Violent Video Games

In today’s time with the new head turning technology in video games most of the games have some sort of violence present in them. Many games past and present incorporate some kind of violence such as, killing with weapons, using explosives, and crashing cars. With all of the present day technology all activities portrayed during in-game scenarios are becoming more and more realistic. In 2005 the state of California enacted a law to ban the sale of certain violent games to children without the consent of their parents. The law was created based upon the idea that with the realistic in-game events real behavior could be drastically effected by the violence. The worries are that tragic events such as massacres could occur based on ideas seen in games. Incidents such as high school shooting have heightened concerns of potential connections between violent games and violent actions.

It is rather unusual to read or watch documentaries detailing atrocities against mankind and come away with hope and faith. The compelling and heartfelt story of Vertus Hardiman “A hole in the head” has inspired and received praise from professional groups across the country. “Hole in the head: A life revealed” is a heartfelt story which encompass injustice and forgiveness, reflecting the unbelievable strength of an individual who endured severe tragedy through the power of faith and personal philosophy. Watching this documentary raise important ethnical issues which by the way, isn’t the idea or theme of this paper. The story of Vertus Hardiman represents another chronicle of injustice carried out on the African-American community in the US. I am currently studying Pharmacology which involves mechanism for drug action and lots of clinical trials before new drugs are place on the market, after watching the documentary I couldn’t help but to think about the notion that African Americans or other diverse populations are less willing to participate in medical research. Having learnt about stories of horrifying experiences with clinical trials such as in the cause of Vertus Hardiman , Lyles Station radiation experiments, and the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in African American male, common knowledge would dictate mistrust as a source for reluctance to get involved with Clinical trials.

The most extensive argument many have argued toward violent video games affecting one’s behavior can simply be described as that many shooters were fans of violent video games before committing the shootings. A common example people making this argument raise are the Columbine shooters, who were big fans of the video game Doom. While many believe that Doom’s excessive gore and violence led the two teens to perpetrate the mass shooting, that is not the case. What those who argue against video games fail to realize that those who commit these crimes had a history of other conditions. After many mass shootings, researchers often discovered in autopsies that the suspect had a long history of aggression or mental health problems that gaming was not responsible for. Patrick Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson, writers for US News, wrote

Imagine waking up at five thirty in the morning to participate in a team workout and practice scrimmage. Then, following a shower and breakfast, attending five hours of college level classes. And, after classes are completed, returning to the gym for practice for three physically exhausting hours. Then comes the hard part: sitting down to several grueling hours of the mental struggles associated with homework. Once the daily schedule is finally over, going to bed after one a.m. in order to repeat it all over again the next day. This is the life of a college athlete. No time to go hang out with friends. No time to go get a job to help pay off college debt. Many people realize their situations and want to compensate them for all of their

People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for

In an article by Karen Sternheimer, “Do Video Games Kill?”, she gives an in-depth look at whether video games contribute towards aggression and violent acts portrayed throughout society. She does not agree with the critics that suggest violent acts of crime are being promoted by the violence in video games; although, there have been several violent acts of crime throughout the United States “...school shootings in Paducah, Kentucky; Springfield, Oregon; and Littleton,

Annotated Bibliography Robbins, Brandon, M. “Games and Violence: Games, Gamers & Gaming. LibraryJournal. 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2013 In this article which was written a few months after the Sandy Hook school shooting the author talks about the effects that the media portrays video games having and the effect they portrayed video games having during the Columbine school in 1999 and how the media pointed out in both instances that the shooters enjoyed video games.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

Violence in video games has been proved to raise the aggression on video gamers in the short and long term, whether it’s in their language, attitude or actions. Also video games not only cause this but they also decrease prosocial behavior and empathy (Anderson, 2010). Violent video games have been one of the main reasons why students decide to shoot everyone in an educational institution like the well known Columbine Massacre in 1999. “[They] liked to play Doom (a computer game) in the afternoons”,“No one can say for sure why...theories including...violent video games (Doom)” (Rosenberg, Unknown). As we can see very clearly violent video games

But there are certain things that have happened where they believed people were influenced by games such as the shooting at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, CO on Apr. 20, 1999. “The two teenage shooters were revealed to be avid players of the weapon-based combat games Wolfenstein 3D and Doom.” [1] Karen Sternheimer, "Do video games kill?", contexts. Feb. 2007”

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.

After the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook in 2012 this issue of violent video games became a hot issue calling for a connection of violence to video games. However, the final investigative report suggested that he was more a fan of nonviolent games (Ferguson, 2015). Video game violence is an issue that continues to be studied due to the inability to come to a general conclusion on whether or not the games provoke violence in connection to mass shootings. With shootings occurring and receiving mass coverage the media and public often seek a person/item to place the blame on. After the tragic events that left people dead or injured one of the topics that emerged was that of video games affects/effects on the person.

The basic unit of analysis for making merchandise management decisions is the merchandise category (Levy & Weitz, 2009), these are groups of items and brands that consumers see as direct substitutes for one another, and for example different brands of milk cheese make up the dairy category. These categories can be managed either by category or by brand; both of these approaches have advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of category management are that management can ensure that the category containing the best combinations of vendors or brands and sizes.

Most of us have certainly pondered on the thought if video games truly create violent citizens, I personally believe that video games do not what so ever. One must distinguish this topic accurately and consider learning to differentiate and not have a biased or radical opinion. There have been many attempts from a number of different people who have tried to give a bad name to video games due to the simulations and realness and say that video games will create a negative environment for anyone who plays them, especially in children. Enthusiasts of video games have spent decades asserting that there is no underlying link between playing violent titles and engaging in the violent real-world behavior. Brand-new data confirms their contentions.