Essay about Video Games and Violence: Cause, or Scapegoat?

Violent video games and RPGs have taken over the video game industry. You don't see many kids playing Mario anymore. Everyone argues whether these violent games are perilous or harmless for gamers. Many studies have been conducted to prove each side of this argument. An Italian study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science , says, “Participants who played a violent video game for only 35 minutes exhibited less self control, cheated more, and behaved more aggressively than did participants who

Guns. Blood. Death. Three of the most prominent words or actions used to describe video games. Arum Steinbeck wakes up, goes to school, comes home and plays video games. His face glued to the television, he is exposed to gruesome acts of violence. Nonetheless, Arum Steinbeck is not a serial killer. How is this possible? Adolescents who play video games are killers. Dead wrong. 90% of children in the US play video games and 90% of those children play games that involved mature content. Yet, it is possible that not one of these children will grow up to commit serious acts of violence. For most of the children who do end up committing crimes other factors are involved in the equation nonetheless, society tends to blame what they cannot explain. It is easier to blame video games than to accept responsibility for our actions. To put a seranio to words say there is an adolescent drunk driver who gets into a car accident and kills a family. When in court the intoxicated driver will plead not guilty putting the blame on anyone besides themselves. We have fingers to point them. People get in trouble with the law and need a way out, society has made videogame companies a revolving door of allegations that a court of law should find the person rather than the fictional game responsible. In summary, violent video games do not cause real life violence, though some people seems to wish it did.

Scientists have said that video games only cause aggression and not violence. According to American Psychological Association, they stated that, there is insufficient research to support that video games cause violent behavior. The American Psychological Association also said that aggression demonstrates a consistent relationship between violent video games used, and increases in aggressive behavior. Video

Video games and their alleged link to violent tendencies with people who play them and younger children in particular is not a new controversy in the gaming industry whatsoever, or is it really one that is currently being talked about. At least not as much as Mass Effect: Andromeda's atrocious character facial animations. But it's always good to address the inanities that are made by activists and conservatives who constantly attack and attempt to boycott developers from releasing a game they have spent years making saying that it's because of political correctness. The argument that games can cause violent behavior is one that does not provide any solid facts that games and behavior are correlated in any way. In fact there are more studies

The questions posed for Psychology this week is “Do violent video games increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors?” After reading chapter five in the “Psych” textbook, the obvious answer would be yes. There are countless studies that show that watching violence increase emotional arousals, aggressive behavior, and violent thoughts (Rathus 128). The studies also indicate that violent video games are also connected with aggressive behavior and an increase in aggressive thoughts (Rathus 128). Many video gamers would disagree with the numerous studies that have been done; however, if the studies prove aggression, then that is something you have to accept. The studies are not a one size

Video games don't make kids violent. First, There has been less arrest rates. In the article it states that the arrest rates are 38% below the 1980s. Most attacks aren't caused by violent video games. Con 4 it states that the 41 attackers they studied was 27% from movies, 24% from books, 37% from their own writings, and 12 from violent video games. People who play video games play them to release stress and anger. 61.9% of boys played to help them relax, 47.8% because it helps them forget their problems, and 45.5% to release stress or anger. Video games do not make you as

First and foremost, the consensus among people who do believe that video games result in violence is that multiple studies have been done to show that they do impact aggression. This gives credibility to their argument and is often what they turn to when questioned by opponents of the other side. There is quite a hand full of studies that at least confirm an increase in aggression among people who play video games. One of these studies comes from the American Psychological Association, or APA, that is one of the largest scientific organizations that represent psychology in the United States. In their task force report they showed that, “The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in

There is no clear relationship between violent video games and real-life violence and most people do not act out after playing games.

Many outsiders look at video games and judge them for violence and injustice but, as said by the article Is video gaming bad for you? The science for and against, “Last year, psychologists claimed that video game players who favor violent 'shoot-em-up' games are more likely to be aggressive and ferocious when offline” even though this was claimed there has been no real pattern to link aggressiveness and video games.

Videogames have often been scrutinized by the general public as inducing violence in adolescents who play violent videogames. However, according to British researchers, “Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights. But violent video games seem to have no effect on behavior”. (Dotinga) The reason that this has been disputed for so long is because there is no way to conclusively prove whether or not videogames do induce violence; there are too many variables such as age, gender, duration of play time, the degree of violence of the

Ah yes video games are huge icons of culture and identity for the people of the newest generations but games aren 't usually digital rainbows and love but some revolve around violence in their our ways, so as you would expect these games deeds don’t get away without criticism and opposition to some degree. Are violent video games a major cause of violent and aggressive behavior in those who play them? Are they contenders in influencing behavior and even shootings from the violence done within these digital fronters? The issue has been a big debate among concerned people of the world and video game advocates for many years now. Some argue that violent video games do the opposite of increased aggressive behavior and likelihood to commit crimes in which games can actually help stop such, but is this always the case? Some critics also blame these games for numerous issues at hand like school shootings, bullying, and violence towards women, but are they the real causes? There are many studies within this debate for both side of the issue and interesting finds in violent video games. The video game industry is a huge million dollar industry and violence tends to be in a lot of them however.

Since the late 1990s there have been a continuous increase in the standard of lifelike violence in video games. The emergence of "first person shooter" really changed the how the player felt like they were actually in a battle. This intensified the gameplay and engaged the player a lot more in the game. With new features that are even more recent like Virtual Reality you get a full 360-degree view of any game you play and you get the feeling that you are actually in the game. There are two sides to the argument of violent video games effect on children. Steven F Gruel represents the people that believe yes, violent video games are harmful to children and cause increase in aggression, poor performance in school, and damage to higher level thinking. Patricia A. Millett represent the people that believe no, there is no correlation between playing violent video games and an increase in aggression. Both Millet and Gruel use serves to discredit each other's belief. They both make great points for each side of the argument, but Millett specifically discredits all of the evidence that Gruel uses to prove his point. Millett also has her own evidence that is more reliable and valid and shows that there is no correlation between violent video games and increase in aggressive behavior.

Lately there have been increasing amounts of people that say that violent video games are causing a number violent actions. To some extent this is true, but there are also studies that say games help people release their aggression in an appropriate way. I would tend to agree with the later.

Societies in today’s world encompasses millions to hundreds of millions of people, who all have differing opinions, which leaves room for misinterpretations and misconceptions. There are many misconceptions in the gaming community, many of which are low hanging fruit that exist in every topic, so I’m going to try and only talk about the more recent or most damaging ones, if taken as truth. The most damaging one, in my opinion, is the apparent link to aggression. Research done, most notably by the APA show a “consistent relation” between (violent) game use and increased aggressive behavior. These “findings” do not explore the entire picture, statistics show there is a much higher rate of violent crime in the U.S. compared to countries like Japan or South Korea, where the gaming industry revenue is still in the billions. (Top Countries) Just based on this data, it shows there are confounding variables these studies fail to account for.

Kids also know better and they can tell the difference between real life and fantasy violence. By the age of 7 children know better and it is scientifically proven that they can tell the difference between real-life and fantasy violence. So they won’t do the bad things that people do in violent video games they will know not to. When playing video games you don’t even think about the bad things that people do in the game you think of how fun it is. Furthermore, researchers say that the only reason that a kid wouldn’t be able to tell the difference is because they have a mental problems. So there is no excuse for the parents that say that violent video games make their kids violent, unless it the kid has mental problem. Research use fake aggression like making someone eat hot sauce to do their experiments which means the experiment is irrelevant. The researchers need to use real world violence like hitting or fighting someone, if they don’t the experiment isn’t