...| Violent Video Games | | | | Violent Video Games INTRODUCTION: Concerns over the effect of violent video games on today’s youth have been debated since the late 1970’s. School shootings, criminal behavior, bullying, and violence towards woman have all been blamed on violent video games. Electronic media plays an important role in the emotional development, social behavior and intellectual functioning of children and youth. Many video games are very helpful for children to facilitate medical treatment, increase learning, and promote pro-social behavior. However, there are also video games that include aggression, violence and sexualized violence that have a negative impact on children. After the 1993 release of Mortal Combat, Congress contemplated regulating the sale of video games. The video game industry responded by voluntarily establishing the ESRB, (Entertainment Software Rating Board) to create a ratings system. The rating system was based on the content of the video game. The controversy over violent video games resurfaced following the Columbine High School shooting in Jefferson County, Colorado on April 20, 1999 (procon.org). According to procon.org, in 2008, 298.2 million video games were sold in the US, totaling $11.7 billion in revenue. Six of the top ten best-selling video games included violence, with four of the games carrying a "mature" rating recommended for persons aged 17 and older. AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR: Video games often reward...
Words: 2095 - Pages: 9
...Violence and Video Games Aaron Kanoski Strayer University CIS 324: Computer Ethics July 24, 2012 Professor Rebecca Stephens Abstract This paper will discuss the different theories of links between violence and video games. Those who try to censor video games or make them illegal point to the theories and studies that show a tenuous link. Those in the video game industry and activists for free speech and artistic freedom out right refute or offer other reasons for the supposed link. Violence and Video Games There is no solid evidence that a link between violence and video games exit. Video games have been blamed for school shootings, violence toward women, excessive bulling, and just about any violent massacre by a young person. Critics say that violent video games desensitize children to violence, rewards them for stimulating violence, and that violence is an acceptable response to conflict. Advocates for video games say that a majority of the research is deeply flawed and that causal relationship between violent video games and social violence has not been found. Once considered just a fad of the 1970s, video games are now a 40-year-old media powerhouse that has entered the cultural mainstream. Video games are no longer considered just a children’s toy. They have become a major cultural force and artistic medium. Video games are now played in form or another, on or off line, by a majority of people around the world. In the US alone, during 2008, 97% of all twelve...
Words: 1857 - Pages: 8
...Video Game Youth Violence Lorren Livingston RES/110 November 20, 2012 Dr. Helen Holt Video Game Youth Violence Many believe video games can majorly contribute to child violence [,] which have caused a great deal of controversy. With violent video game sales climbing, violent games have become a part of a child’s everyday life. Most video games depict some type of violence. One of the biggest selling games in XBOX history, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a violent first person multiplayer game (Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence, 2012). Given the amount of people that are playing this game, seventy-three 73-out of 100 players have stated they are between the ages seven to thirteen (See appendix A). There are also four different types of factors in video games that can contribute to violence. With children playing this game as frequently as adults, could a lack of video game restriction be causing more violence? Have retailers and parents turned a blind eye to this growing problem? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is, as stated before, a very violent military shooting game. There is no incapacitating of enemies or sneaking around a five man squad. It is kill or be killed. This is an obvious form of art, no matter how graphic it may be. Violence like this has been created for a long time now, even before computers. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was a violent book. Humans have been created in a Darwinian manner, and each person has a want...
Words: 1325 - Pages: 6
...“Violence in Video Games” Video Games are something that are on the rise in today’s world. They are increasing economically and politically. Video games are something that can be enjoyed by all ages. They are a fun, fantasy TV station you get to create for yourself. Even though they are for everybody, they are targeted more towards teens. The most popular games out today are shooting and fighting games, which incorporate violence. The definition of violence is behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. People may say that these video games incorporate this term called “violence”. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Violence is visible in Video Games, but may not fuel teens to be violent in reality. First, Violence is something that has been in this world a long time. It is something that, no matter what, will continue to happen in this world we live in. Like before, violence is a behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. There have been a lot of instances of violence in history. Not just any kind of violence, but violence that people could not imagine happening. The Columbine Shooting is a great example of this so-called “violence”. This horrific event involved two young teens that had previously been bullied in school. The bullying they went through caused a built up anger that they eventually had to release. These two teens unleashed their built up frustration...
