The Controversy Of Video Games

With regard to the Columbine High School Massacre, which occurred on April 20th of 1999, where two teenage boys entered a school and set fire inside the school, killing twelve students and one teacher, evidence was found that the two murderers were avid video gamers and were fans of violent shooters. Investigators at the time could not find any reliable motives as to why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, would commit such a heinous crime. Many proposed that they were bullied in the school and wanted to take revenge on their classmates. When this theory failed, others blamed the violent video games they played. The FBI and its team of psychiatrists and psychologists, however, believe it was much deeper than that. According to world-renowned mental health experts, Dr. Frank Ochberg and Dwayne Fuselier, Eric Harris was labeled as a psychopath and Dylan Klebold was a depressive. In the popular usage anyone who kills senselessly or commits acts of violence can be labeled a psychopath; however, in medicine and scientific terms, a psychopath has a special meaning and is required to meet specific characteristics. Harris’ and Klebold's goal was not only to become nationally recognized, but their goal was to commit the biggest school massacre in the world in order to instill fear in the hearts of every human being who ever heard their story. Games could not have caused this type of behavior because games did not motivate them to commit this crime. It was the thought of being able to strike terror in the hearts of people all over the world that drove them. Yes, they only killed thirteen people in total but their target was much bigger than that. If they had wired the propane tanks to explode correctly, the number would have totaled over 600 people. Since, we now understand the motives and illnesses of the boys; could video games have provoked a medically

There are sports games, puzzle games, and even educational games to entertain gamers. For example, Chess a board game played for thousands of years made it’s way to the computer screen and is present in most computers for free. But unfortunately, the main controversy is over shooter type games which have heavy influence with mass shootings in people’s opinion. One despicable event was the shooting on the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The nefarious Adam Lanza was found to be a fan of violent games like Call of Duty and Gears of War that revolve around shooting targets (People) as one of the main objectives. Society could put blame on the creation of first person shooters genre of this tragic event but it was not significantly major part. The state attorney of the investigation reported that “Shooter had significant mental health issues that…did affect his ability to live a normal life.” (Good) Adam Lanza played first person shooter games but was seen most of the time before playing Dance Dance Revolution with his close friend in a theatre arcade. That friendship with his close friend came to an abrupt end and life may have gone worse for Adam. There were struggles in school finding a niche and with his family being divorced when he was young. Real life events have the impact to change someone drastically to make an individual unstable to coexist in the real world. Experts can say playing violent video games are boosting the aggression inside of people to become violent. On the other hand “exposure to video game violence neither increased aggressive behavior, nor decreased prosocial behavior” (Ferguson) according to a video game violence researcher themselves. They researched thoroughly in their lab looking for the answers and could not prove video games caused people to act violent. When a person decides to commit heinous massacres their reasons cannot be because the video

Did you know that the Mario franchise is the most successful video game series, selling over 225 million games since Mario’s first debut in 1981? Many video games, such as the many Mario games, can be used for hours of entertainment. Many people debate about video games and if they have a positive or negative effect on our lives. Video games can be used for educational purposes, such as improving and helping develop better motor skills and coordination. There are even video games that can improve reaction times and multitasking skills with quick paced rounds where the player has to spell multiple words ranging in complexity and length to get rid of targets while being sure not to get hit themselves. However, video games can also have powerful

During the advent of video games, the world was taken by storm, as this new type of entertainment caught the attention and imagination of the populace; but as this attention grew, concern and scrutiny weren’t far behind. Controversy finally got its chance in the 1990s, when games finally upgraded to 16-bit, giving them the ability to depict realistic blood and gore in games like Moral Kombat; which was criticized for excessive violence, a reason Congress used to create the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) (Porter & Starcevic 2007). At the same time, First-person shooters (FPS) began to rise in the gaming world, but received a lot of opposition when Doom (a FPS) became infamous for its association with the 1999

Video games have become a common pastime for children and adults of the modern world. However, there is widespread concern that children are becoming violent due to these virtual realities. There is a large amount of “grey area” in this subject, where the lines between right and wrong become blurred by confusion and misinformation mixed with uncertainty and big business marketing. The virtue of video games is being discredited or shunned by people who are against violent ones. A study was performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison pertaining to the benefits of video games ("University of Wisconsin-Madison; Study Finds Violent Video Games Provide Quick Stress Relief, but at a

Every few years when an unfortunate school shooting takes place in North America, we see headlines all over the news about how violence in video games were the cause of these incidents. The troubled person or persons who performed this act played video games. The media and outraged parents around the world, use games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty as the scapegoats of the video game industry. However today, current research suggests that the effects of violent video games are still very inconclusive and there are very little if any, scientific facts that can be used to prove they are the cause of these violent acts. From my point of view this leads me to feel that video games are not the real problem here.

