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violence in games


darkXhawk
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Im writing a paper about video game violence. Its an argument based paper and Im statig that violent acts should not be blamed on violent games. My opinion is that its the parents own fault for not caring what their kids do. I do think that violent video games has an effect on kids but if they had good parents who explained to them the difference between reality and virtual reality, we wouldn't have as much of a problem. A lot of parents buy video games systems for babysitters rather than entertainment. One of the topics Im talking about is of course Columbine, but I was wondering if maybe some of you guys could throw me some more suggestions on topics that I could touch on. Maybe even give me some personal experience that you've had with violent games.

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I wrote about the same topic for a joint Media Studies/ Psychology Assignment last year. I brought into it Psychological studies, not specificaly about gaming, but about imitation. Bandura was the main study, where children viewed people being passive or aggresive to toys, and then seeing if they would imitate the behaviour they witnessed. One website I used was http://www.parentstv.org which is by parents protecting their children from the media. If you want to chat give us a shout!

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If video games really turn innocent choir boys into dark, dirty murdering scumbags we'd see far more of this believed relationship mentioned in the press; consider how many copies of games featuring violence have been sold since their inception pre-1990... hundreds of millions, yet the number of such cases could probably be counted on both hands, forgetting Jack Thompson's insane claims.

 

I'd assume the two freaks involved with Columbine were already of an unusual mindset to begin with, as they certainly don't play these games with the same intent we would (changing graphics around in Doom to represent people they know etc).

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The argument that video games are the sole source of violence in today's youth simply infuriates me. The people arguing those points infuriate me even more.

 

Several years ago I was going through a Wal-Mart and saw Robocop Action Figures. Now, nothing seems wrong with such a toy except for the fact that it had a Small parts warning on the box and it said for "ages 7 and up". Most would simply ignore such a thing but I have to ask. Why the hell is a toy being made for 7 year olds based on an R rated movie? I've seen Robocop several times... enjoyed it, actually. I sure wouldn't any children of mine under 14 to watch it because of the language alone.

 

I believe I saw the same thing on a Halo action figure once. Again, why is a toy being made for 7 year olds that's based on a game rated for persons 17 and older?

 

Some may say it's simply there because of the small parts and blah blah blah but upon closer inspection, the Halo toys (and books) all say "Based on a Mature Rated Video Game" on the back and when buying the Halo Graphic Novel, I was asked for my license because of such a warning.

 

Why isn't this on toys based on movies as well?

 

Point is, parents need to watch out for their kids and stop buying them games and letting them watch movies simply because it's a good "babysitter". It's not and they simply seem to forget that it's their actions that allowed their children access to such a medium in the first place.

 

Frankly, I don't feel sorry for the parents that have children going to juvie over assault because they said they "saw it in a video game" and what's funnier? The parents have the nerve to ask "Where did I go wrong?" You bought him a game that was rated for someone years ahead of him when you knew about the effects on such "easily coerced minds".

 

Ignorance in parents seems to be an ever-growing trend and truthfully, I don't want to stick up for their stupidity anymore. The gaming community doesn't need games to get dumbed down because some dumb ass might buy it for his 8 year old. It's not the store employees' or rating board's job to look out for your kids. It's yours and if you can't do that properly, you shouldn't have had children in the first place.

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almost to well put skillet... seriously get a dog first or something. :p everything like this can almost always be related back to the general public's ignorance/stupidity/unwillingness to learn. This reminds me of a parent who thought everyone was allergic to dairy based products because she read in an article that 90% of people in the world were lactose intolerant.

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Your arguments are a tad weak and I don't think you have any direct references. It's an argumentative paper, and the sole basis has to provide experts to prove your points. This will require a lot more research then you would think and you would need to reference psychologists a lot. This is a tough debate and there are some very good arguments for the effects of video games on children. There are also many against it. You have to think about it from a psychological view point. You need to create a much stronger argument also and I fear that you may not fair so well on your essay if you do not have stronger points.

 

I believe Columbine specifically was more revolved around dark music and a lot of blame was put on Marilyn Manson or however you spell his name.

 

Anyways, do a lot of research. There's a ton of studies on things of this nature.

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Your arguments are a tad weak and I don't think you have any direct references. It's an argumentative paper, and the sole basis has to provide experts to prove your points. This will require a lot more research then you would think and you would need to reference psychologists a lot. This is a tough debate and there are some very good arguments for the effects of video games on children. There are also many against it. You have to think about it from a psychological view point. You need to create a much stronger argument also and I fear that you may not fair so well on your essay if you do not have stronger points.

