Video Game : The Cause Of All The Worlds Violence

Many theories are speculated of what drove people to create such massacres and harm to innocent victims. One of the most popular is that violent video games have an influence on these attacks. However, Matt Peckham, in “Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’” explains there isn’t much evidence to prove that theory and researches haven’t found a reasonable link between the two. Actually, on the contrary video games seem to benefit a person mind rather than harm them according to Mary Flanagan, in her article “Don’t Demonize Video Games for Violence.” Video games don’t influence a person’s mind because there is a psychological explanation to these occurrences therefore violent video games has no contribution to violence incidents across the nation.

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

People have been playing video games since the late 1970s, but it wasn't until 1999 that we began to question the consequences and influences associated with younger players. Karen Sternheimer's article "Do Video Games Kill" is about the controversial idea that video games are responsible for mass school shootings.

They shouldn’t just assume that the video games are causing these mass shootings and all the gun violence. There are so many other reasons why people are committing this crime. So, there has been a study that said violent or competitive video games cause aggression. In the Text Violent video games on pg 8 paragraph 3 it states, “The common thread running through all of these games is that that player becomes the shooter, from whose vantage point behind the gun the player sees the world. I understand that some teens and adults might fantasize about the real world while playing these video games.

School shootings years ago in Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Littleton Colorado, have raised the question time and time again. Do violent video games have an influence on children and their aggressive behavior? In all three of these brutal shootings, all the shooters were students who habitually played violent video games. The Columbine High School students who murdered thirteen and wounded twenty-three in Littleton before committing suicide after the shooting, enjoyed playing Doom, a bloody and violent video game. One of the shooters made a customized version of Doom: two shooters, unlimited ammunition, extra weapons, and victims who couldn’t fight back. This customized version of the game

After the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook in 2012 this issue of violent video games became a hot issue calling for a connection of violence to video games. However, the final investigative report suggested that he was more a fan of nonviolent games (Ferguson, 2015). Video game violence is an issue that continues to be studied due to the inability to come to a general conclusion on whether or not the games provoke violence in connection to mass shootings. With shootings occurring and receiving mass coverage the media and public often seek a person/item to place the blame on. After the tragic events that left people dead or injured one of the topics that emerged was that of video games affects/effects on the person.

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.

kids and even young adults play games like Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), Call of Duty, and

In today’s society, violence increases in the behavior of children growing into young adults more than it has in the past. Aggressiveness overwhelms the parents of those who once had innocent babies. Patterns of disrespectful social conduct is witnessed across the world. What influences this behavior in children? What can cause the negativity in a household of what used to be a loving family? Video games. One of the most popular activities for children, teens and young adults to pursue in their spare time. Hours spent staring at a television set manually making decisions towards unknown characters and objects can testify as one of the reasons behind violence growing in fans of particular video games.

Halo, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, and Assassin’s Creed—these are just some of the violent video games that are commonly played by boys and girls, young and old alike in today’s society. Many experts fear that this violence in video games increases violence in people in real life, causing people to act out as if they were in the video game, increasing aggressive behavior so much that it could actually escalate to shooting, stabbing, and killing people. There have already been many cases of these extreme examples of violence in the news that share a connection with video games. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the infamous shooters in the Columbine shooting were obsessed with the game Doom. James Holmes, the shooter in the movie theater in Aurora was reported to say that he felt as if he was in a video game. Adam Lanza, had played the game Combat Arms for hundreds of hours and killed tens of thousands of people in the video game before making it a reality at Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 innocent children and 6 staff members (T. McGrath, 2014). Of course, most video game players do not end up killing people in real life, but many people fear that violent video games significantly increase aggressive behavior. Some experts do not believe that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior because they say that there is not enough evidence to prove it but mounting evidence shows that violence in video games does indeed cause people

Violent video games have been accused of causing school shootings, violence towards women, and bullying, especially for the impressionable youth. Critics like Mitt Romney are arguing that games like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Far Cry desensitize players by teaching and rewarding violence. More than half of the 50 top-selling video games contain violence. However, many of the research studies cited by critics often fail to completely monitor control variables, ruling them to be an ineffective source. Factors like mental health, family history, and environmental change can cause a spike in violence, something that goes unaccounted for in short-term studies. These short-term experiments have people play a game for only 10 minutes to determine a rise in violence, which is not necessarily translated into how video games are played. Nonetheless, Cristopher J. Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University found that there was “no long-term link between VVG and youth aggression or dating violence” (Ferguson). Instead, violent video games can actually be a form of releasing stress and anger, leading to less real-world violence. In the peer-reviewed journal "Factors Correlated with Violent Video Game Use by Adolescent Boys and Girls", it was found that “61.9% of boys played to 'help me relax,' 47.8% because 'it helps me forget my problems,' and 45.4% because 'it helps me get my anger out" (Olson). Therefore, video games have value by providing an escape from reality that people can use, improving overall personal wellbeing. However, there are also arguments that gamers who tune out for hours on end develop depression due to lack of human interaction. However, this only occurs in the most severe cases and as Ferguson notes, “A very small number of kids, about 3%, exhibit signs of pathological gaming”. Relating back to video games being an outlet for the world, video games can also encourage socializing through online multi-player experiences. Making new friends and connecting with distant ones becomes easier, promoting healthy bonds. Therefore, there is no direct link or route to violence or depression that often guide the exclusion of video games having the ability to improve society. Instead, video

As video game sales skyrocket, violence in adolescents who play these video games decrease drastically. A letter from the Harvard Health Medical School explains that “Dr. Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Texas A&M International University, argued that many studies on the issue of media violence rely on measures to assess aggression that doesn't correlate with real-world violence — and even more important, many are observational approaches that don't prove cause and effect” (Harvard Health Publishing). Christopher Ferguson “also cited data from federal criminal justice agencies showing that serious violent crimes among youths have decreased since 1996, even as video game sales have soared” which proves that as millions of copies of video games are being sold each year, the number of violence among youths are diminishing significantly (Harvard Health Publishing). The approaches being used to justify that violence in video games influence violence in real life do not correlate due to the fact that there is valid data showing that violence has decreased.

Games are made to be interactive and enjoyed by consumers. People of all ages played games to relax and think about something besides work. Games were made so that people can have fun and not have to take anything personal or seriously. The controversy all started when a game called Death Race was introduced in 1976. It was a game where the players drove cars and ran over monsters called Gremlins. These monsters would pop up a tombstone after their deaths. At the time, games like these were controversial because there have never been a game about killing or murdering anything that’s fictional or nonfictional. Due to the situation of players and parents complaining, the creators of the game had to take down the games from store shelves.

David G. Myers mentioned that the cause of violent video game became an issue for public debate after teenagers in more than a dozen places seemed mimic the carnage in the shooter games they had so often played (Anderson, 2004, 2013). Based on the studies done for violent video games correspond with individuals having violent acts. On the journal article “An update on the effects of playing violent video games," Craig A. Anderson stated that violence video games first emerged with school shootings by avid players of such games which is in contrast to the Meyer’s Social Psychology article that a didn’t mention the connection or the issue with school shooting. Anderson took a more critical and specific approach in his research by mentioning the effects towards school shootings.