Violence in Video Games

All media affects us in some way or another. That is the point. If a video game, a movie, a book, or anything managed to be so boring as not evoke any sort of response from the player/viewer/reader, it would be terrible. To suggest that violent video games should be banned for creating a reaction from the player is stupid. The only reason anyone could make a case for restricting these games is if a direct causal relationship can be shown between these video games and violent, illegal activities.

Some studies have indicated that violent video games make people more aggressive. The problem with a lot of these studies though, is what they define as aggression. Lots of things can make a person more aggressive. Playing sports is an activity regarded by many to be great for children growing up as it gets them physical exercise, teaches teamwork, and it makes the kids tired so that parents don’t have to deal with them. However, sports are also very competitive by nature, and they make kids more aggressive. However, sports do not get any blame because they are deeply ingrained in our society. To suggest that having kids play sports can be harmful to them and cause them to grow up to be violent people would be regarded as absurd by most people. Watching an action movie can get a person could cause someone to be more aggressive immediately after viewing. Even just listening to certain types of music can cause people to enter a more aggressive state. Used under these contexts, the word aggression is not linked to someone wanting to actually cause physical harm to other people. Unfortunately, scientists cannot really measure someone’s intent to cause harm to others after experiencing certain events, so they instead look at what types of physical reactions people have to events (such as increased heart rate). They all produce similar reactions from people, yet only violent video games get labeled as unsafe.

So do violent video games cause people to have emotional reactions such as frustration, and heightened aggression? Yes. Is it even close to being the only thing in our society that causes these reactions? No. Should we be worried that these things going to cause everyone to become violent sociopaths? No. The main reason video games get accused of causing violent behavior is because they are still not understood by many people. This makes it an easy target to blame for any and all societal ills. People have been killing each other long before video games were around. However, people need to rationalize why murder in our society happens, and it’s much easier to just saying “Video games caused it!” than to analyze the actual problems with society. Until people who grew up with video games are dominant generation, games will probably continue to receive these accusations.