Simulated Violence

In today’s time with the new head turning technology in video games most of the games have some sort of violence present in them. Many games past and present incorporate some kind of violence such as, killing with weapons, using explosives, and crashing cars. With all of the present day technology all activities portrayed during in-game scenarios are becoming more and more realistic. In 2005 the state of California enacted a law to ban the sale of certain violent games to children without the consent of their parents. The law was created based upon the idea that with the realistic in-game events real behavior could be drastically effected by the violence. The worries are that tragic events such as massacres could occur based on ideas seen in games. Incidents such as high school shooting have heightened concerns of potential connections between violent games and violent actions.

Whether violent media content leads to real-life violence is always debatable. And in recent years, school shootings have made video games a new focus of public concern and scientific research. In public opinion, video games cause more aggression in comparison to traditional violent media contents because video games have more features of interactivity, "due to the active engagement and participation of players" (Hummer and Wang et al. 137). But more and more reports tell us that video games are not the main cause of school shooting issues; rather it is the negligence of parents, schools, and communities.

The most extensive argument many have argued toward violent video games affecting one’s behavior can simply be described as that many shooters were fans of violent video games before committing the shootings. A common example people making this argument raise are the Columbine shooters, who were big fans of the video game Doom. While many believe that Doom’s excessive gore and violence led the two teens to perpetrate the mass shooting, that is not the case. What those who argue against video games fail to realize that those who commit these crimes had a history of other conditions. After many mass shootings, researchers often discovered in autopsies that the suspect had a long history of aggression or mental health problems that gaming was not responsible for. Patrick Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson, writers for US News, wrote

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

Video games are prevalent among impressionable children and teenagers. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the violent themes used in video games. Teenage shootings in schools have led society to question the relationship between video violence and criminal activity. After considerable research, expert opinions, and research findings, the American Psychological Association found that there is no link between gaming and criminal behavior (Casey). With this, the pursuit of video violent games continues to grow in our society. With games that show execution style murders, blood oozing from gunshot wounds, and victims moaning from wounds, it certainly is gratifying for the indulgent player. The ongoing concern about aggression and violence has once again been proven to be non-existent (Alert). My thoughts are that this cartoon like violence is appeals to the need for violence in an artificially designed environment. In this manner, violence is contained within the boundaries of fantasy. This is unlike “The Crucible” which occurs in with real people, events, and situations. Thus, directing violence in the realm of societal dysfunction that has endured with

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.

Some people think kids shouldn’t play violent role playing games because they think it gets kids to stalk other kids, but i think it’s good because it promotes teamwork, strategy, and espionage, all three of which will help the student in the future. At St. Ann's high school a game lasts two and a half weeks and has built up a seventeen-point rule book, a map of the safe zones around the school, a judge, and an entry fee, all for a harmless water pistol game. In the end this was all just about Killer, a last-man-standing game of water-pistol ambush, just because people considered it a violent role playing game even though it teaches the kids a lot and is just a water pistol game and if you still disagree with me go out out and try it for yourselves

The story line behind some violent video games includes games in which players earn points by carjacking taxis, scoring drugs from cursing thugs, and mowing down pedestrians.(see http://www.feedmag.com/vgs/duncan.html>) Some cartoonish tag lines in some sadistic video games include : -- "As easy as killing babies with axes" and "More fun than killing your neighbour's cats". This kind of themes definitely influence the players, especially the younger ones, and inflict violent tendencies on them. It is no wonder, that this killing mania in violent games was seen to seep out into the actual world when a high school junior opened fire in his school cafetaria in Littleton, Colorado, killing two of his classmates. The gunman was reported to be an ardent fan of Quake and Doom, some rather violent video games. More proof of the relationship between video games and violence is revealed by a study which clearly reveals how this kind of entertainment affects our lives. Greater details of the history of how high school students turned gunmen in Columbine High School are given, which shows that the effect of video games in their lives was a major source of influence in doing what they did best.

