The first incident of massacre by gamers was recorded in 1993; the criminals who were accused played this game called "Doom." Porter et al. state in their article- "Are violent games harmful," that these two criminals wanted their own massacre to be "just like doom (423)." The criminals managed to kill "12 students and one teacher, before committing suicide (Porter et al. 423)." As 20 years have passed since then and games like Doom have been evolved to become more violent and realistic. There have been many assaults since then relating gamers and violence, and this has made scholars, media and gamers wonder whether games cause aggression. Even though researchers have done various methods and experiments to see if video games cause violence, …show more content…
Ferguson et al. did a study where around 100 students played random video games; in which they take up a role of a good character in one game while the other take the evil character (99). At the end, his results showed that these video games had no effect on aggressive behavior. In fact, the results showed decreased hostile feelings and decreased depression (105). Similarly, Julia Kneer adds onto Furguson by explaining that aggression is not cause by these gamers as "digital players and communities strictly distance themselves from school shootings. " Kneer et al believes media and older people are creating speculations that gaming causes aggression, and these gamers know the difference between the imaginary and real world (251). She says, "Young adult do not play digital video games themselves (253)." She is rebutting to what Montag had said earlier about how online video gamers play games to get out of the real world as they have dissatisfaction. But Kneer et al say that playing games as groups can be a form of social interaction (253). Simultaneously, Maria Frostling Henningsson goes against Chen and Emily Collins who said that gamers become shy and timid. She supports by saying that through online gaming, gamers connect to new people in "unexpected ways (558).". Hussain et all. in their article support Frostling by saying that the positive effects of gaming include "meeting new people, learning about new cultures, building friendship and teamwork (750)." In conclusion, all three, Frostling, Kneer and Hussain are stating that gamers do not go through social isolation, but in fact, their social skills build up and they can relate to other new people. Hussain et al. also go against Porter, as Porter et al. say that gaming worsens academic grades for these gamer, but Hussain states that online gaming improves efficiency, which is a good tool
Researchers, however, have found that gaming may not be completely bad for adolescents. A recent study by Paul J.C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby points out that video gaming may satisfy the same criteria for positive youth development as traditional organized activities such as sports, music or clubs. In direct contrast to this analogy, they demonstrate that there may be significant social benefits of gaming, that adolescents are motivated to play video games and that this type of play requires concentration and mental effort (Adachi and
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 aggression than players who enacted comparable levels of in-game violence through an antiheroic character” (Sauer 205). As a graduate of Radboud University, Isabela Granic brings to light the reasons why the youth actually benefit from playing violent video games. For example, in her article, “The Benefits of Playing Video Games,” Granic illustrates the fact that children gain social skills, highly efficient motor skills, and the understanding of the human body as a whole. Noted by the author, “Whereas adolescents and adults often use self-disclosure and direct discussion with close friends to resolve emotional issues, children use play to work them out through pretend-based narratives enacted either alone or with others” (Granic 67).
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.
People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since the Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries.
"Get over here!" The angered and scratchy voice bellows from deep within the strong, mean-spirited ninja. The ninja throws forth a blade that is fastened to the end of a long, black rope. The sharp point of the spear pierces the skin and takes root deep within the stomach of a screaming, young woman. Blood splatters from the impact, and the ninja forcefully retrieves the blade by pulling on the rope to which it is attached. The shrieking, young woman is lurched forward, attached still to the steel blade and without the ability to defend herself. Currently, she stands paralyzed and helpless at the hands of her attacker.
“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)
then video games could be responsible for much of the bad news we hear on television.
While many different case studies have been done all over the world, scientists have yet to prove that there is a direct correlation between violent video games and child aggression. Since the start of this quarter, this has been an issue that I have been doing extensive research on. Despite looking into several scholarly sources, I was surprised to see that many of my findings were pretty consistent with one another. For the mort part, what I found through my research was a bunch of statistics from case studies and the interpretation of those statistics from renowned scientists. In many cases, statistics and studies showed slight indications that violent video games have an effect on c...
The shooters at Columbine high school, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold frequently played violent video games such as Doom, and Harris even created a modification for the game. The modification allowed two shooters to use a large arsenal weapons to shoot unarmed civilians (Anderson 353). Is seems eeril...
By far the largest concern of technology today is video games. There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video game...
First video games are not harmful to the public quite the contrary actually. Many video games encourage social behavior and team work whether that is the two player cooperative shooter game that two brothers play together working as a team inspiring positive feelings overriding the negative ones as stated in the study coauthored by David Ewoldsen. Or a family on game night all playing a game together and having a great time and bonding together because of the experience. And many games today don’t stop there at just play together and have fun. Many games promote teamwork skills through puzzles which can be solved together, or enemies that the players must work together to defeat. These positive social effects are not limited to one’s family but extend into online play, where one can converse and enjoy his time with others, creating entire
“YOU SUCK!” “I killed him!” “Head shot!” These are just a few examples of dialogue spoken by children while they are playing violent video games. These video games might seem like harmless fun, but what if the violence in these games is affecting the behavior of young players interacting with others?
"Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits." American Psychological Association. February 2014, Vol 45, No. 2
Yet many people are concerned how this impacts there social skills the everyday face to face contact. When playing video games people limit their self’s to social interaction unless it has to do with the game, a lot of people play online and talk to their friends through a headset. When people have face to face contact they develop skills in learning how to communicate with people and eye to eye contact you don’t get that through a video game. Being in a social environment promotes social skills. A social environment can provide opportunities for one to learn how to behave properly in different situations. When playing video games most of the time the person is alone and confined in room. Meaning there is very little social interaction between the person and the game. When people play video games they play in sessions and they can last a long time even all night. People get so wrapped up in playing these games they blow off their friends and family meaning it’s hard to maintain social relationships.
The advantage of playing online games is that it allows people to communicate with numerous numbers of others from different cultural backgrounds and countries. In the game, a gamer may want to exchange his item with someone else. Therefore, he/she has to negotiate with others. Repetition of this negotiation can develop a gamer’s social skills. The disadvantage of online gaming is that spending most of your free time in front of a monitor will remove teenagers from their friends and society.