Video Game Violence

THESIS STATEMENT: The world’s media today seem to have more violence than ever. Video games have vivid depictions of accident catastrophes, fighting and murder. Television news programs generally lead with a violent story in order to gain an audience. This is free society people can stay what they want. ‘’ Media violence has many negative effect on youth today to commit crimes in society.’’

According to Huesmann Rowell L., "One of the notable changes in our social environment in the 20th and 21st centuries has been the saturation of our culture and daily lives by the mass media. In this new environment radio, television, movies, videos, video games, cell phones, and computer networks have assumed central roles in our children’s daily lives. For better or worse the mass media are having an enormous impact on our children’s values, beliefs, and behaviors. Unfortunately, the consequences of one particular common element of the electronic mass media has a particularly detrimental effect on children’s well being. Research evidence has accumulated over the past half-century that exposure to violence on television, movies, and most recently in video games increases the risk of violent behavior on the viewer’s part just as growing up in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of

Since Columbine, in which two students carried out one of the most deadly school shootings in history. Video games, TV, and movies have been a sought-after target for acts of violence. After the Columbine shooting, the media thrust the idea that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s tendency for violent video games, not to mention screamo music and somewhat goth subculture, were partly to blame for the terrible day in history.

John Leo’s “When Life Imitates Video” is a persuasive work against violent media with children. Many of Leo’s points are first person with reaching correlations between violent media and life violence. Leo states that many of school shootings are related to video games. One of facts, he states is that because of shooters aiming for heads means they received that from videogames. Even if that was true, the way he states it may not have been the correct way. Leo’s stretch of the correlation between both real-life violence and media violence was unsupported. Leo’s work was supported by personal opinions on each issue at hand. If he could add statistic into the work, then he could have appealed with the ethos and pathos of the work. His major point to consider is that violent media is an opening for real life violence. As media violence creates a sense of violence being an acceptable thing in society, and it must be stopped at the source. While the need to stop violent media to prevent major massacres or school shootings is important, it’s also equally important to understand that it isn’t the only thing to create these incidents. Many factors contribute to these incidents for the future.

Columbine High School massacre. Virginia Tech shootings. Sandy Hook Elementary School slaughter. Umpqua Community College rampage. When someone hears any of these phrases, violent images come to mind. Since the first of these incidents, some questions have been, “Why did this happen? What caused these ‘kids’ to become violent?” One predominant thought has been that violence in media experienced as children, such as video games, could be the reason. Violence in media is common and accepted today. Escalation of violence has increased significantly in movies, video games, and even music videos for years now. This violent trend in media is becoming more and more popular with children, youth, and adults. For instance, the only violence articulated

One of the many observed effects of social media is the violent tendencies that seem to become more common in the upcoming generations. Many video games and movies show a lot of violence and these things can sometimes make an impression on the children. Even though there are many studies on media violence on children, there are really no clear answers. But different television, film, video games, etc. have definitely raised the level of violence in children and it continues to rise. Murray, a developmental psychologist, says even though that television and film are just as violent but video games are more worrisome in that it requires the player to be heavily involved in the game, and through repetition

This leads to lack of sympathy for victims of violence, notably in children. The surgeon general, National Health Institute and other professional medical organizations such as the American Medical Association and American Psychological Association have linked exposure to media violence to societal violence. The author argues that these studies may not be of considerable importance to claim that media violence is a public health risk. There other factors that are of more concern for societal violence such as being male or female, socioeconomic status, and intelligence. More research needs to be done before arguing media violence has a role in societal violence. I chose this article because it associates societal violence with the film industry. We see how different members of the film industry respond after a violent school shooting committed by an adolescent male. It shows opposing views of whether or not media violence affects behaviour, stating that the general public doesn’t believe it plays a role in

Lately, it seems that there has been an abundance of horrible mass shootings and brutal violence in our world. In today’s seemingly dangerous world, parents are yearning to protect their children from getting involved in these savage crimes. Now, a great deal of people, especially parents, accuse violent video games as the cause of this growing epidemic. The controversy of video game induced violence has a long history, but it didn’t appear in the spotlight until the disturbing Columbine shooting in 1999, when the gunmen were said to have been addicted to violent video games. Since 1999, there have been more mass shootings and vicious crimes that have been accursed on video games. While siding with the belief that video games create violence

A significantly large portion of the video games created within the past 5 to 10 years contain some form of violence. On top of that, some of the most popular video games out in the market today are extremely violent and warrant an “M” rating for mature. Video game developers are well aware of this trend and continue to produce more graphic, interactive, and realistic content. Therefore, there is a concern that the vast amount of violence in video games is changing how youth develop and what they perceive as normal. Many researchers believe that there is a link between video games and increased aggression in the people who play them.

Throughout the history of video games, one of the most important parts of having a video game is the controller. For years ever since video game consoles have been invented it has had a controller to operate all of its features.Without the controller you would not be able to operate the video game console because the controller is like a beacon to the console,it does whatever the controller operates it to do. The controller structure is a very unique design and model. It is built into a way that it can be held and it fits the grooves of your hands so that you can manage to operate all the buttons on the controller to perform the actions that transfer to the game system which shows up on the television. Although due to failures in the video game, the controller becomes the most frustrating aspect of the game.

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.

Are violent games danger to the consumer/player? The violent video game is causing the consumer/player to mental problems by doing bad things and think that is alright. Violent video games are harmful because it allows the consumer/player to actively do crime without being punished. We should increase the age of the consumer/player so they won’t be able to purchase these violent games and some of the consumer/player isn’t mentally stable and if they get shooting fighting games would mess with their mental state even more.

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.

            In recent times, the news media has cried out against violent media, painting it as the leading cause for youth violence. Following events such as the Columbine massacre, news sources have vilified violent media, claiming that it is a primary cause of violent behavior in youths. This analysis provides firm research on the subject from the opposing and supporting sources, giving a thorough definition to the term “violent media” and  brings forth evidence that other psychological effects and environmental factors are more significant causes of increased youth aggression than violent media.

In the book Critique of Violence ,author Walter describes Violence as "The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, male development, or deprivation .The violence that is portrayed in the media has been debated for decades ,and it has rose a question about how does it influence the youth?. From movies to video games society has been accustom to seeing violence in their everyday entertainment. Since children are easy to be influence by their environment, it is safe to say that violence in the media can and will contribute to violent behavior.