Violent Video Games

Video Game Violence has been a big controversial topic for many years, going back to the most simple classic video games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders,which eventually turned into more modern games like Destiny and Grand theft Auto. This research expands and analyzes the idea of how video game violence is always accused and put to blame for aggressive events and how the research of this is faulty . The way most people look at video games and how people try to connect them to violence could needs to be corrected. Within this research we will be looking very closely at how these studies and tests were done on violent video

Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and Doom. Many know these games for their violent nature, stemming from their graphic scenes or gameplay involving shooting or beating up opponents, and these factors have caused these games to stir up quite a bit of controversy. For the last few decades, people have debated the effects of these games on the people who play them. Many believe those who play the games become more aggressive as a result of their violent nature, while others argue that playing the games has no effect on one’s behavior. Society should realize that violent video games have, at most, minimal effect on players’ behavior.

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.

Video games have become very influential on children and adults (Stafford, 1999). With violent video games humans are more prone to act aggressively, to have aggressive thoughts and become numb towards violence (Harding, 2009). Apart from these they are

Over the past few centuries,video games have become a great leisure and hobby among kids of all ages and cultures. With the advancement of technology, video games have advanced highly in its realism and genres. This high type of advancement brought the video game industry to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with realism, comes negative effects as well. Ever since the creation of violent or “mature” video games, there has been a constant debate on whether it will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are violent, and just increase skills in a player such as hand-eye coordination. Nevertheless, there is research going on for the link between violent video games and youth violence. The question is which event happens first in the sequence, do violent video games aggravate a person’s violent behavior, or does a person get rid of their anger through playing violent video games? Either way, violent video games are not beneficial to our society.

In 2008 an eight year-old intentionally, living in slaughter louisiana,shot his grandmother in the head right after playing grand theft auto IV. In America the rate of mass shootings and obesity each year. Video Games also teach antisocial behavior. Video games are responsible for increase of violence in schools, desensitizing American youth, and prompting unhealthy behaviors.

Over 90% of children around the world play video games, and over 90% of those are violent. This staggering amount of simulated violence has initiated devastation to everyone. Parents of all origins try to protect their kids from cruelty, but in the process of buying them pugnacious video games, they are pursuing the opposite effect. Simulated brutality in games are precarious because the history of gaming is tied to violence, it is treating killing as banter, and it surges bullying and aggression among players.

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

Videogame violence is nothing new. As was noted in a recent Washington Times article by Eric Rozenman, one of the earliest videogames, Death Race, created controversy back in the mid-1970’s: “The game involved an automobile driver running down pedestrians. The later expired with unconvincing moans, the skilled motorists recording a tally of crucifixes.”

A significantly large portion of the video games created within the past 5 to 10 years contain some form of violence. On top of that, some of the most popular video games out in the market today are extremely violent and warrant an “M” rating for mature. Video game developers are well aware of this trend and continue to produce more graphic, interactive, and realistic content. Therefore, there is a concern that the vast amount of violence in video games is changing how youth develop and what they perceive as normal. Many researchers believe that there is a link between video games and increased aggression in the people who play them.

Violence in video games, more specifically where the whole violent video game controversy came up, was a game called Death Race. This game had you running over gremlins but ended looking like “looked a lot like humans, since all that could be rendered was a blocky stick figure” (Luke Plunkett, Death Race, the World's First Scandalous Video Game, Kotaku). Death Race got a spot on 60 Minutes “looking at the psychological impacts” (Luke Plunkett, Death Race, the World's First Scandalous Video Game, Kotaku) of the game, was protested and was covered by National Enquirer and the NBC's Weekend Show and even “The National Safety Council said Death

There weren’t any problems seen with games or gamer behaviour until 1976 when the company Exidy released the game Death Race, due to the gremlins human-like appearance, the context of its inspiration Death Race 2000 (1975), and the game’s working title being Pedestrian. The uproar around the game actually promoted sales and sparked the release of its sequel Super Death Race in 1977, and Atari’s release of the 2600 home console. In the following years there was great success with games that weren’t thought to be particularly violent like Pac- man and Space Invaders, however rising concerns came with public success. In 1982 the combination of a warning from C. Everett Koop-- the U.S. general surgeon at the time-- that video games contributed to family violence and the release of Custer’s Revenge (1982) by Mystique created astigmatism against games made and marketed for adults. There was a short break before the Mortal Kombat (1992) series reopened the discussion on violent video games with it’s gory and brutal “Fatality” scenes that included: decapitation, ripping the organs or skeletal structure, and incinerating or freezing your opponent. At the same time the less popular Night

First, I’d like to tell you about the evolution of violent video games. According to a user on ng4.com named ABizzel1 In 1986 a game called Chiller was released and it was heavily influenced by the popular horror movies of the time such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Chiller was extremely gory for its time and due to its gore and violence, it was one of the first games to be banned. In 1992 another game shared a similar fate, Mortal Kombat was released in 1992 and rivaled the famed Street Fighter and became an instant success due to its gore and iconic finishing moves and it was the first game to cause political backlash in the US, during a congressional hearing on December 9th, 1993 Mortal Kombat was mentioned, and was banned in several countries. Video games will continue to increase in graphics quality which will promote higher

The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games were invented so that we could see through the eyes of the player, as if we were really experiencing it. Society wanted better graphics and games as time went on new technology was invented and society matured in electronics. This meant that for game creators would have to come up with something better selling than the last. Creators would make the games more violent and more realistic each time so that way they can keep the interest of their consumers. Each game would increase in blood or gore slowly, but what really got consumers to buy their games would be the update of graphics in the consoles or games. This is due to the drastic changing of technology and the maturing of consumers wanting better and newer violent video games. Violent video games can cause children to behave violently if not correctly supervised.

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.