 

I believe Columbine specifically was more revolved around dark music and a lot of blame was put on Marilyn Manson or however you spell his name.

 

Anyways, do a lot of research. There's a ton of studies on things of this nature.

 

Well, I HAVE done a ton of research on it. The paper is actually due tomorrow. Im just looking for maybe one more paragraph to add to boost my word count a bit. I guess I tryed to sumarize my argument instead of posting my entire writings in one post.

 

As for Columbine, it was blamed on yes, Marilyn Manson, but if you look, it was also blamed on video games.

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Well the whole Doom thing was also brought up a lot in Columbine. Video games were blamed for VTech by several people (not surprisingly this includes Jack Thompson) before they even knew who the killer was!

 

http://gamepolitics.com/

 

that site covers pretty much anything that has to do with video games in the media and politics, so it often touches down on violence accusations and sometimes even deeper issues like racism in the case of RE5 (because you are a white guy shooting a bunch of black people).

 

Yeah the part on JT is included in my paper. He blamed it on Counter-Strike. Even though it is unknown if Cho was even a fan of CS or games at all. Cho was mentally ill and bullied constantly.

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I believe Columbine specifically was more revolved around dark music and a lot of blame was put on Marilyn Manson or however you spell his name.

 

Last year, the sister of the first student killed at Columbine did an assembly at my school, and she mentioned something about how the shooters had copies of Doom on their computers where the enemies had faces from their school yearbooks.

 

The press loves to jump on any mention of video games causing real-life killings. I think they even blamed video games on Virginia Tech until they found out the shooter never owned a console. They figured out it was because of some play, but did anyone try to ban plays? Hell no.

 

But still, I could name 5 dozen serial killers, spree killers, and generally fucked individuals who have never picked up a controller in their lives. People like Charles Manson (a dozen kills), The Iceman (200+, this guy was insanely fucked, HBO interviewed him a few times, and he's the scariest guy I've ever seen), Charles Whitman (25), Woo-Bum Kon (57).

 

Actually, those who were supposedly 'inspired' by GTA and the lot tend to rack up less kills. No sane individual has ever finished Saint's Row and said "That was fun. I'm gonna do that in real life now."

 

Anyway, a news article about the family of a shooting victim suing Rockstar:

http://www.safegamesillinois.org/media/releases/Tuscaloosa%20News%202_16_05.pdf

 

P.S. I know I know way too much about spree killers.

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Well, I would disagree with that Mold. You may want to point this out in your paper. It seems as if there's a better chance of someone doing something violent, if in the video game, they can control the violence. They're a role in it, as opposed to television or movies.

 

True that people have more of a role in video game character's actions. But characters in movies are oftentimes seen as role models in ways that video game characters can not.

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to be completely honest, the only thing(s) video games make me want to do are break things in my immediate area. i don't care what video game you are playing, unless it is some brainwashing technology, you are not taking the lives of innocent people because you found a mini-uzi after killing a cop in liberty city where prostitutes roam freely. bullshit. now if there was a game that perfectly resembled reality, with guns at a gun store and virtually no possible way to kill innocent people without getting caught you have an argument. but don't tell me some army simulation game (CS) made you kill innocent teenagers.

 

to marx0r, we had rachel's (the girl killed at columbine) brother do the assembly at our school. i can honestly say that the assembly was one of the most moving things i have ever heard in my life. i'm a pretty strong guy emotionally and i felt like i was going to cry. so i don't want to hear some bullsh*t about how video games make people kill people. mentally ill and deranged people kill people, not video games.

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Greatest serial killer of all? Hitler. 6 million jews, what did he play? He played Galaga and he listed to Twisted Sister who are all 'Sadomasochists and satanists'. Yes, music does contain lyrics that might 'seem' violent, but that's art. Yes video games HAVE violence on them, but do they cause violence? " I just played Tetris. I want to kill someone because the little blocks told me to." Killing in a game is much more different than killing in real life. Of course some of the people that have caused massacres have played a video game, but who hasn't in the Western World?

 

" We have reports that *imput name of serial killer* played DOOM in order to practice his killings." Killing demons and humans is different.

 

" Yes, we have reports that the Vtech killer has used a bathroom before. We can't confirm if those helped him kill those students, we'll keep you updated."

