Is Video Game Violence the Cause of Violence in Today’s Society?
I wrote this piece for an essay in English class at college in 2014 and we got to choose topics that's controversial and I ended up using "Video Game Violence" as mines.
Many people and politicians have this theory that violent video games cause kids or teenagers to become violent in the real world. Common shooter games like the Call of Duty, Gears of War, Battlefield, and other similar games are action packed and full of fun for gamers to enjoy. In these types of games, you are this specialist with a gun, some high explosives, and everything else you need to have to be a great soldier. You run around like a ninja shooting enemy soldiers that are trying just as hard to kill you, so you have to stay on your toes and also support your teammates to win. Since some of us will never get in a real gun fight, video games are like these help fill a void in our lives if you will? So, do violent video games really cause violence in kids?
I am an avid gamer and fan. I play the Call of Duty series quite regularly. I play it just about every day when I have the chance too. I compete in tournaments online and some just for bragging rights. I play a lot of games every month because I’m a gamer. So I believe I am well qualified to voice my opinion on this matter whether these games are causing violent outburst in society. I absolutely do not believe violent video games are a cause of violence in kids. Just because you might feel like some invincible person with a gun in the game doesn’t mean you’re going to walk out of your room with a machine gun and start shooting up the town. I mean come on, get real. The two things are very separate; kids understand that it’s not the real world inside a game. It’s just like little girls trying to act like a princess know they’re not really a princess, it’s pretend. Everybody wants something they know they can’t have, and in the game they can be that crazy guy that shoots up the entire town or the hero that saves everyone. So, when the game console is shut off, it’s back to reality for everyone.
Other skeptics and critics believe that if you can shoot someone in a game it makes it easier to shoot someone in real life. They believe that playing the games over and over will cause up some aggressive tension in us and one day, we will snap. Many of my friends play video games with tons of violence and none; absolutely none of them have a criminal record or is violent. Other critics say that gaming is a way to provide plot and strategies to some violent behavior. So, the same can be said about movies showing people how to rob a bank, torture a person or be a killer. Clearly, more of them have never played video games. The only strategy you could get from this game is how to be a ninja, and how to capture a flag. It is nothing like shooting a real life gun. More than 60% of the kids that play video games have never even seen a real gun, and would be clueless on how to operate it in real life.
Literally over 80+ million copies of Call of Duty have been sold and how many related murders are there? There have been more murders from number 2 pencils than a Call of Duty game. So clearly the argument that the experts bring is invalid in every way. I believe that if violent video games are thought to be a cause of violence then any movie with guns in it, any UFC or wrestling, or any action movies at all shouldn’t be allowed to broadcast anywhere in the U.S. The odds of a kid actually causing harm to another individual due to his passion for video games are like winning the lottery in every state, getting struck by lightning four times in a day, and surviving a 43,000 foot free fall into a volcano bare naked and surviving.
For example, an article “Violent Video Games can Increase Aggression”, which is available on the website called American Psychological Association, implies that it is such games that result in more and more young Americans being deprived of understanding of what the concept of social integrity stands for: “Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in actual life”(APA, 2000). However, video games do not make kids violent because violence is part of human nature and kids experience much more violence in school and near violence is symptomatic of larger cultural problems.
Most of the articles I read tried to back all their speculations with facts and testing they’ve done. I believe most of it is bullshit and isn’t really true. How can you say video games causing aggressive behavior but not music videos showing guns and fighting, wrestling with their choking people or documentaries of wars and murder from back in the day? Most parents teach their children that everything in a video game isn’t real and those parental advice helps children when their young.
Another example I would like to point out is, back in my jr. high school days, I was bullied a lot, got picked on and every day when I got home, I would always forget what happened cause I played video games and watch cartoons. It would help me and I would talk with my Mom about it. Yes, I got into fights but you never seen me wanting to kill someone like in a video game. Things that most kids see, in real life, is more prominent to give them “ideas” to do something violent. Children need to be taught what reality is and what fantasy is. Just like many of us when we were young thought everything we saw on TV was real until someone or our parents said it wasn’t.
It really surprising me how people can really believe that video games causing people to go berserk or start killing one another. Everyone knows that it’s pretend and just for entertainment purposes. Out of every person that I know I met in my lifetime that played video games, they have never killed someone or caused violence as we see today. The aggression and violence can’t possibly come from it and it might come from tension of bully’s from school, issues at home or their environment. If anything, if someone is in those situations above, video games help relieve them of those troubles temporarily. Although many people believe differently, video games are not a cause of violence in kids. Games are simply just a way to get away from the real world and be creative. Through my experience and talking to several other gamers alike I can honestly say that video games are clearly not a cause of violence. They are just a way to get away from reality and shoot some people in the mean time for fun without really hurting someone.
Works cited
Hagelin, Rebecca. "Video games violence and our sons." Discovering Arguments : An Introduction to Critical Thinking and Writing. By William Palmer and Dean Memering. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Higher Education, 2008. 116.
Lynn, Andrea “No Strong Link Seen between Violent Video Games and Aggression”. 2005. News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 5 Nov. 2008. http://news.illinois.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html
Schaffer, Amanda “Don't Shoot: Why Video Games Really are Linked to Violence”. 2007. Slate.Com. 5 Nov. 2008. http://www.slate.com/id/2164065/
Violent Video Games can Increase Aggression. 2000. American Psychological Association. 5 Nov. 2008. http://www.apa.org/releases/videogames.html