From character to character, the brutal kills range from ripping out spines to slicing the opponents straight in half to chopping off foe's arms. They were all just obeying the thunderous voice rumbling, "Finish him!" This is Mortal Kombat – one of, if not the, most popular fighting game franchises ever created. At its conception in 1992, it was hit with a hard wall of controversy for its heavy use of gore and the general fear it would influence children to reenact these so-called “fatalities” in real life. Ever since the 1970s, man was finally able to interact with the screen, creating a universe written in ones and zeros. However, does the screen speak back to us, and cause effects outside of the console? Though video games have widely been blamed by the media for motivating violence, they do not in fact cause violence, but instead serve as just another media platform under scrutiny as many mediums before them. Games have miniscule, possibly even absent, scientific evidence for causing violence. Even though games do cause some aggression in laboratory studies, it is the same aggression that comes with any other competition, such as sports (Jayson). Whether the game in question is a frustrating Mario level or a difficult Grand Theft Auto mission, the aggression is not caused by the content. This is also a case of causation vs. correlation – do violent games cause violent people, or do violent people just choose violent games? Certainly, it’s the latter. If an individual is already obsessed with, say, rape, he or she will pursue media on that subject. In reality, the rate of school shootings has actually dropped since 1994, while the popularity of video games has exploded (Gerdes). Also, the results inside a laboratory do not alwa... ... middle of paper ... .... Print. "Seung-Hui Cho Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. Simpson, Kevin, and Jason Blevins. "Did Harris Preview Massacre on 'Doom?"" The Denver Post Online. Denver Post, 4 May 1999. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. Stashower, David. "On First Looking into Chapman's Holden: Speculations on a Murder." The American Scholar:. Phi Beta Kappa, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2013. Steinberg, Michelle, and Anton Chaitkin. "Virginia Tech Killer Was Another Video-Game Fanatic." Virginia Tech Killer Was Another Video-Game Fanatic. Executive Intelligence Review, 27 Apr. 2007. Web. 15 Sept. 2013. "Video Game Violence: Why do we Like it, and what's it Doing to Us?" NPR All Things Considered (2013): n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 29 Aug. 2013. "Violent Video Games and Young People." Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010): n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 29 Aug. 2013.
In the book “Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy,” the authors relay the general information concerning the history of violence in video games as well as the beginning of the issue of violence in video games (Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley 2007). They state that it was “during the 1990s that violent games truly
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
Jaccarino, Mike. “’Training Simulation:’ Mass Killers Often Share Obsession with Violent Video Games.” Fox News. FOX News Network. 12 September 2013. Web. 14 May 2014.
Anton, Mike and Lisa Ryckman. “In hindsight, signs to killings obvious”. In hindsight, signs to killings obvious. 2 May 1999. RockyMountainNews.com. 20 March 2002 http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/shooting/0502why10.shtml
Desensitization from video games creates a biological response that leads to a lack of empathy and more aggressive behaviors. Furthermore, violence in video games is rewarded, making one more likely to repeat the behavior in real life. Finally, video games allow people to take on roles, and along with one’s inability to separate reality from fantasy, people will take on these roles in real life, leading to many of the recent mass shootings. The debate on video games and violence will carry major significance over these coming years. Although violent video games will not necessarily be banned, there might be moves to educate parents about the dangers of violent video games so that their children can be monitored in the games they choose. However, the debate will not be completely solved. Video games are a multimillion dollar industry and the companies may pay psychologists to agree with their sentiments, prolonging the debate. Although video games are some of the most popular items in the world to own, one must take caution in purchasing them, especially violent
The purpose behind the annotated bibliography that is being presented to you is to shed light on the various sources I used to gather the information that is presented in my research paper. The main topic that these sources will encompass is the topic of video game violence and its effect on the youth of our nation. There are various viewpoints to have towards the topic of video game violence and its affect on the youth of our nation. The sources that have been chosen to be used in this research are not only chosen to help give an unbiased look into the topic at hand, but also to help give a look into the research that has been conducted dealing with this topic such as internet articles, magazine articles and books.
Anderson, Craig A., and PhD. ” Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions.” American Psychological Association (APA). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.
