The Importance Of Violence And Video Game Violence

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.

Numerous studies have been done, showing no direct correlation between video games and actual violence. “The US Secret Service conducted a review in 2004 aimed at identifying causes of school shootings, and it found just 12 percent of studied attackers -- that's 5 out of 41 -- expressed an interest in violent video games”(Conditt, 2018, para 6). It was found that video games actually decrease violence in the real world. There was an economic study conducted in 2016 that found, ¨a reduction in crime in the weeks after major video game releases¨ (Conditt, 2018, para 7). This is because the video games give people an outlet to release violent thoughts and frustrations in a safer, virtual environment. In fact, video games actually decrease violence on the

Matthew Grizzard et al., "Being Bad in a Video Game Can Make Us More Morally Sensitive," Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, July 2014. Another study published in Computers in Human Behavior discovered that youths exposed to violence in action games displayed more prosocial behavior and civic engagement, "possibly due to the team-oriented multiplayer options in many of these games."Christopher J. Ferguson and Adolfo Garza, "Call of (Civic) Duty: Action Games and Civic Behavior in a Large Sample of Youth," Computers in Human Behavior, Mar.

There is a large amount of research by many respected academics that show the correlation between video game violence and real life violence (Bartholow, B.D., Sestir, M.A., Davis, E.B., 2005). However, that does not mean video game violence is the cause of real life violence. As other studies by equally respected academics show, people that are already predisposed to violence tend to gravitate towards playing video games (Delamere, F.M., 2005). There is no proven causal conclusion to be drawn from all the research done on this subject; although, the writer tries to draw his own conclusion: "I believe that [violent video games, music and movies] do the total opposite and allow us to vent some of the built up anger we have that leads to violence." If only he provided some kind of concrete evidence to prove his point, it would sound much more credible.

Violent video games and video games in general cause less crime and gun violence. According to U.S. News, “countries who play more video games, for example Japan, have less crime and gun violence.” Violent video games allow players to make choices that will affect them in a video game so that they don’t try to do it in the real world. According to BBC News, “youth violence in the U.S. and around the world is currently at a 40 year low.” In countries with more people that play video games, gun sales and crime are lower than countries with less people that play video games.

Video games in their entirety do not cause violence. When you look at the games that are out now, most depict events in life past or present. Others go on a fairy tale ride that most people can discern the difference.

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

The issue of video game violence seems to be a hot topic right now after several shootings have occurred and made a connection to the shooters being video gamers. In looking at past research it is apparent that there seems to large amounts of research that contradict one work to another. Although I would have been interested in conducting a poll of the publics opinion regarding the use of violent video games and their connection to mass shootings I was not able to conduct the research. However, for this paper I chose to conduct a literature analysis to see what research has been conducted and to seek out gaps and themes in this research.

These opponents argue, specifically, that “video game players know the difference in video game violence and real world violence.” (Video) Yes, they may know that shooting people on a game is nothing compared to any criminal act in the real world, but they are also youth players. Not many seven year olds are going to have the chance to have a gun; therefore, they will lash out and behave inappropriately in the “real world” because they see this behavior being portrayed in the games. For example, an elementary student could get frustrated with a friend. Similarly, the same student gets frustrated when playing a violent game. During the game, the youth throws his controller. During the argument with his friend, he hits. Not only that, but a child who spends hours of his day being a violent character in a game will soon mistake their fictional character for reality. This will lead them into mistaking that character for who they really are and how that character handles violence; in turn, they handle violence outwardly and without thought. When this occurs, it will affect their behavior at home, at school, and around their peers.

Playing video games does not cause violent behavior. Don’t get me wrong, some video games show horrific acts of violence. “A recent survey found that 92 percent of U.S. kids--ages 2 to 17--play video games, and their parents bought 225 million of them last year to the tune of $6.4 billion.” (Sider 79).What’s here to argue is that violent video games do not cause violence among children, but the blame for violence should be on the individual and people who should have taught the individual better. If kids are not able to see the difference between reality and fantasy, then they really can’t be blamed for committing acts they see in a game and then imitating, not fully understanding the consequences of doing it in the real world.

Violent games are often played by kids, and kids are the main group of people who have desire to win. So, this mentality causes them get more and more angry, which may directly led to crimes. It is easy to have a casual effect after losing a game. That could makes people want to play another round, until they addicted into games. Children are still growing, and they start another game because they lose the last game, and this cycle will make the children more addictive. If games play more, they will feel immersive, it will give people a fake impression, and will affect the children 's growth. Also it influencing people’s time, this may cause children have less time to feel our planet, the outside world. Some of them are limited by violent video games, because they already addicted by those games. Secondly, violent behavior in reality is often caused by violent video games. People who likes to play violent video games are easy to get confused about reality and virtual. People are very focus when they play games, games could let people feels they are the character in the game. It could make people get angry, and once they finished their game, back to reality, they also may still think about the game, and want to have a chance to experience it, whether the result is as same as the game or not, and this could lead them to have a strong violent behavior in reality. Violent video games may change

Should teens be able to buy violent video games? No, teens should not be able to purchase video games that contain violent content. Violent video games in a person’s early years could result in much, much worse things later on in life. Studies show that violent video games could result in bullying, criminal activity, or in worse cases, suicide.

Most of us have certainly pondered on the thought if video games truly create violent citizens, I personally believe that video games do not what so ever. One must distinguish this topic accurately and consider learning to differentiate and not have a biased or radical opinion. There have been many attempts from a number of different people who have tried to give a bad name to video games due to the simulations and realness and say that video games will create a negative environment for anyone who plays them, especially in children. Enthusiasts of video games have spent decades asserting that there is no underlying link between playing violent titles and engaging in the violent real-world behavior. Brand-new data confirms their contentions.

Video games are quite a blast to play through. Being able to take up the mantle of a plumber and stomping on some enemies sounds fun, am I right? How about destroying hordes of enemies with any gun of your choice? While these things may sound great and harmless as it is to you, it isn’t to some others. There are those who blame violence within video games as a leading cause of violence in youth and players as a whole. News outlets and even outraged parents have blamed any sort of violence to have been caused by the violence within video games. This is a problem since it not only shows how uninformed these people are when it comes to this subject, but also how they don’t really consider the facts that have been given to disprove that the violence in video games is a main factor in causing real-life violence. With that said, there are a few reasons as to why violence in video games doesn’t cause violence. The first reason is that the vast majority of players that play violent video games refrain from real-life violence, the second is that the relationship between real-life violence and video games are weak, and the last reason would be that other forms of media also contain violence.

Since the birth of shooting games such as, but not limited to, DOOM, Call of Duty, and Modern Warfare, when pertaining to these games, just listed have been around for many years, and likely aren't going anywhere, and very few, if any, cases involving violent children have been linked to these games. Do violent video games make people violent in real life? Well, to be quite honest, I do NOT think that violent games make people actually violent because people make their own choices, video game have been proven to be a good stress reliever, and they actually have been shown to improve the functions of the right hemisphere of the brain.