Video Games And Its Effects

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.

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

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

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

Originally, the purpose of violent video games is to entertain. However, its content encourages violence and invites to enjoy cruelty. When playing video games, kids are required to kill a human being to get a perfect score. If kids are left to spend plenty of time playing violent video games, they will be obsessed with brutality. As a result they will have difficulty to tell apart fantasy from reality and start dreaming about killing and scoring in real life. As it can be addictive, it also isolates them from human contact, which leads to lack of sympathy. That’s why most school shooters are great video gamers. I will support my thesis with evidences and quotes from expertise.

The story line behind some violent video games includes games in which players earn points by carjacking taxis, scoring drugs from cursing thugs, and mowing down pedestrians.(see http://www.feedmag.com/vgs/duncan.html>) Some cartoonish tag lines in some sadistic video games include : -- "As easy as killing babies with axes" and "More fun than killing your neighbour's cats". This kind of themes definitely influence the players, especially the younger ones, and inflict violent tendencies on them. It is no wonder, that this killing mania in violent games was seen to seep out into the actual world when a high school junior opened fire in his school cafetaria in Littleton, Colorado, killing two of his classmates. The gunman was reported to be an ardent fan of Quake and Doom, some rather violent video games. More proof of the relationship between video games and violence is revealed by a study which clearly reveals how this kind of entertainment affects our lives. Greater details of the history of how high school students turned gunmen in Columbine High School are given, which shows that the effect of video games in their lives was a major source of influence in doing what they did best.

As the level of violence in video games increases, so does the level of concern for those who play them. Some people are quick to blame school shootings on games just because the kid played a “violent” game. “The topic of videogames and violence can be compared to the chicken or the egg question, which came first, violent games or violent behavior”(Violence and Videogames). However most kids in mass shootings tend to have easy access to guns and are mentally unstable.

Some scholars argue however that violence in television, films and video games has in fact the opposite effect. As individuals become ‘saturated’ with violence, it can lead to a catharsis where videogames, television and films become a safe outlet to for aggressive feelings and emotions; as a result, individuals become less violent. Naturally, this argument goes against the idea that children are highly influenced by modelled behaviour as they try to replicate what they see (Freedman 2001). The influence of video games is therefore highly complex to resolve. Poole (2000) therefore argues that videogames may simply be part of many factors that lead to violent behaviour. Videogames as films and television may influence real life violence by having a particular style that is imitated. Pool argues that it is possible that the teenage murderers in America may have imitated the way in which people are killed in the video game Doom, however it is not possible to say that without playing the game they would not have killed their classmates. Research conducted in America reiterates this statement,

When shooting games first came on the scene, a pixel person looked more like a Lego than a human. There was no blood, guts, or any real depiction of the violence. But this is not the case anymore. Many video games could almost be confused for real life movies. The blood, gore, and killing is much more real and creates a lot less imagination to conjure. “But new psychological studies are finding that as violent games become more realistic, constantly playing them can lead to a desensitization toward real violence” (Bilton). Some would argue that the realistic graphics of the games sold don’t really matter because the actual number of people who commit violent acts is so far and few in-between. “Of those millions of players, few commit an act of violence, certainly not enough to say that statistically, video games is a principle cause- or even a significant cause- if the real world violent behavior” (Bezio). But its shouldn’t matter have frequent or how much damage is done, all that matters is that it is being done and innocent lives are being lost for reasons that could very well be

Children who play violent video games are often aggressive as shown by Carll and Elizabeth K.’s research has shown. After a young adult, Adam Lanza, had played School shooting, which as the name suggests you shoot students, went to a school and killed 26 students and staff members in total. As well Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who shoot kids and staff in Columbine high school were found playing Doom a violent game which in it you kill a lot of monsters. Video Games make people have worse relationships with people. This was all found in Opposing Viewpoints in Context, “Video Games”, “Video Games Prohibit Antisocial Behaviors”, “Violence in Video Games and Other Media Can Cause School Shootings”, and “Violence in Video Games is a serious problem”.

From news outlets, to politicians, to parents: when tragedies occur they place the blame on many different sources. After the Sandy Hook shooting, media networks fiercely debated whether or not video games played a part in the shooter’s motives, as he had played games from the notorious Grand Theft Auto series prior to the shooting. Some even suggested banning video games outright, despite the fact that other mediums that can portray violence, such as movies and television, were overlooked. It is my personal belief that video games can be a form of art, as they can send as powerful an emotional message as any movie or song can. Thus, I believe it is important to understand the motives behind the creation of these games as well as how people interpret their meanings.

Jerkin states that video games open up new aesthetic experience and transforms the computer screen into a realm of experimental. But what happens when the violence transforms from the TV and computer screens to real life behaviors? Sternhemier discussed three school shootings in Kentucky, Oregon and Colorado and how in all three cases the shooters loved playing shooting video games. This made it appear that the critic’s predictions about video games were coming true that they were they cause of violent behaviors.

Violence in video games can affect ones mindset in so many different ways, where we don’t even realize it. For example playing “Grand Theft Auto” for a few hours will change your mindset. Even though it wouldn’t be in a tremendous way, but for a few minutes your mindset will think, “This game is so much fun, I want to steal cars, have police chase me, shoot at people, even steal helicopters”. According to Social scientists in the New York Times, Many studies have shown that this is becoming a major issue because of how realistic these games are starting to look. According to PBS Newshour, Another issue is, with all these major shootings, such as the Sandy Hook, The theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, The Newton Killer, Adam Lanza ; all show that they played many violent video games. But there can be other reasons as to why they made such a major impact to this world. It could have been depression, bullying as a child, feeling socially isolated, or even a certain state of mind, where they feel like they have to transform that game into real life.

Approximately 115 million Americans play video games on a daily basis, 4 out of 5 American households admitted to owning a gaming system in 2016. Video Games have become a part of many American’s daily routine. Parents especially have had many concerns pertaining to this gaming behavior to determine if video games are safe for their children especially with the release of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto, where the main plot focuses around gang violence, drugs and alcohol and explicit language. Society has become concerned about the possible effects playing video games can have on a person’s behavior. The media has linked many shooting event for example, the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. Where the gunman was an avid gamer who

Frustrating nonviolent video games indirectly induce aggressive cognitions by linking thoughts and feelings. Such games also increase arousal but it is violent games that directly cause the emergence of aggressive thoughts, stimulating long term development of structures associated with aggressive knowledge. Carey (2013) gives perfect examples of video games causing aggressive behaviors in children. According to the reporter, the young men responsible for opening fire at Columbine High School and even those that opened fire at the Auorora, Colo movie theatre as was in the news were all found to be video gamers who were deemed to be acting out of some digital fantasy. The exposure to computer games gave the idea for them to go on rampage or at least aroused the urge for such acts. It would therefore be appreciated that computer games, also a form of video games, caused an arousal of aggressive behavior in the perpetrators. This makes it easy to appreciate that video games, specifically those involving violence, trigger aggressive behaviors.