Violent Video Games in Society

53 percent. That is the number received from all adults included in a survey asking their thoughts on whether they thought children got more or less violent after being introduced to violent video games. The majority believed it was fine to let the children play such content as studies have not yet proved violence in youth has a direct correlation to video games.

VIdeo gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry bringing in more money than both movies and DvD’s young people love getting their hands on a controller and the feeling of being thrown into a whole immersive new world. Some people might compare the feeling to reading a book but a lot better due to the graphics and dialogue. Video games have been shown to be a natural teacher to young people and that fact cannot be diminished, however with the increasing violent nature of our society more and more violent video games can be almost guaranteed in the markets. Although these might spark controversy, seeing real life events unfold in front of a child’s face is more likely to make them violent than playing a video game in the comfort of their own home.

According to “Video Games and Crime” Michael R. Ward states “Relatedly, it is possible that violent games are particularly attractive to otherwise violent individuals. Independent of whether violent video game play causes a behavioral change in which individuals become more violent, it could substitute for the time spent in violent activities thereby decreasing the total amount of violence.” Referring to the idea that people that play video games are so absorbed into the activity that they will spend more time playing than actually going out and pursuing violent activities. Although these facts are quite persuasive, many attempts have still been made by a few parties to reduce violence among children and teens such as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) which bases gaming content upon alphabetical lettering. Every letter means something different and varies from EC to AO. Games have a small box located on the cases on the bottom left of the front cover. “EC” referring to games appropriate for Early Childhood. “E10+” Referring to games appropriate for everyone ages 10 and up. “T” for teens. “M” for mature. And finally “AO” for games only appropriate for adults. Although this system is not foolproof it has been shown to reduce the amount of violence in children since the late 1990’s.

Reality games have been a huge “game changer” in the gaming community. Things such as “Life Simulator”, “Job Simulator” and so much more have effectively changed the perspectives of most young people. Showing more things about life than they would normally learn in school, Paying Bills. Reading house notes. Getting up and ready for a job and even to the point of having a wife and kid. These have been purposely made to mimic real life events to show people how life can be if they have never experienced something like that before.

As the real world evolves, so do the games we play as many of them are based upon true or real world events. War. Theft. Death. Destruction. Many of these things have been included in new and even more realistic video games. Although many can be beneficial, games such as these are very surreal. Imploring the audience to realize how very horrible the world is or even visualize these situations. Even at this point these games are beneficial allowing the community to see and (if the game is immersive enough) feel how heartbreaking the loss of a friend can be.

People who have bought new software such as a PlayStation (PS2, PS3, PS4) or XBox (Xbox-360 or Xbox One) have been able to play online with friends from around the world. Whether You’re defending humanity’s last hope as a cyborg in the first person alien killing game “Halo” on XBox, or you’re Defending a city with mystical powers against a pack of monsters in the addictive role-playing game known as “EverQuest” on Playstation. In many ways Video games are a whole new social platform. One of the biggest in fact, According to a state of the industry report by Spil Games about 1.2 billion people around the world play games alone, and over 700 million play online! Finding friends online, meeting new people and helping them out is what we all do on a day to day basis, and with video games you can do all of this in the comfort of your own home.

A study, conducted by Tsung-Yen Chuang and Wei-Fan Chen and published in the April 2009 edition of Educational Technology & Society concluded that more research needs to be done and that games to enhance learning need to be thoughtfully created, but they also concluded that “from the results of this study, computer-based video games could function as powerful tools in Helping children’s cognitive processes.” In this world it is important for everyone’s children to learn as quickly as possible. This is the most technologically advanced the world has ever been and with that being said everyone has unlimited information available at all times. People just have to make it all count for the future of our society, video games can change the future

There are many many precautions that come along with the evolution of video games, but the fact remains that although some might be too violent for certain children studies have shown that they still retain important information than they usually would in school. These gaming platforms have become a basis upon which we teach our children the basic concept of imagination. Showing them that anything can be possible as long as you put your mind to it and have the willingness to do something. Instead of getting rid of games altogether, I suggest that we rather provide more information about life into them..

Works Cited

“Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence.” Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence, June 2015, www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-and-Video-Games-Playing-with-Violence-091.aspx. Accessed 2 February 2017.

Ward, Michael R. “Video Games and Crime.” Contemporary Economic Policy, vol. 29, no. 2, 2011, p. 261. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=j020902&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE|A254245440&asid=d06c35b32a0b773bc5e32d73b8f946dd.  Accessed 5 February 2017

“Video Games.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999329/OVIC?u=j020902&xid=6398fb1e. Accessed 7 Feb. 2017

“Video Games.” Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2016. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999329/OVIC?u=j020902&xid=6398fb1e. Accessed 9 Feb. 2017.