Shoot-Out Analysis

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.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

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.

There has been a lot of disagreements on teenagers play violent role playing games. Some people say it’s distracting for teenagers to play violent role playing games and some say it helps them. The assassin is a popular game that was developed in 2003 by Warren Gerstacker. It is now a popular game that is also played in Brooklyn Private School. If you ask me, I say it is good. Nicholas Kilstein stated “Students either became creative or was already creative because of assassin.” First of all, violent role playing games helps students in the future for jobs and colleges. Second of all, violent role playing games motivate and encourage students to work together. Lastly, violent role playing games help students learn smarts that aren’t taught in school. Teenagers should be able to play violent role playing games because it builds creativity.

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.

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.

Video games help players to have a safe and healthy escape from reality. Players feel that playing video games give players a safe outlet for angry feelings. In fact, an increase in the consumption of violent video games has been associated with a decline in youth violence (Ferguson “Are Violent Video Games Really to Blame?”). This is due to the fact that video games help to fulfill the human desire for competition, especially games that center around their multiplayer modes (Marcovitz 15). Video games also give players a powerful sense of control over their situation,

YES: I think that violent games are ok for teens because they’re diverting, keeping their minds off of doing drugs and other stuff like that.

Having the teens play this game might be helpful and good. It makes the teens more sociable, also it gives them some skills that they can use in the future.”A total of seventy players…” More than 70 people are involved in the game. This is good because they can talk to people and also make more friends. “No study has ever shown that violence video games result directly in actual violence….”

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

One of today’s most debated topics is whether violent video games cause bad behavior. This topic has been researched for almost 30 years and there are still major opinion differences. Many psychologists say violent video games do cause bad behavior, and claim that games such as Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, and Modern Warfare, desensitize people to violence, making it a norm in society. Others disagree, claiming that these games, although they can be very violent, can help people develop critical thinking skills. (Nonviolent video games are preferred for this though). The truth is, violent video games do both; studies indicated that some games increase aggressive thought, feelings and behaviors in both the long and short term. But, studies

Good Morning, everyone, i'm going to start off with a poll of who all plays video games in this class. A lot of you/ maybe not too many in this class play video games and/but, as of 2015, 42% of Americans played video games at least 3 hours a week, which is roughly 135 million of the total population. This proves that video games play a large role in our society. Today I’m going to be speaking about the psychological effects that video games have on youth, but in order to do that, I need to inform you of the evolution of violent video games, the effects of violent video games, and the positive effects of video games.

Findings supporting these claims also show that with an increase in violence comes other negative health risks such as an increased likelihood of substance abuse, sexual activity, and obesity(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). Media use, and subsequent exposure to violent content is extremely prevalent among 8 to 18 year old children who spend, on average, 7.4 hours a day using media or computers and 80% of teens have some type of gaming console(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero) These claims and the amount of media children are exposed to were concerning enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics started making advisory statements about violent video games and media being health risks for children in 2001. (Hall, Day, and Hall) Since then the link between violent games and violent behavior in youths has been researched across many “population groups”(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). The second theory revolves around any positive effects that might be gained from playing these games (Hall, Day, and Hall). Stating that these may offer “safe” outlets for negative emotions and thusly allowing players to be more emotionally balanced. (Hall, Day, and Hall)

“On the other hand, considering a specific violent video game may have the reverse effect and actually reduce perceptions of negative effects if it is difficult to generate arguments for negative effects of the specific game” (Ivory, Kalyanaraman 4). Although you may believe that violent video games increase the youth violence rates, in actuality some violent video games can have separate effects on youth depending on the child for instance, one child could become more violent whereas another child will not have the urge to be violent.

A major opposition to violence video games leading to aggression is that the research that was done is not a valid research. Henry Jenkins said “...most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds” (2). The studies are not inconclusive because in the studies that the researchers do they