 

Seriously, statistically, and historically, how many people have killed SOLELY influenced on video games? Pick any era and compare it to today's and with different motives. People in shorter time than 60 years[or 70 life span of video games] have killed MORE PEOPLE being influenced by religion, politics, or whatever than ALL video games put together.

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Greatest serial killer of all? Hitler. 6 million jews, what did he play? He played Galaga and he listed to Twisted Sister who are all 'Sadomasochists and satanists'. Yes, music does contain lyrics that might 'seem' violent, but that's art. Yes video games HAVE violence on them, but do they cause violence? " I just played Tetris. I want to kill someone because the little blocks told me to." Killing in a game is much more different than killing in real life. Of course some of the people that have caused massacres have played a video game, but who hasn't in the Western World?

 

" We have reports that *imput name of serial killer* played DOOM in order to practice his killings." Killing demons and humans is different.

 

" Yes, we have reports that the Vtech killer has used a bathroom before. We can't confirm if those helped him kill those students, we'll keep you updated."

 

Seriously, statistically, and historically, how many people have killed SOLELY influenced on video games? Pick any era and compare it to today's and with different motives. People in shorter time than 60 years[or 70 life span of video games] have killed MORE PEOPLE being influenced by religion, politics, or whatever than ALL video games put together.

 

WHAT?!?!

 

Where did you get this information from?

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Absolutely anything can lead an unstable mind towards disaster. It's obviously compounded when a violent person surrounds themselves with the very things that breed their anger. From my own experience, I myself used the ideas and tactics from a book about Navy Seals, to help with my financial troubles. I never hurt anybody but I served a year in juvey. I knew all along what I was doing and my folks never saw it coming so I can't blame them. Parents definitely need to be aware if their child needs help but how about our youth owning up to their punk @$$ behaviour and stop hiding behind whatever will get them off the hook. But that goes both ways. If you are the parent of a tough guy bully, use the time now to try to change them, because not everybody comes to the conclusion that I did. Life is too short, to waste it and you might realize it when its too late to enjoy it. Now as a 27 year old, single father of 1 crazy lil girl, I can't wait to show the world why games are so sweet. Cuz soon my little munkey Melyna, Daddy is gonna own you something fierce at whatever game IS APPROPRIATE FOR YOU.

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Now I will add my 2-cents into the discussion. Many people have said that video games lead to real-life violence amongst young people today. I disagree. I have been playing video games all my life. I have yet to go out into the real world and kill someone. Many people don't realize that to kill someone in real life you have to throw in that moral factor. In a game you can kill and keep on goin because your basically just erasing a block of code and having it appear in another spot as the character respawns. So someone who kills in real life have something already screwed up with their mind because they can't discern between virtual reality and our reality. Seriously. Don't blame video games just because you were a lousy parent and didn't feel like taking care of your kid so you decided to buy him a video game that was way to advanced for him to shut him up.

 

Normal Teens + Violent Games = Good Fun

Mentally Imbalanced Teens + Violent Games = Columbine

 

Notice which variable causes the change from fun to death. Hmm.

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I'd be surprised if this hasn't been mentioned yet but I think it would be very easy to find Jack Thompson's words contradicting himself about his opinion on video game violence.

 

He can sound like he knows what he's talking about, but if you do some research on him, he clearly doesn't. Sorry, I don't have any sources to point you towards.

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Greatest serial killer of all? Hitler. 6 million jews...

 

Wrong on several counts. Hitler was responsible for the deaths of 12 million people, roughly half of them Jewish. Hitler's actions also don't qualify as serial killing on many accounts.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer

 

I have relatives who were in concentration camps, so this isn't meant to be insulting: Hitler really only persecuting Jews to create a common enemy. His whole 'superior race' thing was an extraordinarily Machiavellian technique. Also, Hitler's totals pale in comparison to a few other people. Stalin's persecution of his own people caused 25 million deaths, twice that of Hitler.

 

AchievementMaster, I'm not too sure who you were adressing, but I never undermined Columbine or said it was caused by video games, just that the media said it was.

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I silenced a group of so-called experts who were starting with how violent movies and videogames encourage kids to bring guns to school and make it look okay within 60 seconds. The main idea I presented was this:

 

Did movies or games exist during the World Wars? During the Crusades? During any of the great ancient civilizations in the past? Violence has always been there. It's just more televised now. And old fogies who dislike new forms of entertainment try to connect televised violence with the things we like to enjoy every evening when we've done all what we need to do for the day and need to unwind.

 

Seriously, many "mature" non-gamers I know are more violent and more easily aggravated than any gamers I know.

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