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Add to FavoritesThe violence in video games does increase the adrenaline in a person. It pumps them up you could say. By doing so, that would make them more aggressive. When it comes to real life violence, research has shown a link between people who watch violence and how they act towards others. They tend to be more violent.
Studies have proved this to be a fact. If a person constantly sees violence on television, they are affected by it. It may not happen over night, but little by little it starts to seep into there way of thinking. Ultimately, they begin utilizing more aggressive techniques to cope with issues.
Some children I've come in contact with believe so strongly in video games that they use them as practice for real life problems. In some cases, children will compare there lives to a video game. Children begin to participate in more fights because they believe they are the characters in a game. The separation between reality and fantasy is blurred.
There is a distinction between violence on television and on video games. In television, a child can't determine the outcome of the aggressive event. It does affect them, but differently.
Aggressi on in video games not only perpetuates negative acts among youth it desensitizes them as well. If a child sees blood shed and overly aggressive behavior over and over again, they get use to it. When something really happens to them, they may not react at all. This is dangerous. We may be raising a generation of narcissistic individuals.
Children actively participate in the violence of video games.
They are learning to use violence as a way of solving problems. This isn't good and can lead to more serious problems.
For example, one of the most popular video games is "Grand Theft Auto". This game teaches youth to be violent towards authority. It sends the message that stealing cars is "cool". It also depicts "black people" as a race that does crime. It makes us seem like we do nothing but get into trouble.
Two studies were done in 2000 that showed the affects of aggressive video games on youth. This investigation was done by two psychologists name Karen Dill and Craig Anderson. The first study dealt with video games in the real world and the other dealt with violence of games in a controlled area.
In the first study college students were given surveys pertaining to there use of video games and their past defiant behavior. There aggressive personality trait was measured with other factors. This study showed that the more time the college students devoted to video games, the more there aggressive tendencies increased. It also showed that the students who devoted the most time to the games had lower grades.
The second study involved college students and there reaction to two different video games. One was violent and the other was non- violent. After the students played the games, they were asked to take a "Competitive Reaction Time Task" in which they were told they would play against another student. If they won, they could blast the opponent using a noise. The studies showed that most of the students blasted there opponents longer and louder after they had played these games. This study confirms that use of video games has an affect on the way we respond to others. What we see on a game will affect how we deal with our regular lives.
Learn more about this author, Angela Diggs.
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No
The gaming industry has been surprisingly quiet, in compared to previous years, in terms of lawsuits for video games and their connection to violence, so I thought this would be a good time to reflect on everything we have learned and witnessed from the crusade on games and the politicians who seek their destruction.
In the past decade or so, the gaming industry has been the target of countless lawsuits, petitions, and protests. The situations may change, but the reasons never do; the effects videogames have on our minds. With no research to completely back either side, the battle continues to go grow even more bitter with each act of defiance, and the battle becomes more about personal views and vendettas. Any hardcore gamer will tell you of their disdain for Jack Thompson and vice-versa. To gain a better understanding of where all these feelings came from you must first go back to what events may have started it all.
What is possibly the most notorious case of video games connection to violence also happened to be the worst. On April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a rampage shooting 36 people before turning the weapons on themselves. Of the 36 people, 13 were killed, 12 students and one teacher, with the other 26 being wounded. At the time, it was the third most fatal school shooting in the United States history. People immediately began to wonder what could drive these two teenagers to commit such atrocities. What was discovered about the two boys would change the gaming industry forever. Up until this point, games had only been thought to make people more irritable but never of taking someone's life.
Several psychiatrists came out after the incident and said that Harris was a clinical psychopath and Klebold was fighting with depression, but some people were still clamoring to the fact that the boys played violent video games. Some even came up with their own theories as to what caused the boys' backlash. Jerald Block, a U.S. psychiatrist, claimed that the boy's problems leading up to the attack could have been compounded by them not being able to let out their aggression on their favorite video games. For those of you that don't know, Harris and Klebold were both avid Doom and Wolfenstein 3D players. Harris even created several maps and mods for Doom, which are now widely referred to as the Harris levels. [JB1]When the boys started working on their plans for Columbine they were reportedly "grounded" from their computers. So did the games cause these boys to have an aggression level that they previously would have never had, or was it an outlet for the two boys and was the only cause for preventing the attack for as long as it did? According to Dr. Block, the answer may not be so simple.
"The games and the computer, more generally, are very supportive and provide a useful/harmless outlet for aggression. However, when used to excess it isolates, deskills people on how to handle difficult emotions, offers the illusion of a better, fairer world, and delays conflict. When, however, the cord is cut,' the resulting rage can be tremendous. So the computer is a mixed bag; it can both exacerbate but delay a crisis."
