument.

-“Closely targeting games to the needs of specific audiences is a strategy more likely to succeed.”

The video game industry has grown to gigantic proportions; it’s a medium of entertainment that has great influence over the youth and adults globally. As with any media channel it is diverse in its content from childish themes to more mature topics.

In the 90’s there was even enough media attention to video game violence that the United States Congress had a hearing on issuing age appropriate labels, much like in movies, to video games to warn parents of the contents of a game. Each of these matters have only helped further tarnish the reputation of video games, and draw worse misconceptions about them.

In the latter half of his first argument, Roberts boldly claims “Violent video games equate to violent behavior, especially in children whose brains are not fully formed yet” and “a game rated MA (Mature) doesn’t stop a kid from playing it,” yet there is utterly no evidence supporting these poor claims. In reality,according to the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s official website, a majority of parents check the video game rating before purchasing it for their child (ESRB). Robert draws a hasty generalization in hopes that readers will gloss over such details and ignorantly agree with Robert’s meaningless and false claims.

Both, the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation have delved into the issue on whether young children and adolescents should be exposed to violence in video games and the media, gaining much research through the use of multiple case studies. The results of these case studies were very similar, being consistently negative for both organizations. A Pew Research Center survey, in 2008, found that half of all teens reported playing a video game “yesterday,” and those who played every day

Video games are capable of building one’s character. Tom Bissell, an American journalist, explains from personal experiences in his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, how video games are able to “develop and customize one’s character indirectly” (218). Bissell argues that “Video games have always told some form of stories;” these stories are what enable and create the experiences the gamers are exposed to in the games (220). He states that the real-life experiences recreated in the games play a crucial role in improving the gamers’ ways of thinking, and personality traits (219). The freedom of choice video games offer in forms of what to do and where to point the camera in the game, teaches the gamers how to make decisions wisely and be responsible for their consequences, urging them to

Part of the appeal of video games might lie in giving children a means to activate the "passive" medium of television. In video games, children can enter into the character of movie and television heroes and take action as that character. The idea that video games are a means by which children can activate television is of crucial importance (Provenzo, 1992, para. 3).

The topic I chose was, “utilizing video games to achieve open and honest communication between parent and child.” I have personal experience, as a employee of one of the largest video game retailers, GameStop, in viewing how various video games impact communication between parents and their children. There are various measures that help regulate the audience that play these types of video games. One of these measures are the use of the ESRB rating system (Entertainment Software Rating Board), which is a system that rates games for its content to help consumers understand the content for games and its appropriateness for those who will be playing those games. This system uses a “M” rating, for mature games, intended for an audience of those who are 17 or older. These games receive a rating of mature due to their violence, language, and sometimes, sexual content.

Video games have long been a medium that belonged to the sectors of the population that felt as if they did not belong in their society. They are enticing games, from the arcade games of the 80’s and 90’s, to the PC and console games of the 2000’s, to hand held games and mobile apps that have become so popular in the past decade. Everyone from children to grandparents, and stay-at-home mothers to business men play video games or have played video games in their life times. They have been used as a form of empowerment and escapism for their audiences from their inception. The audience for video games is larger now than it’s ever been. As more and more women are getting involved with gaming, both in their creation and consumption, video games are not only becoming more diverse but are becoming an ideal conduit for feminist discourse. Because video games have such a broad audience, representation matters to the consumers; seeing and playing characters both like oneself and unlike oneself help individuals better understand their society. If feminism aims to create equality among genders, video games are the best forum for doing so because video games can allow gender to be see through difference lenses (i.e. race, class, ethnicity) while being accepted in all of its varied forms.

Many young children and teenagers have heard their mother’s incessant plead to get away from the screen and to go outside or pick up a book for once instead. The urge to play “just one more level” before starting that homework or doing those chores can be quite distracting. But are video games really as awful as Mom exclaims or as brutal as those TV ads depict? It turns out that video games can have a strong impact on participants’ lives in both positive as well as negative ways.