Do Video Games Make You Violent? An In-Depth Analysis

Jos

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[newwindow=https://www.techspot.com/article/629-do-video-games-make-you-violent/]https://www.techspot.com/article/629-do-video-games-make-you-violent/[/newwindow]

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Personally, violent video games don't make me more violent in the slightest (I also don't really enjoy games like COD anyways)...but I can see how they might have an effect on some people.
 
Its not the games, its the age of the people that play them...the little kids play them, which isnt healthy. Parents shouldn't buy little 10 year old jimmy a mature rated FPS...and then let him use a headset to which he is exposed to the crap talk of a bunch of immature 21 year olds, seeing as the intelligent gamers on consoles (which are the majority gamers, lets face it) dont use mics in game chat very often.
 
Of course playing violent, competitive games brings out aggressive tendencies. Note that I say <I>brings out</I>. If its not already there to begin with, the player will typically give up on PvP playstyles at some point, if they ever tried them in the first place. Only the people who derive pleasure from dominating others will become hard-core fans of "deathmatch" and "arena" play. This includes team-based PvP, incidentally: there's very little actual teamwork happening in those kinds of online sessions. Furthermore, since every FPS I know of has been an R-rated experience for about five years now, this only amplifies the antisocial effect on players. Single player gaming is a whole different matter. Even though many recent RPGs are quite violent and essentially R-rated themselves, the vast majority of players aren't negatively affected. Its really the witch's brew of anonymous competition and ultra-violence that brings out the worst in people - but those people <I>want</I> that kind of rush.
 
Not a very scientific study and if anything, it only shows that people who play violent video games are somewhat inclined to write violent endings to already violent stories.

What's next? A drive to have violent books, magazines, video, etc.....censured by the Thought Police because they might induce violence?!! Please....people are violent because they make a conscious choice, not because there's some sort of subliminal hypnosis going on that makes them commit violent acts. If things really worked that way, we'd already be slaves to governments and corporations who have already tried sliding subliminal audio and imagery into just about every form of media....didn't work for them, doesn't work for clowns like this who want to implement stricter gun controls.
 
From the article:
But do we really need more research? What about the studies that have already been done? Have researchers found any links between video games and violence? Will violent video games really make kids more aggressive? Or is this all just a massive waste of time and money?
I don't know but one thing you can count on, if there is any waste of time and money to be done, the government will do it.
 
Of course they do, in the same vein that people who play Sims all become city planners and Monopoly players are all millionaires..

Gun violence is abominable. But putting the blame on videogames is just silly. The problem lies in a society which allows individuals such easy access to firearms with little or no oversight and control. It exposes a basic flaw in the way things are. Instead of curbing this glaring issue the US government yet again looks wildly around and settles on the first thing it lays eyes on.

I's like to point out that the Japanese play plenty of games as much as you Americans do (if not more) but I do not see many incidents such as Sandy Hook taking place there..

Apologies for my English. It is not my first language.
 
I would agree 100% with some that already said it. There is some that this WOULD bring out aggression tendencies. I would most would not, but the few that do it would defintly have a "trigger" effect, pardon the pun.
 
Any single player game keeps me the normal cool header person that I am.

However. WHen I play online I become a horrible person. As in, I get filled with rage, even when I am winning
 
Not even close. Though honestly, it made me commit a petty crime (e.g Pickpocketing). Fallout 3 made me do that! LOL
 
But putting the blame on videogames is just silly.
It's not nearly as silly or ridiculous as this statement:
"The problem lies in a society which allows individuals such easy access to firearms with little or no oversight and control."

Do you deny that the US has a definite gun culture? I know for a fact that the US Federal Assault Weapons Ban has expired and no attempt to renew it has even reached the house for vote. Many states require no permit nor registration for gun ownership. Let's focus on the fact that the sole purpose of most firearms is to kill/maim beasts/beings. Where I live in, you never hear a news story where a maniac with a gun rampaged around public places killing innocent bystanders. That's because guns are not as widespread in here as in many western nations. My point is that instead of curbing the spread of the CAUSE, the US government is again looking for excuses to either hide or overlook the fact that many US citizens have easy access to firearms. I am not bashing America at all, merely pointing out that blaming media and videogames for an inherent flaw in the society is BS.
 
