Violence in Video Games is Not Responsible For Violence in Real Life Essay Example
In modern-day society, there are many inventions that humanity takes for granted. From where it all started, a caveman coming across fire, to the world of 2019, in which things like cloning have been proven to be fact rather than myth (“The Life of Dolly”). Due to the rapid pace at which the human race advances in the fields of science, mathematics, and philosophy, countless obstacles seem to show themselves despite the good intentions of an invention. Video games were a concept being tested by scientists starting at around the 1940s. The first video game released for a “home console” was the infamous Pong. A simple two-player video game, Pong is nothing to marvel at today, but during its time, Pong was positively extraordinary. Children who had been used to going outside as their main form of
...recreation were baffled at this new electronic box of magic. When looking at games such as Pong and others like Space Invaders, one does not see them as anything that could hinder society (History.com Editors). Video games used to be a simple way to let children who were not as good at physical activities such as sports have a way to spend their free time. In today’s world, video games stretch out to an extremely wide market, even people who are more enthusiastic about sports. Since the act of playing video games involves simply sitting down and doing, in essence, nothing physically demanding, many simply come up with a stereotype for gamers as fat and lazy. Games such as “NBA 2K19”, “Fifa 19”, and “WWE 2K18” ignore this stereotype and instead advertise to the sports enthusiasts in this
world. Now, the conversation comes to shooter games, such as “Call of Duty” and “Counter-Strike”. With such realism in today’s games’ graphics, one is left to wonder what effects these violence-filled video games have on their audiences, which are mainly children and teens. Many have attempted to point out that with the realistic graphics of these games, the younger and more impressionable audiences will have their minds molded to also be just as, if not more, violent. This just simply is not the case when one looks at the concept of violence and aggression overall (Draper). It must also be noted that the violence referenced in this case refers to extreme cases, such as shootings, assaults, etc. To say that video games could act as this catalyst that urges young people to become more violent is to be ignorant of the thousands of other factors that go into these emotions. Aggression and violence are too broad a subject to simply be a result of video games, they are encouraged through a great number of situations that a person may experience in his or her life that leaves the individual feeling cheated or taken advantage of (Team, GoodTherapy Editor).
Before video games can even be brought into the discussion, the emotion anger itself must be analyzed first. One of the most destructive, yet necessary, human emotions, anger is caused by numerous events in a person’s life that can leave one feeling vulnerable and cheated. Things often do not go how one expects them to go, that is just life’s way. Examples of things that can cause violence are stress, such as when a person is in a
lot of debt, substance abuse, or simply poor upbringing. Anger issues often evolve into bigger problems if not kept in check, hence why anger management exists in schools and with therapy. For some, this is not enough, anger will continue to manifest itself if the things causing it are not solved first. No amount of therapy will make the stress of debt go away, because the threat itself still exists. Through the consistent experience of these events, people begin to get angrier and angrier. When too much air fills a balloon, the balloon pops because the air has to find a way to escape. Similarly, when anger swells up in a person, it can release in a damaging way for the individual and the people around him/her. Anger is released through self-harm, bullying, harming others, drinking and other substance usages (Team, GoodTherapy Editor). When one looks into the intricacy of human emotion, it can often be extremely overwhelming to learn every last bit of reasoning for certain behavior. Confusion often leads to excuses being made, humans need scapegoats to explain their failure to do something. With the emergence of more and more shootings in America, many sought a scapegoat which ended up being video games.
When put at face value, one could not be blamed for believing that video games do, in fact, encourage violent tendencies in those who play them. Titles such as Mortal Kombat are disturbing in terms of how graphic they make gameplay. Gushing blood, organs being ripped out, limbs being chopped off, and many other gore-ridden actions can be found in these games, but these scenes do not necessarily embed themselves in
audiences like many people attempt to point out. Politicians seem to constantly pull out this claim in order to get the public on their side, such as when the Columbine shooting of 1999 happened and in more recent examples, such as with the El Paso, Texas shooting on August 3, 2019 (Silverstein). With video games being such a popular recreational outlet in the modern world, parents/guardians who hear that their children are being fed with violent thoughts are often the most vocal group against video games. The president of the United States himself stated in a White House Address that “We must stop the glorification of violence in our society,” and “This includes the gruesome and grisly video games . . .” (Draper). Of course, any claim as bold as this one must be supported with scientific proof since emotions and behaviors are all matters of psychology and neural science. Proof so far that video games cause violence is near to none. In researching for the opposing side’s reasons for blaming video games, no concrete evidence was found; however, there were numerous examples that instead clarified why this theory of ‘video games encouraging violence’ is so popular. Communication is the cornerstone of any research topic, one must make the conclusive statement clear, as well as the data provided. In any scientific experiment, some factors can simply not be controlled. Such is the case when testing what effects violent and non-violent video games have on their audiences.
Competition is a concept that invigorates and drives the majority of humanity. The overall want to be superior is second to none in terms of satisfactory return. No matter how
small or insignificant an event may be, coming in the first place position will always deliver an astounding amount of pride and happiness in oneself. When looking at video games, a clear pattern seems to show itself on how violent versus non-violent games are programmed. Many violent video games encourage more competitive play-styles among their players than non-violent video games. Playing non-violent video games usually encourages the player to sit back and relax, phone games encompass this well.
Games on phones are, for the most part, extremely casual and simplistic. The majority of phone games follow a simple premise whether that be in matching colors, building a city, doing puzzles, etc. With violent video games, one tends to experience a more adrenaline-filled adventure. Whether that be with fighting hordes of the undead to survive, or fighting with other players around the world to survive. As the adrenaline builds up, so does the player’s competitive nature thus, when one loses in a violent video game, a very aggressive reaction can result. This reaction is usually only for the time being, however, and one continues about his or her day afterward. In many studies, competitiveness is often mistaken for hostility, hence why one can see that people who play a casual game are often calmer and collected while playing (Adachi). Short-lived acts of aggression do not correlate with prolonged violent tendencies, so it is clear to see why the argument against video games is weak. In two studies published on SAGE Journals, there was an attempt to find a correlation between violent video games and aggression. The first study recorded a group of participants who were allowed to
play violent or non-violent video games with the intent of discerning any connection between aggression and video games. This study ultimately concluded with a definitive debunking that violent video games lead to more aggression. Although males were observed to be more aggressive in this study, there was still no pattern that flat-out showed that video games were a cause. The second study attempted to look at the aggression and criminal activity of an individual and how it correlated with video games and other matters, such as mistreatment by family. This study once again proved, when looking at the backgrounds of people who have a tendency for aggression and violence, more serious issues such as family mistreatment and abuse were likely culprits while violent video games showed no connection whatsoever (Ferguson).
With both scientific and physical backing, it is plain to see that video games, violent video games, in particular, have almost no correspondence with the rising prevalence of shootings and mass murder in the present-day. The wide-spread myth has gotten fairly popular at this point due to its simplicity.
