Violent Video Games

Can Video Games Kill?The definition of violence is behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. For example, in Grand Theft Auto V, the three main characters are all thieves, or something along the lines of that work. In the game, they go around robbing people of cars, money, and other possible objects. It does have a wide range of weapons to use in case they get into trouble. Do video games cause this violence? No, not always. Violent video games will not always make gamers aggressive or violent. People say that because they play something like GTAV, they will become human-murdering monsters, or a thief. Violent video games do not directly make people violent as the... “... arrest rate for juvenile murders had fallen 71.9% between 1995 and 2008. The arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes have declined 49.3%. In the same period video game sales have more than quadrupled” (Crime in the United States). The teenage arrest rate has significantly gone down while video game sales have risen. Therefore, the violence in video games has not affected the teenagers’ feelings and/or violence. Though people have tested their theories and got results that would make it seem the opposite than the facts, “many studies suffer from design flaws and use unreliable measures of violence and aggression” (Internet Fantasy Violence). Therefore, most of those studies are not reliable. Difficult levels and practice (or lack of) make players aggressive, like in this study, “Lack of practice, awkward controls and games that were unnecessarily difficult all caused frustration” (Violent Video Games…). So the violence does not cause the player to 'rage quit' or scream at the television, their experience and lack of skill, will. Games can make the player aggressive, just not in the way it seems. One study “enhanced” the game Tetris making it able to know what piece is needed, and not giving it 78% of the time. After playing the subjects had their anger tested. Those who used the super hard version had a lot more anger than those who played the regular version (Violent Video Games). So even Tetris can make the average player angry, probably one of the least violent games in video game history.Violent video games are also safe outlets for players to let out anger. Here it states“...that 45% of boys played video games because, ‘it helps me get my anger out’ and 62% played because it, ‘helps me to relax’” (Journal of Adolescence Health). Here it states that many kids/teens use video games to rid them of stress, so they don’t act out on others. “Video game players understand they are playing a game... [this] prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life” (An Exploration of Adolescents…) This tells that people and hard-core gamers know that it is just a game. They know not to terrorize people, or hurt others. They need video games to relieve themselves of stress. Now people might say, ‘What if they do not know the difference?’ People (mainly parents) need to trust others (or in some cases) their own children, because more likely than not. They understand it is just a game.Remember there is not a strong connection between aggression and violent video games. Also, violent video games do not directly make people violent, difficult levels and practice (or the lack of) make players aggressive. Violent video games are also safe outlets for kids to learn about world issues and a safe outlets for relieving stress. “...if we’re worried about the effects on kids of video games... we should not be encouraging them to play less. We should be encouraging them to play more” (Violent Video Games…).Works Cited Bennett, Drake. "Violent Video Games Don't Make You Aggressive (but Tetris Might)." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.Cheryl Olson, Lawrence Kutner, Dorothy Warner, Jason Almerigi, Lee Baer, Armand Nicholi, and Eugene Beresin, "Factors Correlated with Violent Video Game Use by Adolescent Boys and Girls," Journal of Adolescent Health, July 2007"Crime in the United States, 2008," FBI website, Sep. 2009Dmitri Williams and Marko Skoric, "Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online Game," Communication Monographs, June 2005"Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry," Entertainment Software Association website, May 2009Fiona Macrae for the Daily Mail. "Violent Video Games DON'T Make Players Aggressive - Lack of Practice and Difficult Levels Do." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 07 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.Michael Reagan, "US Military Recruits Children: 'America's Army' Video Game Violates International Law," Truthout website, July 23, 2008Steven Malliet, "An Exploration of Adolescents' Perceptions of Videogame Realism," Learning Media and Technology, 2006