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Do Violent Video Games Cause Real-World Violence? [Rant Alert]
I had been doing some research into this topic, and granted, it's a bit of a random topic to post since Jack Thompson has a been slightly out of the picture as of late, but I feel that it's a good idea to bring this topic to everyone's attention, especially our Geeks who are also parents and are questioning the effects that videos games such as these may have on their children.
I'm going to start with three words: Grand Theft Auto. A historic game franchise, an instant classic the day Grand Theft Auto III was released. Now, you hear all of the activists and conservative, "Bible-Thumping" parents complaining that these types of games are pure smut, and any time a child mentions "Grand Theft Auto," (or Halo, Gears of War, BioShock, Metal Gear Solid, Call of Duty, True Crime, Doom, Counter-Strike, etc., etc., etc.) a red flag should immediately thrown without any logical reason as to why these games are horrible and have nothing but negative effects on the kids of this world.
Now, what logical reasons am I speaking of?
How about, the fact that since 1991, around the time of the original Mortal Kombat and six years before the original Grand Theft Auto, the violent crime rate in the U.S. has dropped an average of 42%, with the homicide rate dropping 46%. Oh, and this isn't me saying this, it's the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
How about the "Jack Thompson Connection?"
This is a name I have given to the fact that most everyone who is an opponent of violent video games thinks every person who shoots up a school is a video game player. Now, right off the bat, using nothing but common sense, I can tell you that this is pure rubbish. I have NEVER heard of a video game being scientifically linked to a school shooting. Granted Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris of Columbine and Seung-Hui Cho of Virginia Tech played Doom and Counter-Strike, respectively, but people like Jack Thompson overlook one MAJOR detail... These people had a history of psychological issues BEFORE playing these games. You mean to tell me, that if you stick a well-adjusted and normal member of society into a room with GTA: Vice City for three-hours, he'll come out with an AK-47, go to his school, and start shooting everyone? No, that's BS.
Oh, but now, I suppose the argument is that while they had intentions of killing before playing these games, they used the game to "train." Okay, (and all our Geeks who have served in the military can vouch for me, here) Glenn Beck has said on one of his reports that $60 can now buy you the same thing that cost the leaders of our nation's military at the Pentagon millions upon millions of dollars to do, and that's train people to kill in war. Really? Let's process that statement logically. Soldiers don't just randomly kill, it's done in the defense of a nation. With the exception of the Revolutionary War, Civil War (which was among our own people), and Vietnam, the United States of America has NEVER instigated a war. All the killing our nation's heroes do is just that, self-defense. Our Armed Forces only kill if it means that they are about to be killed first, they don't go up to helpless civilians and shoot them in the face.
Where am I going with this? A video game can't come near the real-world experience of war, and it NEVER will.
One final point I'd like to make is the fact that there is no TRUE way of linking these games to crime among teens. When an adolescent gets in trouble for dong something idiotic (like bringing a knife to school, attempting to solicit prostitution, etc.), and he has played one of these games, chances are he'll say that the game taught him to do this. (Anyone who lives outside of NYC and remembers the incident in New Hyde Park, Long Island last summer knows where I'm going with this.) This is a futile attempt for the idiot minor to get off easy, and all it does is add ammo to to the arsenal of anti-violent game activists.
And in closing, I'd just like to say this, I respect that some parents aren't comfortable with their children being exposed to these games. Period. And that's respectable. It's the idiot lawyers and activists [Cough! Jack Thompson! Cough!] who try to pull this game off the shelves from not only children, but adults as well. And when people ask the question why are these games even made... Well, the gamers of the 1980's, who were children at the time, have grown up, and they still game. The target demographic of the gaming industry is the 25-35 year old male, and these ADULTS want games that are more mature and made for them. Now, admittedly, I'm 15. Two years short of me being legally allowed to purchase these games for myself. But here's the thing, I know the difference between right and wrong, and the line between reality and fiction is not blurred through my eyes at all, and that's the key to this whole argument.
Oh, and this "trash art form" is protected under the United States Constitution, and taking these games away from us would be taking away the Game Developer's rights of Freedom of Expression and Speech, and taking away the Gamer's Freedom of Choice to play them. (Our Founding Fathers must be turning in their graves.)
If you have read this all the way through, thank you, and thanks for allowing me to BS to you.
-Matt DeFazio: A 15-year-old adolescent who knows the difference between reality and fiction and what's right and what's wrong... And most of all, a kid who just wants to play his games. Period.
