“Violence in Video Games”
...lay, arguments over actions that happen during the game, and general anger towards the opposing team. However this animosity towards one another dissipates after people finish playing games, so how then can we prove that violence in video games affects us in ways we do not know? Most video games are violent, and some have almost non-stop violence. So does playing video games lead to violent behavior in players? The American Academy of Pediatrics, in a 1990 report suggest that “a steady diet of violence”, on television causes some children to believe that “If you’re the good guy, violence can be acceptable” as a means of solving problems. Video Games apparently, only help exacerbate the problem of violence in the media. There is a difference between violence seen on television and video games, and actual violence. According to Berger, when we watch a television program, or play a video game, “the violence has a different status for us than real-life violence does. Most people never see anyone killed in real life, but see thousands of killings in films and on television, and “kill” dozens and maybe even hundreds and thousands of people, monsters, and aliens, when maybe playing video games. Thus, the fact that violence is mediated and not real gives it a different status that of “play” or “fake””(Burger,68). But is “play” violence less significant, in terms of how it affects us, than real violence? There is a big difference in the types of violence in the media today. In television and movie violence, one watches another behave violently. In video games, one uses violence to achieve various goals. Berger says “Some scholars argue that violence in video games leads to catharsis, a cleansing and purging of emotions so that exposure to violence according to this argument, ironically, leads to less violence. This view is countered by scholars who argue that people, especially children, tend to imitate others. They model their behavior on characters they identify with in texts they see, who often use violence to “solve” problems. There is also a great deal of violence in gratuitous violence in video games”(Burger,95). Another important note is that children become desensitized to the terrible effects of violence, because it becomes so much a part of their lives. Characters can be killed and then brought back to life in video games gives killing and being killed a different dimension to it. However, since our main focus is gamers, how do they react to these allegations of increased violence through interactive media, and do they even exhibit these “so called” traits? Gerard Jones, Author of “Killing monsters, why children need fantasy, Super hero’s, and make believe violence” asks this same question: “As I got to know more gamers, however, I began to realize I wasn’t seeing much rage. I was seeing a fair amount of tension, repression, and irritability- but never the fury or dissociation or seething depression of some of the kids who were into gangster rap, death rock, or real guns” (Jones, 174). Jones sought answers from every gamer he met, first, in a downtown, low-budget arcade. He had this to find:”…They were all politely intrigued when I introduced myself and told them what I was researching….I asked what they got out of gaming. “It feels good to be good” said one of the boys. And if they ever get involved in real violence? The other boy smiled condescendingly.” We’re not stupid”, he said…. Most had a hard time identifying an emotional state at all, but those who do never mention anger” (Jones, 174). Coincidentally, an adult gamer had this to say about violence: “You can’t be angry when you play a video game. You have to be calm, or you’re going to get wasted. I’ve played against other gamers who get pissed, overreact on the controls, and it’s over. It’s like softball. You’re seething with rage at the pitcher and you think, I’m going to cream that ball, and what happens, you over swing. It’s all about being alert, focused, but loose, having fun. Staying cool, even when guys are coming at you with guns” (Jones, 175). On a sunny spring day in April 1999, a suburban high school in Jefferson County, Colorado, found itself under attack by two of its own. In less than fifteen minutes of the first-lunch period on that Tuesday, two student gunmen killed 13 and wounded 21 before they turned the guns on themselves - the most devastating school shooting in U.S. history. The boys apparently reprogrammed their copy of Doom(a video game) to simulate the slaughter they were planning and used the game to practice for it. Those hours upon hours spent shooting imaginary foes very likely made it easier for them to make their terrible fantasies real. But some perspective is needed. James Gilligan, author of “Preventing Violence” collected this information about” Classroom shooters”:” There have been sixteen rampage shootings at schools by adolescents in recent years, involving eighteen boys. Only at Columbine, the thirteenth of the rampages did the perpetrators turn out to be heavy video game players. A few other boys liked shooter video games to one extent or another, though less, in every case, then they liked target shooting with real guns. Most...