Videogames and violence

# 1 23-04-2006 , 09:07 AM

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hi every one

i have to do some research into what people think about the violence in video games as part of my media course, so i wanted to know if you could share your views on videogames and violence.

do you think that violence in videogames has a bad effect on children or does it have a good effects?

personally i think that theres a good arguement for both sides.

all comments are welcome, people with children who play video games or people who work in the games industry would also be helpfull.

thanks in advance
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# 2 23-04-2006 , 09:57 AM

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Hey,
I am one of seven children in my family and most of them are under 12. My younger brothers have gotten into playing cpu games like half life and the origional doom and i think that it affects them heaps. one of the younger ones who is 5 has gotten into saying things like "I stab you face with a dagger" and "I will cut your eyes in open!" and so on.
This may not be exclusivly from violent games but scince they are too young to understand that it is all fake they take it too seriously.

For older people like teenagers and up violence isn't as much of an issue. But now games are getting into Drugs, Language and Sex (Like GTA) and this is making them even worse (Not to say that games like GTA arnet fun user added image

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I don't think that games should be made with small amounts of violence and everybody hugging or holding hands BUT they should have options to turn off unsutible content so that when smaller children play them they dont annoy the crap out of you afterwards because they have picked up somthing from them.

But that is just my opinion. user added image

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# 3 23-04-2006 , 10:26 AM

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if someone is under 15 and playing a game thats m15+ its up to the parents to say what they should and shouldn't be playing. Ratings are given to movies and games because they may have unappropriate subjects.
I saw that documentary on the columbine shootings and they partially blamed Marylin Manson because the kids listen to his music. U can hardly blame him for what they did.

It depends on the kind of person, although violent video games can sometime go one step too far. To be honest its not the matter of playing shooting games for the violence, its just the gameplay that makes it fun. When the old pacman games and things like that were popular, people played it just for fun(and the basic fact that they were the only thing around at the time).

I think if people play it in a reponsible manner no gets offended.

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# 4 23-04-2006 , 11:54 AM

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yeah- if the game is for MATURE people, then, heck, you should be Mature and able to understand that the game is fake and not to go arround killing people because the guy in the game did.

I for one play Halo a lot, but no, I don't think it affects me at all. However, for young kids, like Some Guy said, it will screw up their minds user added image

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# 5 23-04-2006 , 01:19 PM

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I do think same as some Guy, young children need to be protected from violent games. And maybe to an extend games in general.
This became increasingly difficult. 15 years ago it was not difficult to get an adult game, and now with the internet... well it's easy isn't it?
Remembering when I was young computers were such a new thing and not capable of displaying hi res gore images in a 3d environment. I played stuff like day of the tentacle (great game if anyone can remember) or Monkey island.
Even if they would have contained violence and strong language, (which they didin't) they were a type of game that is extinct nowadays. They were quite slow, you had to think and try a lot and they had a decent storyline.
Todays games are different, fast, realistic and with very little intelectual challenge. (maybe not all of them but a vast majority) Also the games don not evolve. There is again very little "new stuff out there" doom3 is exactly the same idea as duke nukem etc. it just looks highly realistic.
There is simply no time to question your actions in an ego shooter or even think about it. I think this makes it especially difficult for young children to differentiate between the game world and reality.
Also the real world can by no means offer all the stimuli a game has, this can lead to the normal life apearing boring and flat. Games usually put the player in a keyrole position everything happens around you and because of you. This again is not given in reality and can lead to really anoying behavoir patterns.
Computer games today are removed from being an indoor activity. Starting with the game boy ages ago and ending with the new portable playstation thingy. When I see children and teenagers playing games (if violent or not) on the bus before school after school and during brakes noone can claim it doesn't affect them.

I am not saying abolish games or games with violence. But think about how they might afect society and how to protect people from their negative sideffects.

(A good example, my flatmate is 28. Since he got a ps2 he didn't get violent or anything, but he doesn't actually leave his room on weekendes)

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personally i think that theres a good arguement for both sides.

out of curiosity, what kind of good effect would a violent game have on a nine year old boy?

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# 6 23-04-2006 , 02:42 PM

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hey

i think that viloent videogames do effect ppl if they r not mature enough to understand the diff betwenn real life an games. i mean look at england in this week it was announced that there was like a 15% increase in children aged 10-13 commitin crimes includin muggin classmates for their phone. i remem wen i was 10 i wouldnt dream of doin that an i think that it has got to do with games and TV aswell as viloent media is easily alvilable to get on both medium an look at GTA Vice city there was hardly ne 13 yr olds with old it even thought it was an 18

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# 7 23-04-2006 , 04:17 PM

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hi everyone

although there might be some link in violence and children becoming violent, video games also provide a great increase in hand eye coordination and also provide them with problem solving skills.
i personally played games of all types from an early age but its effects probably vary from person to person.

thank you for all views so far and please keep them coming
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# 8 23-04-2006 , 06:22 PM

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i played doom when i was 4, doom 3 when i was 13, GTA since i was 11, Mortal kombat my entire life, and pretty much every other violent game, and i turned out alright! i dont stab people, its just that you have to realize the games are fake, and they are not a problem................they are more fun though!:attn: :attn: :attn: :attn:
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# 9 23-04-2006 , 08:56 PM

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I have had to do some research too on this topic for school... and there are as much researches which say that they are a bad ifluence and those who say bullcrapper..

there is so much info on this on the web so you can just choose a side and base your story on it as there is no definite answer for it..