Words: 1111 - Pages: 5
...Research Paper Violent Video Games: Where Violence Comes From Whether or not violent video games cause violence among people is a highly debated top-ic in society today. Do video games, such as “Grand Theft Auto”, “Saints Row”, “Call of Duty”, “Doom”, and many others, cause violence in society today? Yes, violent video games that are being freely released to just about everyone in the public are one main cause for violence in the world. Violent video games are causing people to commit violent crimes, have hostile behaviors, the games are showing people how to kill and get away with it, and lowers chances of people taking a nonviolent solution to a problem. Many people are addicted to video games in general; many people use video games as an escape from the “real world”. Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of media violence on behavior since the 1950s, and video games in particular since the 1980s. (Carey Benedict) One wide spread occurrence is people who have committed violent crimes often have been found to have played in the past or are playing violent video games now. In Adam Lanza’s basement, he’s the person in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, law enforcement re-portedly discovered a “trove” of violent video games. (Ryan Jaslow) Apparently the 20 year old spent hours alone, playing with the windows blacked out, honing his computer skills. (Ryan Jaslow) Many researchers have found that, after a violent crime, these criminals and murders...
Words: 1547 - Pages: 7
...Video Game Violence The objective of the study described in the article was to measure how much video game violence could influence aggressive behavior. In the first Pilot Study, a violent and nonviolent video game were selected and compared on their level of competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action. Participants played the games and the effect of each game on aggressive behavior was then compared using another sub-experiment in which they were then asked to make some hot sauce for someone who isn’t fond of spicy things. In the second Pilot Study, competitiveness was isolated categorized based on the difficulty and pace of gameplay, and then strategically controlling for violence. The effect of video game competition on aggressive behavior was then examined in the same sub-experiment as the first Pilot Study. The article addresses that perhaps competitiveness is the real reason and characteristic that has an effect on aggression when researching the correlations between video games and real violence. This is according to recent research by the APA. Research has been found to support that video game violence alone did not increase the aggressive behavior. The experiments featured video games that were categorized by competitiveness, the pace of action, and difficulty of the game. What was significant about these experiments was that the more competitive the game was, the more aggressive the behavior. It didn’t matter the level of violence that was in the game...
Words: 869 - Pages: 4
... ENG 101-001 04-09-2014 Violent Video Games and Their Alleged Effect Douglas A. Gentile writes that there are positive and negative aspects of video games. If you take video games that do not involve violence, but education instead, you find a positive outcome. Video games could very well be the new form of education to a certain degree. Things like coordination skills, memorization, and even learning a foreign language could be possible outcomes. Violent games on the other hand are a different story in and of themselves. Violent video games are defined as, any game where players can self- inflict harm on something (or someone) in the game. Time is also a huge factor. Putting a school aged kid in front of a violent video game, and allowing him to play for hours a day, will most likely decrease their ability to fulfill academic goals. The answer to this problem is to just limit the amount of time in front of a screen to one or two hours a day (non-academic). Also, limit the amount of violent games and encourage the more educational ones. “The conclusion I draw from the accumulated research is that the question of whether video games are “good” or “bad” for children is oversimplified” (Gentile). The discussion on whether video game play affects sociable behavior could be a matter of dialogue. Several argue that aggression and violence are plagued by video game play, whereas this stance is debatable by others...
Words: 1492 - Pages: 6
...^ "Effects of Video Games on Aggression". Personalityresearch.org. Retrieved 2011-07-12. This article explains that in past research there was no correlation between violence in video games and different age demographics. It also offers suggestions of future researches that include how video games improve hand and eye coordination as well as therapy. It is also hard to determine what is actually considered a “violent game”. Some age groups consider certain games to be fun and exciting, but not violent, while others think the opposite. This article also explains that video games have a positive effect on child behavior, such as stress relief. ^ Freedman, Jonathan. "No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence" First Amendment Centre. 2007, online Available: http://web.archive.org/web/20100209001052/http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/commentary.aspx?id=18490 [2007, October 17.]. In this article it discusses the research done by FCC that proves that there are other factors in the media that have more of an effect on youth today then videogames. It shows the research that violence in the movies and television have more of an impact than videogames. Gonzalez, Lauren. "When Two Tribes Go to War: A History of Video Game Controversy". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-08-03. In here the this article states that since videos games have started there has been violence with them. Pinball with people hitting the machine to move the balls the right way. This also stated that the lack...
