Do video games create violence in people?

My task We have been asked to produce a PowerPoint on whether games can or cannot create violence in game players, to analyze whether game playing CAN change the way people behave. What I’m trying to do, is to get facts, opinions and notes to see what the public think and see how people react when someone asks them about violence and its relation to video games.

There are plenty of video consoles on the market today, many of them all have games to do with war, conflict, battles etc. Games such as “ Call of Duty “ are available to most consoles, Wii, X-box, PS3, Computer. Which means that across most of the variety of consoles, people can be playing games about war anywhere, and I think that playing these games all the time and not getting out enough or not doing enough exercise is very unhealthy and staying in a room all day playing the same console can make you tired, which leads to being grumpy and getting into arguments and most probably getting angry because of the arguments. So yes, I think that playing violent games can and most likely, WILL lead to being aggressive and or violent in everyday life. Not to mention that people can be vicious online, I know this from experience, people are very much obliged to say things that they wouldn’t necessarily say in person, because they cannot be hurt or caught. And its things like that, that make people angry and violent on the internet, because they can hide behind their wall on connectivity, and being in the situation of playing online, there is a lot of racism, and homophobia and loads and loads of nasty comments that people say to other people, and what makes it worse, is that you can’t tell what kind of ethnicity someone is, because you cannot see them, only hear them, and the connection isn’t always clear , so people use that to make comments the could potentially, really offend someone.

Violence in games What I think. In my opinion, there are many games that have a lot of violence contained within them, in fact, I think that most games these days are based around a lot of anger or hatred. And yes I do think that some people are easily influenced by certain games, and do over exaggerate their feelings and or emotions towards the game that they are playing. In some cases, consoles have been broken, smashed, thrown and its just unnecessary behavior, and it is all brought out from games that people from the age of 11 are playing. Biological links to aggressive behavior Some researchers believe that while playing violent video games leads to violent actions, there are also biological influences that impact a person's choices. According to Sean P. Neubert of Rochester Institute of Technology, a person who is biologically predisposed to aggression will be more strongly influenced by violent scenes and thus will have a greater risk for carrying out destructive actions. For example someone with Antisocial personality disorder has a greater risk of going out and shooting someone after playing hours of Grand Theft Auto or a game of a similar nature. Other biological theories of aggression and violence have specifically excluded video game and other media effects. For instance the Catalyst Model proposed by Ferguson and Beaver specifically exclude media violence as a contributor to violence, arguing research evidence for such effects have been weak, and media violence is too distal a factor to have much influence.

Violent Video Games.

Its not an excuse. People try to blame things on their game play, behavior, actions, things they say. Playing these games doesn’t cause change in personality, and people try to cover up something that could be going seriously wrong in their lives, on consoles and games. When it comes to violent games, my real issue is with the games based on reality, such as Call of Duty and the Grand Theft Auto series. Dr. craig A anderson "The 14-year-old boy arguing that he has played violent video games for years and has not ever killed anybody is absolutely correct in rejecting the extreme “necessary and sufficient” position, as is the 45-year-old two-pack-a-day cigarette smoker who notes that he still does not have lung cancer. But both are wrong in inferring that their exposure to their respective risk factors (violent media, cigarettes) has not causally increased the likelihood that they and people around them will one day suffer the consequences of that risky behavior."

Incidents involving video games. A man in America, purchased a Nintendo Wii, then went and bought a controller in the shape of a gun to use for his RPG games on his console. Turns out that he had an actual gun that was the same shape as his controller, and his very young daughter found his actual gun. And mistook it for the controller for his console, and ended up killing herself. Personally, I don’t think that the gaming in that is to be blamed for what happened to that little girl, I think it’s the fathers fault, one, for being unsafely in possession of arms in his home that he shares with his family, two, for letting his little girl play the same games that involve violence and killing in the first place, she must have been very young to mistake a controller for an actual live weapon.

Old games and new games This is how much games have changed. Mortal kombat Came out in 1993 This is the most recent mortal kombat (2011) (picture from actual game play)

The video to the left, is of the latest edition of Mortal Kombat The video to the left, is of the latest edition of Mortal Kombat. This game is only rated at a 15.

Tests and studies. Psychologists have suggested that young men are more effected by violence in games then women are, maybe because of the testosterone levels or maybe they have slightly more competitive personalities. But results have shown that games with strong violence have taken more of a toll on young men then on women.

My opinion When it comes to games having all kinds of violence in the content of the game play, I think that different people are affected depending on how psychologically stable their mind is, not everyone is affect by games, the majority of people just want to play the games as something to do, and not having it become and obligation etc. In my opinion, I think that, when people blame their aggression on the games they’re playing, my answer would be, stop playing those games then, because its clearly changing this person into someone that they don’t want to be. And it slightly annoys me when parents blame their children’s behaviour on the games they’re playing, when it was the parents themselves that bought their child/children that game, if they aren’t old enough to play, then don’t let them play, because there’s a reason that they rate games, because some they’re too young to comprehend different kinds of violence and they don’t understand that in some games, its based on things that happen in real life, they wont be able to understand that the things they are doing to other people in the games, is actually illegal in real life, especially if a child with a mental deficiency is playing a game, incidents have occurred before where children have gone into a school and shot other children because they thought they were in a game that they were playing.

Conclusion When it all comes down to the bottom line, I think that depending on whether you have a mental problem or a psychological deficiency then you’re more likely to be affected by violent video games. Do games containing violence provoke violent behavior? Not in most cases. Can they provoke it? Yes they can.