Also many researches can by interperted in two ways.. there was one huge research being done which showed that people who played violent games, also had a higher percentage of people who commited crimes and such then people who didn't.. but this could also just show that violent people tend to play violent games

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# 10 23-04-2006 , 10:20 PM

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Originally posted by Joopson
i played doom when i was 4, doom 3 when i was 13, GTA since i was 11, Mortal kombat my entire life, and pretty much every other violent game, and i turned out alright! i dont stab people, its just that you have to realize the games are fake, and they are not a problem................they are more fun though!:attn: :attn: :attn: :attn:
cheers
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Originally Posted by

wow dude your one brave person compared to me.
i cant stand doom. its freaky as hell. (the game is based partly on hell).
i mostly play RPGs and stuff. i play some 1st person shooters like halo, but that is no where near has intense as doom or hitman.

my mum has this newpaper article that he had kept since 2004 about the effects of videos games that it had on one guy. (i wont write the whole thing cuz its kinda long)

THE parents of murdered schoolboy Stefan Pakeerah yesterday led a mounting clamour for violent computer games to be banned.
Giselle and Patrick Pakeerah's 14 year-old son suffered an horrific death at the hands of a 17 year-old Warren Leblanc, said to have been obsessed with the game Manhunt.
The hammer-and-knife killing mirrored scenes in the ultra-violent game.
Manhunt was withdrawn from thousands of stores yesterday after the Dixons Group and specialist retailer Game decided to stop selling it. But other shops will keep it on sale, and censors claimed they have no power to ban Manhunt or similar games such as Soldier of Fortune, Unreal Tornament, GTA, Mafia, The Suffering.
Mrs Pakeerah, 36, said: "it is no good saying these games are marketed at adults. everyone knows young chilldren get there hands on them. They are circulated at school. They did a psychiatric test on Leblanc and found he was perfectly normal. In some ways that makes what he did even more inexplicable and frightening.".....

video games do have some effect on me (i admit it), when i was 13 i watched my older bro play half life 2. i loved the graphics and physics. but the one think i esspecially disturbed me were those crazy monkey/hyena/zombie ppl in ravenholm. a few months later he got the game again (he didnt finished at that time) i didnt really mind those zombies anymore. but games dont have enough influence for me to get nightmares :blush: . lol.
thats my side of it. they do have a effect on sensitive ppl. (like i was when i was 13).
but ppl like joopson. i guess nothing happens!!

A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice!!

Last edited by 13th_resident; 25-04-2006 at 04:40 PM.

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# 11 23-04-2006 , 10:50 PM

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Hey joopson

how the hell did you get your hands on doom at the age of four? And did you like it back then?

More interesting to me, why do we like ego shooters so much? Isn't it quite a wired thing to like? I mean shooting the crap out of humans - as gory as possible.
I guess it's a power thing.... and doing what you can't do in real life.

13th resident.

I think you're right doom, especially doom3 is damn scary. I wouldn't want my children to play that game at all.

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# 12 23-04-2006 , 11:35 PM

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well, i had a teenage brother, lol, he got doom 1, and i played it, and LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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# 13 24-04-2006 , 12:12 AM

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Originally posted by bcrichplayer
if someone is under 15 and playing a game thats m15+ its up to the parents to say what they should and shouldn't be playing.

Originally Posted by

That doesn't always work though. My younger brothers only get their hands on these games because they sneakily play them when no one is around. Or (Like Joopson) Have older brothers who let them play them.

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# 14 24-04-2006 , 01:37 AM

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actually, my parents let me play it:attn: :attn:

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# 15 24-04-2006 , 02:47 PM

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Personally I don't have too much of a problem with violence in video games - if the game is marked for a mature audience than it is up to parents to make sure that their children play suitable games and if they can't keep an eye on their children, well that's where my sympathy ends. The majority of games are made for adults and I don't see why we should suffer watered down products just because parents can't control their children.

I really don't buy the argument that games, films, or music make people commit violent acts, even if they do cite them as an influence. I am sure that there are other traits in their character that predisposes them to violence regardless of the music they listen to or the games that they play. As Marilyn Manson pointed out in Bowling for Colombine, no one blamed Clinton for bombing the hell out of Iraq on the day of the shooting. And I really don't see why the rest of us should suffer without, just because a very small minority cannot handle grown up material. To be quite frank, after spending the day dealing with crappy reality, if I couldn't blow up a few pixels, I just might buy a gun and shoot someone!

I don't think that children are more violent than in previous generations - I think that they can tell the difference between reality and a video game - we really need to give children more credit than we already do - and just because they spout a few swear words that they have heard, I really don't think that that makes them anymore corrupt. It's just language - that's all.

I think games get a bad rap. There are plenty of great innovative video games that involve the gamer and test their senses and instincts and a whole host of other facets of their personality every time they play - I can happily go from playing GTA to Katamary Damacy to Half Life 2 to Dance, Dance Revolution (my girlfriend makes me!) and I think that all of these games have something to offer. I get a little tired when I hear of people disparaging video games.

I tend to have more of a problem with games and movies that are based on 'real' conflicts, such as World War 2 shooters or some of the games based on present wars. I find this type of game far more insiduous and dishonest. My main problem with them is that they tend to rewrite history. And they also tend to have some very dodgy ideas about reality and violence. However, having said that, as a person that believes that people should be allowed to do whatever they please (as long as that doesn't hurt another individual), than I have to accept that despite my problems with these products, other people enjoy them.

Finally, on a side note, shortly after September 11th, my girlfriend pointed out to me that she had noticed that a lot of video game ads were being directly followed by ads for the army. I haven't really seen anything else written about this, but I did definitely notice this alarming trend for a while - so I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere?

Anyway, that's my two cents.... user added image

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Last edited by arran; 27-04-2006 at 09:48 PM.

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Videogames and violence

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