So does that mean that only gamers with unstable personalities are affected by violent video games? According to a study that was conducted about a year and half ago and recorded in Psychology, Crime & Law claimed that gamers with stable personalities are completely unaffected by violent video games. Unstable personalities, however, can be affected by excessively violent games. In the study, gamers who started out playing very calm (with unstable personalities) steadily grew in anger, while gamers who sat down already angry began to calm down. Only two of the test subjects got angry enough to draw for concern, so does that just mean as long as you can pass a personality based psychology test you are fine?
According to a different experiment conducted by psychologist Bruce Bartholow and his colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia games do actually make you more violent. In the first part of the experiment, 39 participants, all experienced gamers, were shown a series of images. In the images, there were some normal pictures, some violent pictures, and some disturbing but nonviolent images. The participants' P300 was also measured (the emotional reaction of seeing a disturbing or violent image) to see if it was different from that of a normal person. The gamers who played violent video games did, in fact, see the violent images different from how non-gamers do. To read more about the experiment go to Dev Hardware.
Another experiment conducted by Stanford went on to prove that when you actually believe you are doing something it slowly becomes regular behavior. Many people argue that this isn't much different than role-playing in MMOs. After all, how many MMOs have you played in which there are entire servers dedicated to acting like you are that particular character? After playing several MMOs I may need to worry about how adjusted I am to shooting a rabbit with a fireballthat is if I could get that whole fireball thing in real life down. With upcoming MMOs such as APB, however, this information can be quite disturbing. If I truly believe I am robber will I believe that I am shooting a cop? Coupled with the information learned from Dr. Bartholow, the answer to this question could be very frightening.
So now we are left evidence supporting that games do not affect our violent tendencies and other evidence supporting that they do. With no final evidence coming anytime soon from the science department, the responsibility then falls upon personal decisions. Which experiment do you believe? Which one do you WANT to believe? All of these are questions that we must face ourselves with and answer as honestly as possible for everyone's sake. And let's not forget logically.
In a recent survey conducted by What They Play, parents said they were most concerned about their under-17 year old child playing violent video games as opposed to drinking underage and watching pornography. So you're telling me that parents would rather have their 13 year old child drink a beverage that is scientifically proven to alter your personality, rather than have them play Grand Theft Auto. Anyone over 21, or even anyone who has gone to a college party, think about how many times you have seen alcohol instigate a fight. Now think about how many times you've saw one caused by someone wanting to repeat something they did on Grand Theft Auto.
It's surveys like these that I never seem to understand. If you want to say that violent video games are more dangerous because they may cause your child to commit violent acts against someone else, then you better keep them away from Super Mario Brothers for their own good. If someone cannot distinguish a character model made of blocks from a real person then they obviously cannot distinguish a fake mushroom from a real one. In my time as a game reviewer, I have played and reviewed both Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto IV. Anyone who has completed the game can tell you it is impossible to go through it without killing at least one cop. I've never been tempted to kill an officer any more than I have expected to eat a mushroom and grow twice in size and gain an extra life. If you want to say there is a relationship between games and our personalities then you must agree that it is that way for all aspects of the game and its correlation with life.
People who claim that the research shows there is a connection between games and violence need to realize that games may not be the lone cause. After all, millions of people play games every day, yet there have only been a handful of game related incidents in the past decade. Maybe lawyers, such as Jack Thompson, should realize that the problem may stem from the parents of the assailants. If your child lacks the ability to distinguish a fictional environment from reality, then you truly have failed as a parent. Chances are that these are the parents who also happen to be ones who doesn't care if their 12 year old son is playing Grand Theft Auto. After working at a game store, I quickly learned that at least 80% of underage sales were due to their parents buying the game for them. Most of them even continuing to purchase the product even after being informed all the game's contents. It is true that some underage customers do purchase games when they should not be able to, but I don't believe it is anymore than the number of underage teenagers buying tobacco or alcohol.
So this is my challenge to you - know what your child's top five favorite games are and why. It is up to us, the adults, to make sure that no rights are broken but safety is upheld. I realize that in the next ten years I will more than likely have a family of my own, and I will have to make decisions about what my child does. And let me say this, there is no way I would allow my ten year old son to play Grand Theft Auto. It is one of my favorite titles, but there is no way I would allow him to even watch me play the game. There is just certain forms of content that no child should see whether it be through a game or a movie like the Saw franchise.
If you truly believe that games have a negative impact on people, then be responsible for your child and get active in raising awareness in your local community. Laws are already in place to prevent children from buying violent video games, so it is up to you and your community to make sure that these laws are being upheld. Just make sure that your goal to make a better society is never interfered with personal vendettas and goals, and that your actions will make this world a better and fairer place.
But let me leave you with this thought. If a long time Spider-Man fan leaps off a building, who do you think will receive the most flak for the incident? The comic books? The TV show? The movies? Or the game that allowed the boy to "simulate" the action over and over? Or does the fault truly lie with the parents who never clarified many of the rules that apply to our world and not that of a video game - such as gravity.
Learn more about this author, Alex Ramirez.
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