Video Games and Violence
As we look around in today's society, we are surrounded by technology and as it advances we have relied on these technological advancement as a form of media. A form of media that has been controversial because of it's rapid growth and advancement would be video games. The first video game that was available to play on a console at home was Pong, a simple game that was similar to tennis where two line must hit a dot and score a point. Pong was released in 1972 and after forty-three years video games are still relevant. According to a team in the University of Essex in the UK, " People around the world spend a massive three billion hours per week playing video games." ( Entertainment Software Association) At first
…show more content…
There is no true definition of art , as long as that piece of art must have an emotional connection with the person, but Roger Ebert believed that video games are not a form of art. Roger Ebert states that video games should not be considered as art because in video games are promoting competition as there will be a winner or a loser and these games are a waste of time as it does not alter behaviors. (Gillespie) Gillespie states that video games should be considered as art. "Video games connect ideas similar to the way books and movie use ideas," stated Gillespie. (Gillespie) Since art must also have a type of emotional connection to the player one game that was able to provide that was a game called Flowers. Flowers is a game where the player is controlling a pedal and they just have to travel through massive landscapes . Players who had an opportunity to experience this game describe their time as an "emotional shelter" and Flowers was able to demonstrate a tone of poetry. (Gillespie) This shows the possibilities that games can connect with human …show more content…
Przybylski stated , " Violence in the real world will depend on the knowledge of the gamer." (Przybylski 229) Przybylski noted that the people who often say that video games are connected to violence usually do not understand or have played a video game, they come from on older generation. (Przybylski) When it comes to more of a younger generation, where it is a custom to grow up around advance technology, these younger generations are able to play video games and understand them more. This understanding of video games will lead to a more knowledgeable and experienced player. That experience and knowledge will also lead to an increase of a skill cap for the game. On average teens and adults play video games on an average of eight hours a day. (Matthew 830). As time is being spent on video games skills will increase but not everyone's skill will be the same. Matthew's research experiment was to compare the behaviors of skill gamers and gamers who do not have experience to play against each other in the same game. The results shown that the players that were skilled in the game enjoyed the time playing the game, while the players that did not have experience had higher level of aggressions. (Matthew 845). When a player has more knowledge of the game itself they are able to enjoy it like any another type of
The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.
In society, video games have been criticized as an inducer for violent in children. The ongoing debate instigates research on the correlation between video games and violence. In Craig Anderson’s article, “Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence, Part II”, the author criticizes the opposing side and states that violence in media reflects violent behaviors in children. John Glynn’s article, “Guns and Games”, reasons on the benefits of video games and points out the true perpetrator for violent behaviors of youth in the United States to be the gun culture.; While Glynn’s article contains some form of pathos, there is a lack of pathos in Anderson’s. Both articles utilize logos and ethos. However, Glynn offers a more well-rounded argument to support that video games are beneficial and are not the true cause of aggression in children.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a recent study examining the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior in young children. Let me first provide a brief summary of the study. (a) The hypothesis is that violent video games cause aggression in young children. (b) The target population is young children. (c) The samples are young school age children and the sample sizes are sixty children separated into two groups with 30 children being in the experimental group and 30 children being in the control group. (d) The independent variable is violent video games and the dependent variable is aggression. (e) The result of the experiment were
Since violent video games, like Mortal Kombat, were created, adolescents who play these games become more aggressive than before. To me, playing violent video games is unsafe for these people since they have the negative influence on these people. I believe that researching on that topic would help us get the sense of what problems to avoid. I wish to know what are the possible effects of violent video games on adolescents’ aggression. The independent variable is violent video games, and the dependent variable is adolescents’ aggression. My hypothesis is that adolescents who play violent video games become very aggressive than those who don’t. For this essay, I would like to present the findings from each article that will answer
In the past 30 years, video games have had a major impact on how people spend their leisure time. The first generation of video games were nothing more than simple geometric shapes, one or more of which could be controlled by the game player. Each generation of games always uses the newest technologies available, leading to more impressive graphics and realism. Along with these modern technologies come more realistic violent acts and situations. Also with each new generation of video games, people are spending more time and money on them. The term video games will be used to define any interactive multimedia in which the human player has control over the main "character" in a simulated game world. This can include all types of video games such as those played on arcade machines, home consoles, hand-held consoles, and personal computers.
Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?
A video game is “an electronic game in which players control images on a television or computer screen” (Merriam-Webster). Video games have been entertaining and challenging gamers since the Game Boy to modern console games. Despite the simplicity of the definition of video games, a video game, especially ones containing violence can have a large effect on the gamer. Because of the realism and advancements in the video game industry, video games can influence the player, and can make the gamer more aggressive, even if the game is not a violent video game. Even though video games have grown in popularity over the past decade, some have not been too popular with parents, for the reason that they are too violent. Violent video games affect
In this age of technology, it's very safe to say that a large majority of the world's population has played at least one video game. This can vary from playing games on console, like Xbox-One, Playstation 4, and for the older generation, the NES to playing mobile games like Tetris. There are many consoles that span from the creation of video games. This has opened opportunities to make several kind of games. These can vary from side-scrollers like Super Mario Bros. on the NES, to Role-playing games (RPG) like Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation 1. While this has caused some great games to surface, it has also allowed intense violence to be let into games. Parents and anti-gaming communities state that this is why kids can become violent. This is false, because violent games can be avoided to prevent this issue, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has even made various precautions to make sure parents know what they're purchasing. Comprehensible symbols, detailed lists, and age restrictions prevents children from "becoming violent".
It was Christmas Day and Savanna’s nine year old brother had just received a new game that he had been wanting for his X-Box, “Grand Theft Auto.” As soon as he opened it, he began to play. Three hours later he was STILL playing. Savanna was sitting on the couch reading a new book, when she started to notice some frustration coming from her brother. As he sprung up off the floor, he let out a yell of anger, went over to the living room wall, and punched it, leaving a hole in the wall. Savanna wondered if this violent reaction was because of the violence he had been seeing in the video game. A review of almost a decade of studies found that exposure to violent video games was a “risk factor,” for increased violence in youth.(Radowitz) From
Videogames should be considered a type of art based on the definition of art, the history of video games, and the complex process of creating a video game. In order to properly make the argument that videogames are an art form., the definition of several topics must come first. Art has been with man since the stone age, whether intentional or not, and one can easily argue art gives life a deeper sense of purpose. Without art, our innovative nature is wasted. To be blunt, the definition of art is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.”
This question judges the social effects of a repetitive sequence of medial entertainment in relation to the increase in an individual’s aggressive behavior. The violence of today’s video games are far more visually gruesome then they were ten years ago. An example is the modern popular game Goldeneye 007, whose bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed. Instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed. For example, those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then their face while clutching at their throats. These graphic games can increase an individual’s aggressiveness by portraying the act of a murder, as in Goldeneye 007. By answering this question, we can become more aware and be able to identify possible
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.
Playing video games does not cause violent behavior. Don’t get me wrong, some video games show horrific acts of violence. “A recent survey found that 92 percent of U.S. kids--ages 2 to 17--play video games, and their parents bought 225 million of them last year to the tune of $6.4 billion.” (Sider 79).What’s here to argue is that violent video games do not cause violence among children, but the blame for violence should be on the individual and people who should have taught the individual better. If kids are not able to see the difference between reality and fantasy, then they really can’t be blamed for committing acts they see in a game and then imitating, not fully understanding the consequences of doing it in the real world.
“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
Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.