Are Video Games to Blame

(Rough Draft)

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Jared Pugh

Elliot Coyle

English 130W 

April 20th, 2020

Are Video Games to Blame

Video games are seen as a fun way to spend, ranging from games about solving puzzles to more violent games like a first person shooter. Though it seems that these more violent video games are said to be a major cause of violent crimes in America. Violent video games are receiving blame for these kinds of acts even though these kinds of acts have existed for literal centuries before video games were even created. Violent video games are not the reason these acts happen, they’re being blamed because the older generations do not like them due to their belief it is negatively the younger generation., when it actually provides an escape or some form of comfort to people when life gets them down or when they just wanna have some fun.

Examples of violent video games that are being targeted for being too violent and causes for violent acts are generally the popular franchises of shooter or fighting games, like the Call of Duty franchise or the Mortal Combat franchise. Those types of video games are indeed violent, there is no denying that after someone sees a Mortal Combat finisher where a man is ripped in half by another man’s bare hands, but that alone is not a cause for violent acts like a school shooting. When analyzing these types of violent acts over the years and their relation to video games an undeniable truth can be seen over the years, these types of acts have existed for millennias longer than video games have even been a concept.  Those violent acts were because of so many different 

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reasons, some religious and some monetary, but none of them were because of violent video games. Violence is a part of human nature, and violent video games are a way to express those violent tendencies in a healthy way. Some even play violent video games to enhance their sexual attraction (Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F. “Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals). 

Video games are seen as distractions and unnecessary by many people that consist of the older generation, which may be why violent video games are being blamed for violent acts. Although, some think that video games, including the violent ones, are actually helpful for teaching people in several different ways. The air force has been using flight simulators for years to help their pilots train without the risk of crashing the jet and harming the pilot. Even regular teachers use video games to teach kids several different kinds of lessons, an example being a lesson on circular motion to kids by having them play angry birds space, a game that has the birds circle around planets to represent gravitational forces (Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals). If schools, military, and other institutions are using video games to help teach people then is it their fault that these violent acts keep happening, no. Video games can help kids learn all sorts of things, even violent games. In most forms of violent games, the game tries to tell the player that the character kills in order to protect themself or people from getting harmed or worse (Graham, Jeffery. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.).

Annotated Works Cited

Kasumovic, Michael M.; Blake, Khandis; Dixson, Barnaby J.; Denson, Thomas F.

“Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Sun, Chuen-Tsai; Ye, Shu-Hao; Wang, Yu-Ju. “Effects of commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals (2015) Web. 16 April 2020.

Graham, Jeffrey. “Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 2014 Web. 16 April 2020.

Everly Jr., George; Bienvenu, Joseph. “Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today (March 29th, 2018) Web. 16 April 2020.
Goldbeck, Lauren;  Pew, Alex.  “Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research (No date of published) Web. 16 April 2020.