Words: 393 - Pages: 2
...Steele Video Games and Violence The video game industry has become a very lucrative industry since their humble start thirty plus years ago. Today a large amount of people are devoting countless amounts of time playing video games with violent storylines. Research shows that spending vast amounts of time playing video games that contain a large quantity of violence intensifies aggressive behavior, attitudes, thoughts and affects. Video game violence correlates directly to aggressive attitudes and behaviors of the people who are exposed to violent stimuli, whether meditated or not. 1972 was the introduction to what we know as the multi-million dollar video game industry. The history of the video games spans over three eras (1977-1985) the Atari Era, (1985-1995) the Nintendo Era, and (1995-present) the Play Station Era. Video games during the Atari era contained little violence and that violence was quite intangible. With the advancement of computers it enabled development of more complex and violent video games during the Nintendo era, resulting in the popular game Mortal Kombat that was the first fight game that involved player interaction. We are currently in the third era the Play Station era and it has been significantly enriched by the advancement in computer technology and the switch from game cartridges to CD-ROM. Video games substance has radically changed since the Atari era. According to Carnagey & Anderson (2004) “content analyses of video games show...
Words: 767 - Pages: 4
...Lexi Video Games And Violence Video games and the violence in them have a large impact on children’s behavior. Video games can be addicting, making a child aggressive, which could lead children to do terrible things. They love to play video games because they are fun and exciting. Some parents allow them to play these games because they are fun and exciting. They are also allowed to play these games because it keeps them quiet or out of the way, not realizing that some of these video games are causing more bad than they are good. Video games can turn into an addiction. If a video game consumes most of a child’s time then they could easily forget to shower, excessive junk food eating begins, and attendance to school decreases. The addiction to video games has negative consequences, the same as a drug or any other addiction. It gives a game player a high. It is hard to quit playing video games when there are others around you that are continuing to play such as family, or friends. A person will need to seek help at this point because game playing is in control. Video games have an impact on children. Games that contain violent content usually cause aggression in children. This aggression is caused by the amount of time kids are allowed to play video games, studies showed by Walsh (2000), teens were honest and told the truth that their parents do not give them a time limit on game playing...
Words: 520 - Pages: 3
...UNV - 104 August 11, 2013 Video Games and Violence Video games and violence have different effects on children according to the type of video games that is being watched It is important to understand the world of video games. All video games do not prevent violence in children. Parents should take into consideration in monitoring their child while choosing video games. Depending on the video game that is chosen, does not mean the child will result in violent behavior later on in life. There are many types of video games that may promote either positive or negative effects in children. As there are many types of video games that are being played by children for different pleasures. To name a few, there are adventure, puzzle, platform, educational, and so on. When choosing the right video game for your child, or anyone’s child. Keep in mind the reason and purpose of that video game. What do you want the child to gain from playing the game? For this reason parents should research video game tips for parents. As a parent of three children, I have experienced myself purchasing video games for my seven year old. I would stick to the educational games. Parents should take control of their child’s video game use. Parents should always supervise how long their child plays a game and when to take a break. Negative effects on children with video games can be the most harmful on any child. Due to the child becoming aggressive, confusing, not knowing reality from...