I'm going to start with three words: Grand Theft Auto. A historic game franchise, an instant classic the day Grand Theft Auto III was released. Now, you hear all of the activists and conservative, "Bible-Thumping" parents complaining that these types of games are pure smut, and any time a child mentions "Grand Theft Auto," (or Halo, Gears of War, BioShock, Metal Gear Solid, Call of Duty, True Crime, Doom, Counter-Strike, etc., etc., etc.) a red flag should immediately thrown without any logical reason as to why these games are horrible and have nothing but negative effects on the kids of this world.
Now, what logical reasons am I speaking of?
How about, the fact that since 1991, around the time of the original Mortal Kombat and six years before the original Grand Theft Auto, the violent crime rate in the U.S. has dropped an average of 42%, with the homicide rate dropping 46%. Oh, and this isn't me saying this, it's the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
How about the "Jack Thompson Connection?"
This is a name I have given to the fact that most everyone who is an opponent of violent video games thinks every person who shoots up a school is a video game player. Now, right off the bat, using nothing but common sense, I can tell you that this is pure rubbish. I have NEVER heard of a video game being scientifically linked to a school shooting. Granted Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris of Columbine and Seung-Hui Cho of Virginia Tech played Doom and Counter-Strike, respectively, but people like Jack Thompson overlook one MAJOR detail... These people had a history of psychological issues BEFORE playing these games. You mean to tell me, that if you stick a well-adjusted and normal member of society into a room with GTA: Vice City for three-hours, he'll come out with an AK-47, go to his school, and start shooting everyone? No, that's BS.
Oh, but now, I suppose the argument is that while they had intentions of killing before playing these games, they used the game to "train." Okay, (and all our Geeks who have served in the military can vouch for me, here) Glenn Beck has said on one of his reports that $60 can now buy you the same thing that cost the leaders of our nation's military at the Pentagon millions upon millions of dollars to do, and that's train people to kill in war. Really? Let's process that statement logically. Soldiers don't just randomly kill, it's done in the defense of a nation. With the exception of the Revolutionary War, Civil War (which was among our own people), and Vietnam, the United States of America has NEVER instigated a war. All the killing our nation's heroes do is just that, self-defense. Our Armed Forces only kill if it means that they are about to be killed first, they don't go up to helpless civilians and shoot them in the face.
Where am I going with this? A video game can't come near the real-world experience of war, and it NEVER will.
One final point I'd like to make is the fact that there is no TRUE way of linking these games to crime among teens. When an adolescent gets in trouble for dong something idiotic (like bringing a knife to school, attempting to solicit prostitution, etc.), and he has played one of these games, chances are he'll say that the game taught him to do this. (Anyone who lives outside of NYC and remembers the incident in New Hyde Park, Long Island last summer knows where I'm going with this.) This is a futile attempt for the idiot minor to get off easy, and all it does is add ammo to to the arsenal of anti-violent game activists.
And in closing, I'd just like to say this, I respect that some parents aren't comfortable with their children being exposed to these games. Period. And that's respectable. It's the idiot lawyers and activists [Cough! Jack Thompson! Cough!] who try to pull this game off the shelves from not only children, but adults as well. And when people ask the question why are these games even made... Well, the gamers of the 1980's, who were children at the time, have grown up, and they still game. The target demographic of the gaming industry is the 25-35 year old male, and these ADULTS want games that are more mature and made for them. Now, admittedly, I'm 15. Two years short of me being legally allowed to purchase these games for myself. But here's the thing, I know the difference between right and wrong, and the line between reality and fiction is not blurred through my eyes at all, and that's the key to this whole argument.
Oh, and this "trash art form" is protected under the United States Constitution, and taking these games away from us would be taking away the Game Developer's rights of Freedom of Expression and Speech, and taking away the Gamer's Freedom of Choice to play them. (Our Founding Fathers must be turning in their graves.)
If you have read this all the way through, thank you, and thanks for allowing me to BS to you.
-Matt DeFazio: A 15-year-old adolescent who knows the difference between reality and fiction and what's right and what's wrong... And most of all, a kid who just wants to play his games. Period.
Tags: adult, america, crime, games, gta, guns, mature, military, violence, violent
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dean on -
I'm absolutely sure that the foul language I use and the tools I employ to hurt someone, or piss them off, emotionally and to "win" many heated arguments are learned not only as survival skills as a kid both at home and at school, but were (and still are) further cultivated and refined by big blockbuster movies where its not only okay to be a smart arse prick, but in fact quite cool to be one. Its not only okay to kill people, but just, and right, and cool. Bad guys are supposed to get arrested by Superman, shot by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and be pushed into a meat grinder by the darker element of Hollywood, all of which we see as quite cool and enjoyable.