In the last two decades, video games have become popular, especially violent video games such as Call of Duty, Unreal Tournament, and Grand Theft Auto, among others. According to Anderson and Bushman, “[a]bout 10% of children aged 2 to 18 play console and computer video games more than 1 hour per day; among 8- to 13-year-old boys, the average is more than 7.5 hours per week” (354). Due to their explicit violent content, violent video games have been seen as a negative influence in society by promoting aggression in the real world, thus increasing violence in society. Most people assume that playing violent video games has negative effects on players because violent video games create aggressive behaviors on the people who play them. However, studies show that violent video games bring some benefits, and people who normally choose to play violent video games are the ones that have been raised or have been exposed to a violent environment.
Violent video games are undoubtedly a legalized drug to children and teens, numbing their thoughts and reprogramming their minds. Like a drug, it desensitizes them, and makes them more prone to violence. This idea of violent video games was not a phenomenon until the later 20th century, and evolved from racing into enemies, to free-for-all drug abuse and sexual/physical violence that most youth know and play today. These games have a detrimental impact on teens, making them eat more, become more aggressive, and wash away their morality. Although some may try to argue with reality, countering that its helps them socially, similar to the idea of teens taking drugs, violent video games reduce their overall health and need to be taken care of.
Children today are exposed to more graphic violence in video games compared to any past generations. This is because the media finds that making a profit, surpasses the lives of the adolescents that play these games. However, over time two set of views formed from the violence in video games. James D. Sauer, is a graduate of the School of Phycology. In his article, “Violent Video Games: The Effects of Narrative Context and Reward Structure On In-Game and Postgame Aggression,” Sauer, describes that adolescents gain forms of aggression and violence after playing certain games. Not every video game causes post game aggression, but documented in his article, “Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame
The early 1990s brought with it increases in technology and violent video games emerged with “person-on-person violence” which include games such as two graphic fighting games, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter and a first-person-shooter zombie infestation game called Doom. By this time, youth violence had dramatically increased and peaked to one of the highest levels on record and various groups of school shootings shocked the United States. The more drastic response to this was the belief that video games were training young children to become murderers by simply playing these violent video games (Ferguson). In view of consumers’ violent nature, the vast majority of research concerning video games has focused on “the way game play impacts anti-social behavior” (Tear). The video game industry was aware of this issue and had to improvise quickly on a solution or there would have been a noticeable decrease in sales. Parents were and still are ...
Lately there have been increasing amounts of people that say that violent video games are causing a number violent actions. To some extent this is true, but there are also studies that say games help people release their aggression in an appropriate way. I would tend to agree with the later.
The debate about media violence has been going on for hundreds of years. The newest form of media being scrutinized is videogames. I will be taking you through this debate and sharing with you some things that you may find surprising. This is not a new topic and has ...
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
The day was April 20th, 1999. During an otherwise peaceful day at Columbine High in Columbine, CO, two seniors—Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold—finally committed an atrocious act. That act had been in the planning for a long time, perhaps even since Harris designed a website for popular, controversial, extremely violent video game Doom in 1996. The Columbine High School shooting is known as the deadliest high school shooting ever, with its death toll of twelve students and one teacher, as well as twenty-four people injured. But little known for some is the fact that the Columbine shooting was what kick started the nationwide controversy over violent video games. Harris, for one, was an avid player of Doom, and some believe that’s what caused him and Klebold to even think of murdering all the people who had, according to Harris’ diaries, simply ‘annoyed’ him. The fallout of this incident was massive, but one of the long-lasting effects has been the worry in people’s minds that there is a connection between video games and violent acts performed by teenagers. Those who do believe that may claim that before the digital age, violent acts—at least those performed by teenagers—were few and far between. (This is an obvious rumor, not a fact.) If that were the case, it’s understandable why some believe that games are causing more violence in today’s youth. Teachers are worried about the issue, as are parents and government officials, and teenagers and game producers are involved in it as well. The issue itself raises many questions: are teenagers so easily affected by images on a screen? Is the world merely a product of its pastimes? If video games really do cause increased aggression in youth, what are people supposed to do about it? Despit...