Video Games Are More Than Half Of The 50 Top Selling Games

Hundreds of studies have been done to determine whether violent video games will really make juveniles more violent. Randomized experiments were used in several studies to examine the short-term effect of violent video games (Anderson and Berkowitz et al. 90). In these studies, children were randomly assigned to play violent or nonviolent video games and then were observed when given an opportunity to be aggressive. The result was that children who played violent video games usually behaved aggressively.

A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.

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.

Prolonged scenes of massive violence, graphic sexual content, and animated blood are examples of statements that the Entertainment Software Rating Board uses to depict the content in over fifty- five percent of the video games rated yearly. The debate of whether the aggressive nature of these video games influences youth violence in our country has been heatedly battled for decades. Since the mid 1980’s, it has been suggested that high profile cases of violence are due to an aggressor’s excessive video game use. However, much like a cold case the type of connection between video game use and youth violence remains without a definite answer. Most believe that video game use negatively influences child aggression acts in our country. Others firmly declare that video games provide a realm of opportunity for child development. Ultimately, it is impossible to say that video game use affects every child the same way. New studies suggest that video games do not affect every child that plays a game. Although violent video games are innocuous for the majority of adolescents between the ages of twelve and eighteen, the effects of these games are aggravated in those with pre- existing antisocial or depressive traits.

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

Similarly, most games involving combat, guns, and other weapons are intentionally violent, as well as the aggressive acts towards women portrayed in the games, with representations of violence and misogyny are becoming all the more graphic as game visuals reach cinematic hyperrealism. The more realistic the games become, the more interesting they are for the players and the more escapism they are experiencing. Violence and misogyny therefore become celebrated. Sometimes, the fake world and real world lines can then be blurred. The possible effects of these type of games have been debated for years. As said in the text, videogames have been charged as being a factor in violent episodes, such as the Columbine High School shootings of 1999. Earlier research linked playing violent video games to aggressive thoughts or hostility, but those suggest that the greater concern should be the personality traits of certain types of players rather than violent video games. Overall, while some people view gaming as a simple leisure activity, the alarms about violent and misogynistic game

On April 20, 1999, the lives of the students at Columbine High School were forever changed. Two senior students planned a complex attack on the school involving a fire bomb to distract firefighters, bombs converted from propane tanks in the cafeteria, bombs rigged in cars, and multiple guns. That morning, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 students and one teacher. Twenty-one others were injured before the two committed suicide. Are violent video games to blame for this devastating event? The subject has been a source of controversy both within and outside the scientific community. (INSERT CLEAR FOCUSED HYPOTHESIS HERE)

Following the April 1999 Columbine High School shooting, the April 2007 Virginia Tech rampage, and the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, considerable debate has emerged regarding the impact of hyper-aggressive, violent video games as a causal agent for such murderous behavior by young adults. In a videotape recorded before the Columbine shooting, Eric Harris, one of the two teenager shooters, expressed enthusiasm for the planned shooting, saying it would be "like [profanity] Doom.” Seung-Hui Cho, the twenty-three year-old who killed thirty-two people at Virginia Tech University was a big fan of violent

Columbine High School events that happened in 1999 was two of the high school teens who were a lot of time exposed to violent video games. Due to this incident 12 students and one teacher were killed (Vastag 1822). As this incident suggests that which is also observed, with regard to the sale of video games with a loud voice, one side is also supported it or opposed, there is not explain to virtual violence does the impact for children. (Vastag 1822)“Little kids do imitate video games, but the question is whether it leads to real world violence,” (Vastag 1822) said Juliet Van Eenwyk, PhD, who studies the issue for the Washington State Department of Public Health, Seattle. 2001 literature review by Dr Van Eenwyk and colleagues Lillian Bensley

According to the article “Sandy Hook Killer Took Motive To This Grave” written in 2013 by Matt Smith, a CNN journalist, Adam Lanza killed 20 first graders and 6 adults with a semiautomatic rifle in December of 2012. Michael Casey, a CBS News journalist who wrote, “Do Violent Video Games Lead to Criminal Behavior” in 2015, stated that Adam Lanza “was obsessed with violent video games” and that these games caused him to shoot up this old school, in Connecticut. This is one very tragic and sad example of how games that showcase simulated violence manipulate people into becoming over aggressive and to develop horrible

Often we link school shootings to people who are recluse and spend hours playing violent video games. Most violent video games promote killing, by giving rewards. Evidence supports that this is true, but video games are not the only cause of crazy, illogical shooters walking into an unprotected school setting to kill students and staff. After the intensive investigation of many of the recent school shootings,14 were linked to violent video games including a local one at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. The more violence that our brain becomes accustomed to, the more we think it is acceptable to shoot and kill people. These video games lead to a more dangerous world for all of us.

Over 150 million Americans (and 71% of teens) play video games. There have been 71 mass shootings between 1982 and Aug. 2015, seven of which (9.8%) involved shooters age 18 or younger says Mark Follman, Gavin Aronsen, and Deanna Pan, "A Guide to Mass Shootings in America," motherjones.com, July 24, 2015, Krista Lofgren, "2015 Video Game Statistics & Trends Who's Playing What & Why?," bigfishgames.com, Mar.

Many believe that violent video games in particular are nothing more than interactive murder trainers for those who play them. It’s a known fact that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the disturbed high school seniors responsible for the Columbine High School Shooting, where avid gamers and gun enthusiasts. While there is no proven direct correlation between violent media and actual violent crimes, this can’t be simply dismissed as coincidence. Investigators found computers with the popular game “Doom” installed in the shooters’ homes, with “Doom” being somewhat infamous for its brutal, violent content. (Daily News, 2012, Apr. 23)

This could be opening the doors to a plethora of other cases and assumptions that can lead to our youth potentially becoming killers. Research was conducted on the exposure of television violence and its effects on kids, organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that there is a cause and effect relationship amongst those exposed. However, such studies does not demonstrate that media violence causes aggressive behavior, only that the two phenomena exist together (207). This finding was used to make the assumption that it would likely be the case with video games.

Violent video games can desensitize children. Studies show that most video games in today’s society contain some type of