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Jared Pugh
Elliot Coyle
English 130W
May 13th, 2020
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 detestable acts happen to thousands of innocent people, they’re being blamed because the older generations do not hold any sentiment or appreciation of violent video games due to their belief it is negatively impacting the younger generation, when it actually provides an escape or some form of comfort to people when life gets them down after a difficult time in their life or when they just wanna have some fun and relax by themself or their friends online.
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 or cut in half by a sharp spinning bladed buzz-saw hat, but that alone
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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 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 ( “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 for the amount of time they waste when compared to how previous generations spent their time growing up, 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 million dollar jet and harming the pilot, even using combat simulators that are designed to accurately depict what a battlefield is like to train soldiers before they even have to step out onto a simulated battlefield to train in defending our country. Even regular teachers use video games to teach kids several different kinds of lessons, a prime 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 (“Effects of
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commercial video games on cognitive elaboration of physical concepts” ScienceDirect Journals). If schools across not only America but other countries like Europe and , military across the world, and other institutions, such as psychological study 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 convey the message that the character kills in order to protect themself or people from getting harmed or worse to the player so as not deem that kind of violence truly necessary or even condoned in the real world (“Video games: parents’ perceptions, role of social media and effects on behavior” New York : Nova Science Publishers, Inc.).
People are rightfully scared for their lives and each other, they want to prevent this kind of violent tragedy from happening ever again. Who can blame them, no one wants to see this form of tragedy ever again, especially since the events seem to be getting worse after each attack. People started to look for ways to prevent this kind of chaos, a cause for these violent acts that people would believe in. So people looked towards the most violent thing they could think that they believed could be a significant cause of motivation to the shooters, violent video games. Games where the characters brutally kill their opponents with as much blood and gore as possible for the scenario, or games that give an accurate simulation of war that is too close for comfort for some people. A lot of people saw these things in some of these games and honestly believed that these are what led the shooters down the path of violence and destruction., and why wouldn’t they. Humanity needs a reason to explain things, like how they needed to explain phenomena that some
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believed as magic over the years, because if humanity can not explain why acts such as these happen in the world not only in order to prevent this kind of tragedy again but also to prove that people did these kinds of acts just because they were evil.
There are several “tells”, psychological tells that can represented in many ways ranging from a person’s behavior or from a minor facial expression that lasts for a second, that can be associated with a possible school shooter; the most common being that the possible shooter is a male that has been bullied by their peers due to them being socially awkward (“Profiling” School Shooters, Can we tell who will be the next to kill?” Psychology Today). These traits have been noticed to be similar to the stereotypical male nerd that sits in his room and plays violent video games instead of hanging out with people his age, so people naturally connect things together from the profiles of past school shooters and the general image of a male gamer and came to the conclusion that the violent video games were the cause a major cause of these violent acts while profiling those types of people as possibly violent individuals which further alienates them from others which gives into the stereotype even more thus creating a cycle. What they don’t realize is that times have changed over the years, as the typical gamer stereotype has been shattered over the years, specifically after the increase in popularity towards streaming and video websites on the internet like the websites Youtube and Twitch. When people ask if a psychological study can be performed in regards to this topic this was stated by the National Center of Health Research, the forefront of research in regards to both mental health and physical health in the american populace, that a study in regards to violent video games increasing the chances of latent delinquency and
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lethal actions in the younger generations of America would have no evidence to show that is the case (“Violent Video Games and Aggression” National Center for Health Research). A platform where people become famous playing violent video games, and other video games that aren’t as violent. These people are influencing many occupants of the younger generation, getting “cool kids” to play the same video games that the losers once played. With the stereotype broken, there is little connection between violent video games and school shootings, let alone mass shootings like Las Vegas at the end 2017.
Violent video games are simply video games with a bit more blood and gore that can be expressed in a graphic manner compared to other video games that people play, nothing more and most certainly nothing less. Some people play video games so that they can feel more in tune with society and other people, some people play video games as a way to teach themselves or others important lessons and actual scientific facts, or people play them to get away from all the tragedies of the world that are being sent their way. Video games are not a cause for violent acts in America, video games are simply a fun way to spend one’s time when you have nothing else to do or when you want to play with your friends online. They bring people together, not cause rifts between people with violent acts of desperation and rage. Violent video games are a negative influence to the younger generation, they are simply another form of entertainment that any person can participate in so that they could have an enjoyable time away from everything else that they could be worrying about about their life that they know can be or needs to be solved at a later time.
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.
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