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...Daniyar Sarzhanov Lacie Meier ENC 1102 5 April 2015 Are Violent Video Games Killing Children? It is a misconception that video games make people violent. One might not usually think of the positive sides of playing video games. However, many examples prove that video games can be beneficial. A lot of people are led to believe that video games make people violent and cause crimes. Even though millions of people are playing violent video games, mass killings are still a statistical anomaly. Politicians and the media utilize the controversy of violent video games for their own interests rather than those of the public. Video games are a form of creative expression and should not be demonized or used as a scapegoat for our population’s deeper mental traumas. Video games have positive effects. A study conducted by Shawn Green & Daphne Bavelier from Center Visual Science, University of Rochester, show that people who play a lot of action video games benefit from improved “hand-eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, such as resistance to distraction, sensitivity to information in the peripheral vision and ability to count briefly presented objects, than non-players” (“Action video game modifies visual selective attention”). Video games that incorporate advanced motion detection, such as Microsoft’s Kinect or Sony’s PlayStation Move, provide both physical and mental exercise. Furthermore, a study conducted by Doctor Cheryl K. Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health...
Words: 1167 - Pages: 5
..."Life is like a video game. Everybody has got to die sometime" said Devin Moore after his capture and killing spree that resulted in the death of 3 policemen (Leung). This statement caused many people to think that video games were the cause of not only Moore’s case, but many others too. But the real question is do video games cause bad effects such as antisocial behavior, obsession/addiction, and murder? Many people would say yes but I say that video games not only don’t cause these things, but are actually good for you. Many people say that video games cause anti social behavior, but I say that is not true. In fact, with the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Video games actually encourage social interactions. According to research done by the Civic Engagement Research Group at Mills College: “Our findings conflict with a commonly held perspective that youth who play video games are socially isolated and often antisocial. We also found no evidence to support scholars’ concerns that young people involved in the Internet (in this case by playing video games) are less civically engaged” (Evans, Kahne, Middaugh). That research studied the ordinary youth that plays video games and those that don’t and found that result. That search was done by survey and certain flaws can be seen in that type of research but then a study done by Nick Yee, a research scientist at the Palo Alto research center found that “About 1/5 of respondents agreed or strongly...
Words: 1042 - Pages: 5
...Video Games and Violence When it comes to recreational fun, many people to turn to video games to entertain and occupy their time. Although there are mixed feelings when it comes to playing video games, marketers benefit from consumers because they provide such variety of entertainment. Research states that video games can cause the player to become prosocial, antisocial, and demonstrate different forms of anxiety (Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2011). Positive video games can develop prosocial thoughts and actions. Prosocial behavior is defined as the willingness to helps others, cooperation, volunteering, donating, and sharing. Players who were exposed to positive video games have been viewed to demonstrate exceptional behavior versus those who played neutral or violent games. Super hero video games may urge a player to help others in need, and video games that deal with shopping or cooking may urge the player to donate or cooperate with others (Greitemeyer and Osswald, 2011). However, research shows that visuospatial cognition can develop, and this will also lead to better communication and social skills. In other words, the world the player is seeing, he or she will adapt to it (Ferguson, 2007). Yet, there is more research that defines the results of violent video games rather than non-violent ones. Violent video games can develop antisocial thoughts and actions. Antisocial behavior is known to harm or have no consideration of others. These types of games can...
Words: 551 - Pages: 3
...Violence in Video Games: Examining Violence and Competitiveness as Predictors of Verbal Aggressiveness Sean D. Badeer, Kathrine L. Lukes, Sarah A. Oltjenbruns, & Sergio D. Orozco Wayne State College Wayne, NE April 11, 2013 Abstract Violence in video games is the topic of much debate and controversy in the public arena. For this reason, it has been a heavily researched topic in areas of psychology and communication (Jeong, Biocca & Bohil, 2012). Much of the research on the topic examines the relationship between the violence in video games and aggression. However, despite the large community of research on the topic, researchers in communication have yet to examine the relationship between video game competitiveness and verbal aggression. Competiveness is a factor that must be considered if there is to be an accurate depiction of the impact of video games on aggressiveness (Adachi and Willoughby, 2011). The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of competitiveness and violence in video games on verbal aggressiveness. Furthermore, this study examines the relationship between verbal aggressiveness and attitudes toward violence. In the results of the study, the correlation between competitiveness and verbal aggressiveness was found to be significant. The correlation between video game violence and verbal aggressiveness was not significant. Furthermore, no significant correlation was...
Words: 2633 - Pages: 11