The real question to all of the recent video game controversy is whether or not children’s behavior is truly affected by the fantasy violence portrayed in the games today. Is it true that this depiction of violence in video games resulted in any sort of increase in the crime rate? The FBI states that it hasn’t. The FBI released information on October 17, 2005 that stated that the violent crime rate in the United States went down last year, and has also dropped drastically over the past twenty years (Radford). This evidence states that my theory is wrong about the affects of violent video games and children, but I still have my doubts. I do not believe that all children playing these games go out and commit actual violent crimes seen in video games. I believe that it is not morally healthy for a child with a developing mind to witness and act out animated violence on television. These children that play violent games do not understand what all they are affecting when they point a gun and shoot a random person walking down the street. The video

The long-standing controversial issue of the correlation between aggressive videogames and violence committed by adolescents has been debated and researched since the early 1980’s. The video gaming business has become a multi-billion dollar business which has great influence on our society. Due to the financial gains and the technological advances, video games have become more realistic over time. some popular video games today are so realistic that many perceive them as simulations, these video games are just games nothing more.. Many argue that there are positive benefits as well as negative effects of aggressive video games available to play.

A journalist, Benedict Carey, from the New York Times suggests, “the young men who opened fire at Columbine High School, at the movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and in other massacres had this in common: they were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage — or at least fueled their urges.” This evidence demonstrates that these monsters that committed these awful crimes seemed to have been acting out massacres only found in the horrifically violent video games. “The video games these days are more realistic and bloodier than ever.” This quote shows that the addicted shooters were taking the horrendous circumstances, as shown in the violent video games, and acting it out in real-life.

For the past twenty years, whenever there has been a shooting of any kind, committed by a young male, people have blamed video games. They say that video games make people violent. But that isn’t true. Video games may make people violent while playing them, but that violence never leads any further than yelling at the television screen. Video games should not be put down. In fact, video games help people better their motor skills, the military uses video games for training exercises, and a lot of people use video games to relieve stress.

Mario Kart, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto, are all wildly popular video games. Whether you are killing monsters or trying to amass as much gold as possible, people play video games as an escape into a virtual world from the reality we live in. Over the years, video games have acquired a tainted reputation for the violence often found in many popular titles. Although people view video games to be destructive to children and society, studies have shown numerous medical, social, as well as psychological benefits that strongly outweigh the potential harm.

Video game violence and its controversies have changed the way many people look at games. It is true that some video game violence cause shootings, but video game controversies are more of a myth than a fact because there is not enough evidence to back up the claims that people make. Many people agree and disagree with this topic. Gamers who play games disagree with the government to ban games with violence. Gamers disagree that video games cause violence. They believe that only people without mentality are the cause of violent shootings around the world. However, government officials and political advisors disagree with gamers. Because of mass shootings people blame video games for their violence. The first thing investigators do is look for the shooter’s house and do research on him or her. Investigators usually look for games to blame on this topic of controversy.

Video games are popular and crime is not rising. From 1994-2014, video game sales have increased by 204% while juvenile murder has decreased 76%. Most shooters are people full of anger and struggling with mental health problems. When there is a school shooter, most people blame violent video games, but almost all young males play violent video games. Deathrace was one of the first video games to feature violence. From the time it was released, the homicide rate in the US has roughly been cut in half. “Countries that consume more video games have a lower level of crime than those devoid of this media (Markey).” Many people argue that violent video games cause violence, but violent crimes have not risen as video games have become more popular.

During the last decades, the popularity of violent video games has increased significantly. In the United States, more than 90% of children play video games. Surprisingly, more than 85% of video games on the market contain some sort of violence. In the late 90s, games like Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Grand Theft Auto drew everyone’s attention for the brutality and violence that these games contained. Parents, teachers, and scholars started blaming video games for school shootings, and juvenile crimes. They argued that this kind of games desensitize players, and make children believe that violence is an acceptable way to solve conflicts. Many studies have taken place surrounding this issue, however, there is still no conclusive proof that violent video games and real-life violence are linked. So the question remains, do violent video games make people violent? The goal of this paper is to attempt to bring and connect modern research on violent video games and expose if these games have an impact in the real world.

An entertainment that has been around for years now, and progresses technologically is becoming the blame for real life criminal acts in youth. Every year video games advance to becoming more realistics in all of their aspects. It is said that the fictional acts in video games are causing real life criminal actions, and in result the media is posting blame to them. Video games are one of the most argumentative cause to criminal acts or aggressive acts in youth. According to Videogames.procon.org, “Video games have been pinpointed to being the lead cause to the Sandy Hook and Columbine shooting.” News outlets bring up the fact violent video games in almost any criminal act committed by youth. Instead of diving into research and developing facts and supported evidence; reporters find using the easier route to be best. They just simply blame it on something else, and in this case violent video games. So, the question to be answered is do violent video games contribute to such criminal actions in youth? Much research has been done trying to conclude an answer to this question, but the results have and will be always the same, they do not. Video games are merely a form of entertainment the only action they will encourage is aggression.