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Video Games Violence Essay

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At least every child has played video games once in their lives. There are various genres and types of video games such as action, first person shooters, adventure, education, role-playing, strategy, and many more. 89% of video games contain some violent content (Slife, 2008). The most addictive, common, and popular video games among children are the violent video games (Slife, 2008). A lot of video games these days depict “real-life violence” meaning that the settings and plots of these video games are taken from real-life wars and events. For example, in Call of Duty, the plot is being in World War 2 and doing campaign missions identical to World War 2 events. While playing a video game, no matter what the genre is, the person is bound …show more content…

There is no clear relationship between violent video games and real-life violence and most people do not act out after playing games.
Some people such as Douglas Gentile who is a Developmental psychologist believe that video games cause real-life violence and children acting out in violent ways. For example, in 2006, an 18-year-old named Devin Moore was arrested in Alabama on suspicion of car theft and then attacked a police officer, stole his gun, shot two officers, and fled in the police car (Layton). He had no criminal history but it has been said that he played a lot of Grand Theft Auto prior to the killings, which could have led him to do what he did. Clearly, the video game affected his behaviors and he decided to mimic the game and do the same things from the game in real life. Another example is the Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold apparently played a lot of violent video games such as "Wolfenstein 3D," "Doom", and "Mortal Kombat" before attacking their high school (Layton). The Columbine shooters were affected by video games, it made them more violent, and they their actions during the shooting were very similar to the violent video games. In addition, when playing video games, the game is very interactive, repetitive, and is based on a reward system so the gamer is bound do learn from the game (Gentile, 2003,pg.356). Active participation and interaction

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