The Softening Of Shooter : The Softening Of Shooters

Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and Doom. Many know these games for their violent nature, stemming from their graphic scenes or gameplay involving shooting or beating up opponents, and these factors have caused these games to stir up quite a bit of controversy. For the last few decades, people have debated the effects of these games on the people who play them. Many believe those who play the games become more aggressive as a result of their violent nature, while others argue that playing the games has no effect on one’s behavior. Society should realize that violent video games have, at most, minimal effect on players’ behavior.

Throughout history man kind has always searched for ways to entertain himself, each time developing new activities and games. Video games have become a very popular way to spend time and have fun from the 1970’s up to now. With new developments appeared different video game genres from adventure to racing, but the violent video games appear to be the most popular ones (Shin, 2003), for example: shooters, fighting and video games where you have to eliminate, destroy, or kill your enemies.

Games with simulated violence are perilous for teens, because the teens participating are going through other people’s personal information, attacking people in public, and, more generally, are more violent when they are older.

The third media medium that has come under heavy fire lately is the video game industry. Nothing could instill a sense of violence into the mind of a person more strongly than actually controlling the person carrying the gun, and consciously shooting another player, just for fun. The Columbine shooters both enjoyed playing a game called Quake 2, an extremely violent (at the time) game released by a software company called id software. The game puts you in control of 8 weapons, from pistols and rocket launchers, to models of the shotguns the two shooters used in their terrible crime. One thing that troubles many Americans is how graphic these so called “First Person Shooters” have gotten since the Columbine days. Now, players are armed with far more realistic weapons, and are able to choose where their shots will land on the body of an enemy. In the Quake days, all shots looked the same when they hit an enemy, a body shot. Now, with games such as Counter-Strike and Soldier of Fortune you can actually tell a difference in the amount of damage that a person takes based on where you shoot them. In the later game, each and every shot that hits your enemy has it’s on entry, and exit wounds. Each time you slash the enemy with your knife, a slash appears on the enemy’s body wherever you hit them. In today’s age of violence among teenagers, is it really appropriate to have software designers such as id continue to make

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

Throughout my entire life, I have experienced a variety of video games. As a child, I eagerly watched my older siblings play various video games, and as I grew, my exposure to different types of games grew accordingly. Games I have come into contact with range from first-person-shooters to role playing games and from MMOS to survival multiplayers.   Recently, I have become invested in a new game, Star Wars Battlefront II.

Shooting games are surrounded by lots of controversies. This game genre is often accused of negatively affecting the minds of young children with its violence and encouraging youth to participate in the crime despite a lack of evidence to support that view. Despite all this controversy these games still remain one of the most popular genres around and are the largest sub-genre of Action Games. The majority of games have an element of shooting in them, not just games like Doom. Best-selling games with exciting stories such as Tomb Raider or Grand Theft Auto both involve shooting.

Video games; a pastime for many people across the world, a form of entertainment, and, of course, a way to destress yourself from the outside world. Video games have been around since October 18, 1958 and have been evolving rapidly through the years. “ More than fifty years ago, before either arcades or home video games, visitors waited in line at Brookhaven National Laboratory to play “Tennis for Two,” an electronic tennis game that is unquestionably a forerunner of the modern video game” (“The First Video Game” 1). Since then, you can play video games at a local arcade or buy a copy of a game you like at a store like Gamestop! There are several companies and millions of titles of games to play from and, definitely, a wide variety of platforms to play on. Video games have a plethora of genres and types of games to play. For example, one could embark on a new journey in a role-playing game like Fallout 3 to playing an american football game in the Madden series. The options do not just end right there! Since video games are advancing so if there content! Specifically, in their action and shooter genre. In a modern action/ shooting games, one can see the blood and even characters get their head blown off. Some video game titles have mass murder scenes and even sexual themes. “As the level of violence in video games has increased, so has concern for the effects on those who play - especially those who play a lot” (“Video Game

Most video games can be played by anyone because of their safe ratings for younger people. Games rated mature for violence or any other unsafe qualities, usually are played by people over the age of 17. Shooting games are one of the more violent genres that are played by people all the time. Usually putting two factions or types of people to fight each other in hatred of the other. The killing of one group of people in a game can be taken by some as racism or anti-semitic. But most games don’t try to disseminate or intentionally express hateful racism to other cultures. Rather, encourage and build positive cooperation with others in the gaming community and not being fazed by hatred or racism.

Video games shoulder the blame when discussing the delicate minds of children and what they are exposed to. The name of their game: Desensitization. A virtual reality which enables adolescents to relate to or live through a fictional character can undercut the violence some of these games let the player experience. “First person shooter (FPS), Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games and fighting games largely favor intense battles with temporary or no unfavorable consequences”(Philips 2009). Some games allow the user total freedom, including the ability to run over, shoot, and dismember pedestrians for points. The impact may vary between aggressive behavior and social ineptitude; either which still requiring a nominal amount of exposure to highly explicit depictions by this form of entertainment. In addition, not to be left out is the possibility that a lack of sufficient interaction from parental figures resulted in the reclusive or aggressive behavior of a child to begin with(Jones).

Superficially, the entertainment industry thrives on war. Nonetheless, useful insight from war can be seen from this industry. In fact, some developers have gone so far as to observe that "War is to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th; the pillar that supports the global economy" (Kojima), and upon examination, we can certainly see this to be the case. War has

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.

The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games were invented so that we could see through the eyes of the player, as if we were really experiencing it. Society wanted better graphics and games as time went on new technology was invented and society matured in electronics. This meant that for game creators would have to come up with something better selling than the last. Creators would make the games more violent and more realistic each time so that way they can keep the interest of their consumers. Each game would increase in blood or gore slowly, but what really got consumers to buy their games would be the update of graphics in the consoles or games. This is due to the drastic changing of technology and the maturing of consumers wanting better and newer violent video games. Violent video games can cause children to behave violently if not correctly supervised.

“In video games, the category of “first person shooters” has been controversial with critics concerned about what that means to players who actually perform acts of violence within the games. Instead of merely watching a character perpetrate a violent act, the player is actively encouraged to participate. Gamers will often refer to their characters as “he” or even “I.” “This suggests some confusion is brought on by the intense identification players sometimes feel towards their avatars. Players typically remain attached to a single character they can control; thus they have a very strong following pattern. Game designer, Will Wright, has argued that games may have a unique ability to make players experience guilt for the choices their characters have made in the course of action. Because players are making choices, they feel some degree of responsibility” (242-243).

Gaming has been such a huge part of nearly everyone’s life growing up as a kid and it’s only getting bigger and bigger every day. Growing up as a kid, online gaming wasn’t as popular as it is today. I started off with a Gameboy and Dreamcast console that later shifted to better consoles like the PlayStation, Xbox, Wii, and Nintendo. Nowadays, almost everyone, including myself, have shifted to the more popular gaming platforms in mobile games and online PC games. More specifically, certain types of online gaming styles like FPS, MOBA, and MMO are distinctly more popular than many others. Not only has the popularity for online gaming platforms evolved but the importance and relevance of