Video Games And The Video Game

In the year 2016, more than 10 million copies of Grand Theft Auto were sold. Grand Theft Auto, among other video games focus on illegal crimes. For example Grand Theft Auto, frequently makes references to drugs, murder, and robbery. Even though video games are much more violent than they were in the 1990’s, video games over the years have managed to make an impact on American culture. Some ask why violent video games are such a concern for America? Well according to Times Magazine,“The average U.S. gamer age 13 or older spent 6.3 hours a week playing video games during 2013.” With people becoming addicted to video games, others begin to worry if videogamers will start to blur the line between the virtual world and reality. In the book Columbine, the author David Cullen states media reporters, partially blamed video games for the Columbine Massacre. “When he was eleven, id Software released the video game Doom. Eric found the perfect virtual playground to explore his fantasies.” (Cullen,114) The shooters Dylan, and Eric before the Columbine Massacre fantasised about murder, and in the video games they played they were allowed to be killers. Although, media reporters stated that videogames, were a reason the Columbine Massacre occurred, David Cullen addresses that video games had nothing to do with the shooting. Although, video games had no effect on the Columbine Massacre, other shootings such as Sandy Hook has been linked to them. As video games grow in popularity and

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.

A huge controversy in today’s society is violent video games and their behavioral effect on the children and adults who play them. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, and even violence towards women. Many have fought that violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence, and that they are teaching the youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy. Other sources have stated otherwise. The 2004 Secret Service has stated that only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. Violent Video games do not cause violent behavior or behavior problems because it has not been proven that there is a link between violent video games and behavioral issues, playing video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and reduces violence in young children, and violent juvenile crime has actually gone down since the violent video game popularity has increased.

“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!

Tragedies like Newton has caused many well known people or celebrities to give in their input to why violence learned by video games should be stopped or better regulated. People like Donald Trump, Ralph Nader, and Wayne LaPierre claim that video games and violence are linked and can be seen throughout society. The government has proposed alternatives to diminishing consumption so that violence might decrease in our society, but with this they also want to understand the influence violent video games have on today’s youth.

As video games and graphics have progressed, so have the style, the images, and gameplay of these games. First person shooting games has become a growing cause for concern, because of the explicit and violent nature of which these games possess. Combine that with the detailed graphics and the gorging ethics of gameplay, while looking at the rise of violent behavior within teenagers in society, and you can see what this has become a growing concern among parents and teachers alike. Violent behavior has become a subject of growing concern among the youth, and experts point to the deliberate and overuse of the game console. Despite the fact that it has been nearly impossible to attribute

Content analyses show that 89% of video games have some violent content. Half of the video games on the market have extreme violent actions toward other characters. Games, today, are allowing players to not only connect with the game physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. In essence, the player becomes the character. According to Nielson Media Research, at least 45 million households in the United States have at least one video game console (Markey & Charlotte, 2010). The average age of video game players has increased to age 34, and 60% of Americans play interactive games on a regular basis. However, researchers believe that younger children are more susceptible to the negative effects of playing violent video games compared to older teenagers and adults. Furthermore, games that include violence have raised serious concerns among

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

Video game effects are relatively new in modern society. Even though these games are often entertaining, the content of the game has been increasingly more and more violent as technology becomes more prevalent. The popularity of violent video games has caused an increase in controversy. Parents and experts feel that some games are just too violent and they demand the government to regulate the sales of these games. However, violent video games do not cause an increase in aggression, in adolescents. The forceful plan by the government is caused by an exaggeration of the effects of violent video games and this plan are indeed pointless.

As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than 50% of games have violence. (Procon.org) Video games that have violence have been blamed to have caused bullying, mass shootings, and violence towards women. (Procon.org) An estimated four out of five US households with a male child own a video game system and worldwide series of video games are predicted to reach $102.9 billion in 2017. (Procon.org) Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence and it rewards players for simulating violence . (Procon.org)

Video games have come a long way since the days of Pong. Advances in technology have allowed games to present state of the art graphics and surreal like qualities to its consumers; from four star simulated battle scenes to enhanced real live fire shoot outs. With all these innovations added to violent video games it attracted the visual needs of our teenage youth. Although video game violence has been blamed for high profile school shootings, video games and its creators should not be held accountable for these tragedies because there is not enough credible evidence to absolutely link video games to outburst of violence amongst juveniles.

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

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.

Aimee Tompkins (2003) claims that children are being affected by everything what they see around them in the youth, and people, who see violence in the youth, always tend to be more hostile and less responsive to images of violence. That 's why parents try to border children from any possible negative influences. But they often do not even realize that by buying to child a game console, they put them into the risk. Since most video games contain violent character. According to statistics given by the ‘Children now’ organization (2001), 89% of the top-selling video games have violent character and serious violence is contained in half of them.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are