Violent Video 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.

One of the biggest controversial cases among parents and children is, whether to allow them to play violent video games. Many people often assume that these intense games have a direct correlation to becoming a violent person. While many people agree with this, the research is not 100% accurate. This makes it very hard to find proof that a violent video game is one of the leading causes of a violent person. We are often blaming these games for a more internal complex problem.

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

This article is a very useful source. Is useful because it answers the question, “Do violent video games cause an increase in aggression.” The question is answered thoroughly by the author because they cited recent studies, examples, and peer reviewed or scholarly sources that all concluded that violent video games cause an increase in aggression. The author is objective because they countered their argument by stating that

It is debated around the world that videogames have a great influence on violence in the youth, more specifically in adolescents. It is a controversial topic because of the fact that in the past five years there have been many severe acts of violence with an adolescent in the middle of it. Although this true, I disagree with this statement. There may be a correlation between the two, but I do not think that video games make kids violent. In this essay I will voice my opinion on the worldwide debate of whether or not video games are the direct cause of violence in young adults.

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.

Unsworth basically shows that playing violent video games more likely affects adolescents to become very aggressive. The experiment was done on participants by measuring their anger before, during and after their game play of violent game, Quake II, and having them to fill out the questionnaire that determines their state of angers. The table categorizes the participants in terms of their change in the level of aggressiveness throughout the experiment. According to the data, she found that all participants’ anger ratings vary; some participants’ aggressiveness increases and some decreases while others don’t show any change. According to the article, overall, she concludes that:

Video games have been around for over fifty years and have become quite popular over the past four decades. In fact, they are so popular that a certain subset of them have recently come into scrutiny and are a topic of hot debate. This subset contains video games that are violent in nature, which, many people loathe. Those people try to use many fallacious tactics to persuade others to join their cause. Take the article ‘Violent Video Games Can Desensitize Players and Increase Aggression’ for example, firstly it hooks an audience with its hasty generalization that violent video games create mass murderers, secondly it uses cum hoc ergo propter hoc to provide evidence that video games contribute to and enforce desensitization and aggression, and thirdly it uses appeals to anonymous authorities to provide accreditation for the content it discusses.

It is agreeable that there are some correlation between teenagers playing video games and how it affects the youth mentally. Heavy consumption of violence video games does indeed stimulate a change reaction in the brain waves, but there is no hard evidence stating that those changes causes teenagers to act aggressively and violently. On the contrary, it is a popular beliefs that violence video games does indeed causes teenagers to displayed unpleasant behaviors and actions because that is what they learned and observed from the games. Therefore, parents should limit and regulate the amount of time their teenagers are playing violence video games so that they can protect their children from negative behaviors.

For years, the media, teachers and various types of scientists have made the topic video games and the possible influence it has on child and teen aggression. The spark up of the controversy all started with the 1999 Columbine High School shooting. Since then, most, if not all instances similar to that have thought to be linked to videogame violence, which in turn has led to numerous studies about this topic.But be that as it may the link between violent video games and adolescent aggression is far from being proven fact, however we cannot jump to the conclusion that violent video games build adolescent aggression.

Playing violent video games is not directly responsible for all violence, and criminal activity. However, the question remains whether or not playing certain games can lead to higher levels of aggression. Parents often ponder this very question when their children beg for one of these games that are rated M for mature. This very well may be where the problems occur since these games that were designed for ages 17 and up are now in the hands of underage adolescents. The reason problems can occur in such scenarios is because while even though the people who are old enough to buy and play these games usually understand that the actions depicted in the games are unethical. While those who are younger and need their parents to buy the game for them might see the same actions as cool and fun. When gamers lose sight of reality and become incased in certain games they can also lose track of their morality. This means that violent video games are in theory capable of placing dark thoughts into the hearts and minds of all the players. Therefore, this paper will discuss if thoughts formulated while playing violent video games can be reasonably linked to an increase of aggression.

Psychological Science journal has concluded “that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults.” The review goes on to say “Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases

“Experts agree that no single factor can cause a nonviolent person to act aggressively, some studies suggest that heavy exposure to violent media can be a risk factor for violent behavior. Children who are exposed to multiple risk factors, including substance abuse, aggression, and conflict at home and also consume violent media are more likely to behave aggressively.” (Commonsensemedia.org 1) I am accepting the fact that this method is valid, though we are striving to answer if violent video games absolutely create violent citizens and according to researchers and investigations in the recent year's data has gone exclusively from one faction to the other.

Advancements in technology is the key player in entertainment future. As the video games tend to grow to be practical in nature, the involvement of teens in this kind of entertainment has also grown to a large extent. However, the main focus of these games nowadays is violence and killing enemies. More and more sophisticated techniques are introduces by gaming companies every now and then to make this sort of entertainment more interesting for the youth. This scenario brings up a very genuine question in the minds of us all: are these violent video games a cause for the teens to act aggressively? Like majority of teens, I also indulge in playing violent video games and I believe that spending too much time on such kind of activity may cause irreparable damage to the behavior patterns of the teens.

A major opposition to violence video games leading to aggression is that the research that was done is not a valid research. Henry Jenkins said “...most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds” (2). The studies are not inconclusive because in the studies that the researchers do they