Violence in Video Games
... on the school playground, to our candidates battling for the presidency. We all learn to compete, how to win, and even how to lose. Games are all about competing. We learn that if you lose once, you keep on practicing and you don’t give up until you win. This is key in life. Where would we be today if, after we were beaten, we just through our hands up in defeat. We learn competition in sports at a young age. What is so different about learning it in video games? Strategy and teamwork skills are also present in most every game. From games like Quake, where you basically have to kill others to survive, to Warcraft, where you build up an army and destroy another race. At a quick glance this may look like violent fun. However, under all of the bloody violence, skills are being taught. In Quake, you have to play as a team to achieve a goal. In one type of match, your team has to capture the flag at the other teams base, and bring it back to your base without being killed. If you do not play as a team, you will lose. It is pointless to try and fight a whole team by yourself; so you are basically forced to play as a team to win. We are all taught that “There is no I in team”, and this game reinforces it. Even in a one on one match, it is a very mental game. You constantly have to know what your opponent is going to do next. If you just run around aimlessly, you wont win. And when you are beaten, you will learn from your mistakes, and you will get better. These are things we should all learn in life. The virtual world of gaming also offers an escape for kids. If they have had a bad day at school, and need to relieve their anger, what better way than blasting away someone on TV? This harms no one. I would much rather have my kids shooting a fictional character on screen than having a real gun and causing violence in the real world....