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Violent video games effect
Impact of violent video games on society
Impact of violent video games on society
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As a character you are controlling walks through the bank, cops begin to swarm around you, and you are forced to kill them or be killed by them. After you kill the cops you rob a bank and gain around 2 million dollars. That is one of the very first missions in the popular game Grand Theft Auto 5. Grand Theft Auto 5 broke several records the first day it came out. Some of these records include best selling video game in 24 hours, fastest video game to gross $1 billion and it had the most viewed trailer for an action-adventure video game (Lynch). Grand Theft Auto 5 is a very violent video game, as well as very profane in the language and gestures used. I can personally vouch for the violence of this game as I bought this game the day it was released. However, Do games like Grand Theft Auto have negative effects on teenagers? Many people relate violent video games to aggressive behavior in …show more content…
Grand Theft Auto has killing, stealing, shooting, and sexual acts. Many people, mostly the older generation of parents, believe games can desensitize these things, making them easier to do in real life. Douglas Gentile says that repeated exposure to anything will cause desensitization (Gentile). However, video game violence is completely different from real world violence. Most violent acts on Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty make me think their is no way this would happen in real life. I get used to it in the game because of repeated exposure but would never even think about doing these things in real life. Killing in games is completely different feeling then hurting someone in real life. What Gentile is saying, is that in whatever you are getting exposed to, you will become desensitized to it. You can become desensitized to certain foods that you eat too much, or words that are repeatedly used in movies. So you will become desensitized to video game violence, but not real life
In today’s society, highly addicting video games involving strong violence and language, explicit sexuality and crime often lead to inappropriate behaviors. Role playing games or RPGs allow us to step into a virtual world, cutting ourselves off from worldly distractions. Nowadays, the age range for people who play these extremely graphic games are anywhere from six to eighteen and are surprisingly hazardous to young children’s health. A study gave a group of players playing a violent video game the chance to blast a painful sound into their opponent's ear in order to get the upper advantage. They also gave another group playing non violent games, the same opportunity. The study showed that overall the gamers playing violent video games were more prone to inflict more pain on their enemies, unlike the other group who inflicted considerably less pain. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D who did this study agrees, “violent video games desensitize players to violence, and makes them more violent in real life" (McGonigal). Young adults are exposed to these terrifying images, harming their mental health. In recent events, a young eight year old boy shot his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto. This game is the epitome of why young people should not be playing these games. It is comprised of murder, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal behavior, violence and general disrespect for women, and foul language. In summary, young people should not be playing these games in order to save their mental health. Furthermore, television contributes to desensitizing society with it’s ...
Do you think kids get more and more violent after playing video games? I think that kids do get more violent and learn more negative things from video games. Such as when kids play games like Grand Theft Auto 5 and Call of Duty they want to shot and kill people. Games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto are rated M for a reason. An M rated game means mature, so you have to be 17 or older to purchase. Young 13 year olds should not be playing these games and getting so much negativity out of the game. So I think video games do cause kids and teens to do violent things.
Also, how the result of violent gaming affects the actions of the children shortly after the finish playing. Overviewing the work of physiological professor Helen Fisher, Sauer concludes that playing a mass variety of games can have different effects on a child. Documented by Sauer, “To the extent that this task is representative of real-world risk taking in a driving context, Fischer et al. found that racing games can have negative effects on traffic safety: increasing risk-taking behavior, risk-promoting cognitions, and positive attitudes toward reckless driving” (Sauer 206). A child does not have to shoot a gun in a game such as Call of Duty or rob a bank in GTA V, the end result is that the child would think these things are accepted in society.
Works Cited Kulling, Matthew. The. “GTA:Link between violence and video games lacks a smoking gun”. marquettetribune.org -. 15 Nov 2013. Nauret, Rick. “In new study, video games are not tied to violence in youth”.
According to Valadez and Fergusion (2012), “The effects of violent video game exposure, both positive and negative, on various behaviors are still highly contested within academia and the general public” (p. 608). Violence in video games is often wrongfully perused as a topic of extreme criticism pertaining to an individual’s act of violence in today society. Examples of such would include the shooting that occurred in April 2007 at Virginia Technical College; where Jack Thompson and Philip McGraw asserted that violent video games were the ultimate cause of the tragic incident, but further investigation suggested that Seung-Hui Cho had never played any such games (Valadez & Fergusion, 2012). Since the early days of mankind, society has often enlisted the service of a scapegoat in the attempt to correct the unethical or immoral conduct of a few individuals; violence in video games is no exception to this type of social misconduct. Possibly, one may want to consider human nature and its unyielding desire to be competitively better than the next person; compared to an individuals need to be excessively violent regardless of visual representation of violence in the first place. Although many will argue the effect that violent video games have on the human psyche; the research is far too inconclusive for one to make an educated assessment of the provided information.
There are many views as to whether video game violence causes children to behave violently. Many children play violent games because that is what most people are playing and they feel that they need to do so as well. Violence is not only in video games but also in all other forms of media because that is what sells and what will make entertainment companies more money.