The first reason that the game, “KIller”, is perilous for teens is that participants go through the personal information of their classmates. Guy Martin in his article “Shootout” (2009) notes that, “In 2007, Jake Protell, a freshman, distinguished himself by ferreting out the itinerary of a field trip that two targets were taking to Tel Aviv.” Based on this excerpt, it seems as though some irresponsible students are willing to sort through field trip forms that do not concern them, just to “kill” someone in the game. In a similar situation of invading personal information, a group of [adjective] seniors “Posing as Cohen’s teammate Dominic, using Dominic’s caller I.D. The call had been engineered from a remote computer by a squad member with prodigious hacking skills.” This quote from the article shows that students in the game went as far as to use someone else’s phone number to call the landline of a victim’s house, where they most certainly don’t

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.

The game “killer” is a game in which teams enter the competition for $20 that goes towards the winner's pot. First of all kids are encouraged to provide money that they are gambling for the win. Also where teams have to strategically ”kill” other players and teams which in some scenarios gets pretty extreme and go too far. In the article “High-Jinx: shoot out” the author tells about one team who hacks into a phone account and poses as a boy's friend calling him to come outside...but the only thing is, that’s illegal it’s considered identity theft. That is an example of a case that went too far. In other schools kids are causing problems with the police and it has been a fear of police that gang members in their city may use the game to their advantage, painting real guns to look like water guns creating a confusing problem for the police.

Do you want your child learning how to make successful “kills” at school? Do you want your child running around free of responsibilities because they are too caught up in some violent shooting game? Do you want your child spending their free time murdering people in video games that are nearing closer and closer to reality? This is exactly what some students do in their day. Some high schools in New York have adopted the ritual of role-playing killer games as an end of the year tradition. Violent games such as role playing games and rated M for mature video games are a dangerous thing for young, impressionable minds to be playing because, kids should not be encouraged to kill, the games could lead to trouble with the law, the games reward you and encourage you to kill each other, and they teach you how to strategize in the wrong ways.

It has been shown that games linked to simulated violence could enroll players into an unpleasant situations because mock weapons cause much more harm than it appears to be. The article entitled “Livermore Police Want to See an End to ‘Assassin’ Game” written by Alan Wang further presents the brief that role playing games with simulated violence are perilous. According to Wang, “...senior accidentally crashed her car into a house while playing... “Assassin’ ” (2014). The author used this particular scene to illustrate that the participant involved in the incident took the game outside the boundaries by playing the ‘Assassin’ while she driving in her car, and this already demonstrates the crisis this game has influenced on student’s decisions. This demonstrates how driven the participants are to this game to the point where reckless driving is present due to students having the a large amount of urgent of trying to ambush their target. This evidence reveals how reckless driving could put many people endangered such as yourself, your passengers, other motorists, and

On July 22, 2016, an 18 year old male began to open fire on the Olympia Shopping Mall in Munich, Germany. After successfully killing ten and injuring 36 more, the gunner turned the firearm on himself and ended his own life. After a long investigation, it was reported that the shooter was a fan of First Person Shooter (FPS) video games. This newfound information sparked a new flame to the decade old argument of how video game violence leads to aggressive behavior and more real world violence in teens and young adults. While many news posts spread the word that videogame violence is negative, there have actually been an overwhelming amount of studies and debates that result in videogames with violence having mental and physical benefits to the player.

As shown throughout the story Shootout, killer teaches and encourages violence. Studies have shown that many people have used the violence learned in role playing games and carried it out in the real world. In the game killer played in schools, kids are encouraged to make “kills” by shooting others with water guns. As quoted in the story, “The game lasts two weeks and is especially ferocious”( Martin 1).It is important to notice that introducing teens to violence before they are out on their own can encourage violence in the real world. Some might get so caught up in what happens in a role playing game, that it can carry out aggression in the real world. According to Guy Martin, games such as killer can cause people to turn on each other and can even cause people to call it a massacre. Massacre is not a word to be played around with, for it is a real life tragedy ( Martin 1). This is significant because when one plays around with a word that is a