Some weeks after my six year old nephew played modern warfare 3, told a another kid in his school that he'll shoot him. The concerned teacher called his parents and warned them not to let the child play violent games and movies.
 
I couldn't read passed the following statement.
In other words, playing Call of Duty makes you want to fight.
It's not the game that makes a person want to fight, it's wanting to fight that makes the person want to play the game. It's not the gun that kills, it's the person holding the gun that kills. It's not the game that spawns violence, it's the person playing the game that spawns violence. The question is how capable each and every one of us are at committing a violent act.

These little fun and games exercises are ridiculous. Anyone with half a brain could have predicted the outcome, before the exercise started.
 
Some weeks after my six year old nephew played modern warfare 3, told a another kid in his school that he'll shoot him. The concerned teacher called his parents and warned them not to let the child play violent games and movies.

Your 6-year old nephew.

Are you perhaps not aware that Modern Warfare 3 is rated Mature (17+) by ESRB?

That means "It has content that may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. Games with this rating are generally considered appropriate for players 17 years of age and older."

So who is at fault here? The videogame maker who has a printed clear warning from a non-profit rating organisation saying that the content is appropriate only for adults, or the boy's parents who are so irresponsible they do not check what they are exposing their son to?
 
George W. Bush singed off on funding a $1.5 million study to determine the negative effects of video games. One conclusion was that preventing children from playing violent video games (or any other activity popular among their peers) resulted in social isolation which effected their behaviour more.

I'm not sure if the Columbine shooters played games I got the impression that games were not a big part of their lives but the Virginia Tech shooter actually found video games revolting. So now what?

Do race car movies make kids drive recklessly? Maybe. Do video games make kids temporarily act aggressively? Sure, OK. Does omitting individuals based on physical characteristics cause considerable harm? Yup. There are a million different ways we suck and simply blaming everything on video games is simplistic at best and ignorant at worst.
 
Personal thing ive been playing call of duty and they do make u violent but not the ingame content makes u violent its when u get nervous and cant stop dieng that makes u feel like u wonna destroy the world of that instant
 
So following their logic, if I play racing simulators and card games, I want to race others on the road in reality, causing huge accidents and attacking them with playing cards being used as throwing devices?

My local neighbourhood must be very fortunate then, as I have no car and no set of playing cards to hand!

Any stimulation from books; tv; computer games etc. is likely to give people thoughts on what they just experienced, especially people with vivid imaginations. However, failing to seperate fantasy from reality and then acting out such aggressive actions is a mental health disorder.
 
Violent videos games help me cope with stress. Alcohol on the other hand makes me violent.
 
This **** only happens in USA, the rest of the world doesn't become violent due to playing games for kids.
 
This **** only happens in USA, the rest of the world doesn't become violent due to playing games for kids.
My my, are we in denial or just plain arrogant? Seriously, the rest of the world is no different? You will find violence in every populated area of the world, regardless of whether they just so happen to play games.
 
Truth be told I don't think so. I am a product of the 80s. My first game console was a passed down Atari 2600, later on I had a Sega Genesis with nothing but fighting games and sonic games. Now says I still play battlefield games, Batman games, Half-Life series, even Payday: The Heist. If anything they're more stress relief than anything else. While in middle and high school I would go home and play these games while my peers were busy getting arrested and transferred to Juvenile Hall.

Personally I believe this whole debate is the product of parents not wanting to take credit for their part in raising their children.
 
Really?! 10 Million is being wasted on research about Violent video games and real life violence?!

Fact of the matter is you've got to be a little bit messed in the head to walk into a school and shoot everybody, a video game will not force you to do this, the most a video game could do is suggest such a practice if the game has a violent enough story, but so do films and books (and music) so I'm pretty sure there's nothing to worry about.

That's all there is to it, why on earth would game developers develop games that force you to kill people in real life?

Wait a second, they're not forcing anybody! wow took me 5 seconds to work that out, guess 10 MILLION (seriously, 10,000,000) won't need to be wasted...
 
Yes. Violence comes from the animal nature of human. People killing/ fighting each other happens since the begin of our ancestors. There is no guilty on the Video games. Murderers just want to find an excuse and shirk their responsibility and shift the blame onto the games. There is nothing wrong with games. At least, I play shoot games but haven't committed any crime.
 
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