... methodologies and the intrusion of ideology and scientific dogma” (Ferguson 11). Violent Video Games do not cause increased violent tendencies in youth and adolescents due to the fact violent video games have been around for years and in those years violence caused by teens have actually been dropping rather than increasing. Also, violent video games have been shown through research that the negatives are highly outweighed by the positives. Also, with the introduction of interactive gaming there are a new range of possibilities for violent video games. Such as sending a message to children about healthy activities by getting them off of the couch. So hopefully in five years violent video games will have moved to full interactive gaming so that it looks more real-life, but more importantly that it will still be a form of media that helps to relive personal stress.
video games often warp their sense of reality. The kids think that if they shoot a person in a game and nothing really happens then nothing will really happen if they shoot a person in real life. When video games first became popular, people may not have seen this as much of a problem because games were not very realistic. With the advancement of technology, however, video games are becoming more and more realistic. If video games become more realistic, children will forget what is real and what is simulated; a child seeing somebody violently murder another human being in a video game will have the same effects as seeing somebody murder another human being in real life. Witnessing these brutal acts of violence either will traumatize or desensitize them to violence. However, this is contradictory to the “Play is labile” theory (Schroeder 4), which will be discussed, in further detail.
Ferguson, 2014 -. There are those who believe that playing video games that are violent causes a reduction in brain response to real life violence. This is because the violent game affects a part of the brain hypothesized to cause desensitization. It is then thought that this “desensitization” to violence predicts that those who play these games will become violent themselves later. (Bartholow, Bushman, Sestir, 2006)
“As video games have become more violent and more sophisticated and the sales of video games has skyrocketed in the last few decades, youth violence has plummeted,” Ferguson says, citing evidence compiled by various federal agencies (Adams 3). Violence in video games is not a new issue. It has been debated and argued since the release of the first violent video game. As time has progressed, so has the evolution of violence and strong language within video games. Ratings have become more relaxed, and the lines between T (Teen) and M (Mature) rated games has gotten closer together. Violent games are becoming the normal and accepted of all games, and are being demanded by the gaming industry more heavily. Parents have always shied away from these games for their children, regardless of age. However, kids are getting these games whether they are the correct age (17+) or not. Young kids, less than ten years of age are playing horribly violent games and parents are fearing the repercussions. But video games are not to be blamed for child violence. Violence in video games does not cause children to become violent people later on in life.
“I 'm very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, is not a good thing for young kids” (Lee, quote hook). This quote taken by Stan Lee expresses the exact predicament video game designers are facing, about how violent video games truly are violent and effect young adults. Although video games have ratings on them just like how movies and T.V. shows do, which can protect or keep unnecessary violence away from teenagers and children. Meanwhile electronically controlled devices can still produce violence in children because of the careless portray of cruel and vicious scene’s game designers produce in their games, such games like GTA. Brutal and savage video games should
Video games first appeared in the early 1970's. It all started with a simple white ball bouncing back and fourth on the screen. In 1986, Nintendo introduced its first line of home video game consoles. With the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on the market, the home video gaming industry surged and immediately became popular among children. Since then, not only have video games increased in popularity, but there have been vast improvements in graphics, game play, and forms of gaming. Today, video games have become the preferred choice of entertainment among children and teenagers. Research done in 1998 has shown that kids who own video games spend an average of 90 minutes a day playing them. Clearly the video gaming industry is a profitable one. With the increasing competition between gaming companies, the advancement of technology and content of games began to change. One of the most significant and concerning changes in gaming is graphics. With the improvements in graphics the content of the game became more and more detailed and realistic. Visually violent actions can now be displayed on the screen. Images of blood, flying body parts, and gore have been integrated into every aspect of today's video games. Violence has always been a common factor in many games, but with the improvements in graphics and capabilities of gaming consoles, a growing number of people are becoming concerned about the effects on our children and society.
This happens because when we are exposed to it all the time, it gets old and we become used to it. Kids will 100 percent become desensitized to violence if they play mature games because most mature games will have intense violence. These kids are going to play this game every day and eventually they are going to get bored with it. When they get bored most of the time they are going to want to buy another mature game that’s different from the one they’ve been playing. It’s a never-ending cycle
To begin with, playing violent video games causes juveniles to internalize negative values. The visual graphics and life like situations that gamers face, makes it difficult to separate fantasy from reality when it comes to making moral decisions. The landscapes of the games encourage gender bias and racial stereo typing.In Michael Marriott’s New York Times article, “The Color of Mayhem” he notes the use of minority characters in video games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas explaining as, “Violent video games underscore a trend depicting minorities in racial stereotypes, including young blacks committing and reveling in street violence” (Marriot). He means to say, that assuming the role of minority characters in violent video games
“90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children” ("Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?”). Pediatrics and parents are aware that kids that play violent video games see a change in their behavior. Many cases they see the kids with anger problems and causing them to do violent acts. Violent video games have been around for many years where some older titles, such as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and 'Grand Theft Auto’ both are some of the most controversial ones. The video game industry has been growing and with the large amounts of violent video games being produced. “Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to