I have no delusions that some behaviours that aren't my best ones are the result of society being formed by a bigger than life portrait that isn't a very healthy one. It doesn't mean I'm not watching cinema or television... it just is what it is, and saying its something different is sugar coating the truth to justify the existence of and our participation in the whole process. Before anyone cared about video games, these same debates were publically had about television and cinema. In the end, no one cares. Its much easier to just say you choose to be a part of it, or choose to aviod it as much as possible, but denying that it was ever the case (in cinema or TV) was an argument that we all made (many of us) from a defensive attitude about it.
The most violent games I've played have been Duke Nukem 3D, and Quake 2. After that I sort of lost interest in games in favour of other things.
I don't know if violent video games promote violence because that's how long its been since I played them and I haven't really played the more realistic ones but I have no doubts that if it does, then many people will say it doesn't and genuinely feel that way about it, but for the reason that they can't see the forest for the trees about it, and to further drive behind that is the idea of that element of cool being taken away, which probably would suck.
I have played some non violent console games a little bit more recently, actually, but I wasn't impressed... skiing for example. And what's the point of a car racing game where the crashes don't look absolutely fantastic. Bring back the wicked physics from the original Need For Speed when it comes to crashing cars, and throw in some explosions... also, maybe the cops should actually use those shotguns sometimes.
Games that aren't violent, when they are games that should be violent but are toned down, suck. Not all of them, but many of them. If they lead to violence, then they lead to violence. It may be the differance between punching a door later in life, and punching a person, but glamorising violence is what it is. I don't have stats, and it'd be really hard to study to begin with, but glamorised violence is glamourised violence. How well games add to that I don't know. I'm sure they don't help.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Bennett on -
The reason why the person is violent after playing the game is because they were that way inclined before playing the game like what Matt DeFazio was saying.
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Permalink Reply by Dilyn Corner on -
+1
I was thinking of making a post like this. But you beat me to it. Congrats :D
I agree 100%. Jack Thompson is a FUCK TARD. I honestly think that he is one of the most retarded people on the face of the planet. IMO, he gives lawyers a bad name.
Oh. And kids who pull that 'the video games made me do it!!!!' are morons, and shouldn't be punished any less severely. That's like me saying that my dad said that he hates this guy, and I go over to his house and shoot him. Makes no sense.
And another thing. They try to make video games out to be murder-training porn, that 'simulates real life'. Really? Porn? (Fox and Mass Effect... Look it up). Sure, games have some sexual themes. BUT IT'S WRITTEN ON THE BOX. Is it honestly the game developer's fault if they included sexual themes in their game, and you bought it for your kid without knowing about it? NO. It's YOUR fault, for not paying attention to the ESRB rating on the box.
And does a video game really have more porn than an American Pie movie? Or more violence than something like Nightmare on Elm Street? If you take away video games for these reasons, you need to remove movies as well. And, most TV shows will have to go, too, because of their sex references.
Their arguments are so full of shit it's not even funny.
I hope that you don't mind if I take this post and send it to everyone I know and post it all over my FaceBook page :)
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Permalink Reply by Matt DeFazio on -
Go for it, man.
Spread the word! The interwebz is our vehicle! :D
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Permalink Reply by Haydn on -
Do Violent Video Games Cause Real-World Violence? I'm to busy looking for victims & murdering to think about it :)
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Permalink Reply by Tim de Groot on -
I recently saw a study that I can relate to actually. They were saying that if you play video games like counterstrike halo or something like that. Your not actually thinking like I'm going to kill that person but more like I'm going to aim at a target and hit it. So it's not the joy of killing that keeps you playing but the gameplay itself. So the violence in itself does not make a good game and usually gamers aren't really interested in the violence on its own.
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Permalink Reply by Alucard on -
read title, skipped post, skipped replies, my answer is video games have NOTHING to do with real world violence, if you kill someone because you did it in gta, than your already messed up and that's not the games fault.
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Permalink Reply by BSL on -
I heard about a teenager committing murder and robberies because of RuneScape.
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Permalink Reply by Haydn on
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So it wasn't the crack addiction and evening news that drove him to it? :)
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Permalink Reply by Dilyn Corner on
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RuneScape ftw!!! :D
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