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Video game violence - the real threat?

August 11, 2009 in Blog comments 17

Video game and technology news site p8i.com brings you an analysis of violence in the video game industry. Discussed in the article is the alleged impact video games have on people and the reality of the issue as it pertains to gamers.

For decades, activists have commonly labeled video games as one of the common evils of the media industry, able to corrupt the thoughts of the young and mold the minds of the future. Once a fad and now one of the most thriving markets in the world, people such as Jack Thompson, (who is now ironically disbarred) have come to question what social impact video games have on the youth of today.
Narutoboy via p8i.com »
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  • 3
    kspiess Aug 11, 09
    You know, there is a lot of comedy on TV, but do we see people committing acts of random funniness in the streets?
  • 0
    Seeker X Aug 11, 09
    Yes, it IS difficult to come up with a solid conclusion, you know why? Studies CANNOT attribute any kind of violent behavior in real life to video games, it's pretty much impossible. Studies tend to make the weirdest links...

    Kid plays violent video games -
    Kid gets into fight in school some unspecified time later -
    Violent video game caused violent behavior -

    Personal life issues/social environment/etc???

    There is a good reason why those studies are pretty much inconclusive.
  • 0
    Kepp123 Aug 11, 09
    oh come on another one! lets get this straight kids shouldn't play these games and if the parent bitch about it well don them play em.
  • 0
    Deathsythe Aug 12, 09
    What's the game in the image?
    • 0
      FinalFantasyFanaticc Aug 12, 09
      It's Postal, pretty gruesome game actually
      • 0
        Deathsythe Aug 12, 09
        I thought so. Last one I played was apocalypse weekend though, so I wasn't sure.

  • 3
    Star of Spurs Aug 12, 09
    Eh, despite the fact I'll probably get shot down for this, yeah, extreme violence in games could probably cause problems. For example, games like Manhunt and the upcoming Saw contain extreme acts of violence, and if impressionable kids see them, then something could happen.

    However, you can't blame video games entirely. I've been playing 18's since I was about 6/7, and I'm yet to harm anyone. You just need to get a balance right - if someone does go out and commit crimes like this, then there's more of a problem than just video games.
  • 1
    Hideo1 Aug 12, 09
    Have a number of people from varying ages in a controlled environment where they do the exact same things for a week, the majority of which would be playing violent video games. By the end of the week I guarentee less then half would be more aggressive/violent then when the test started and the majority of them would only be so because of a lack of certain freedoms.

    But do you know why people don't do tests like that? BECAUSE IT'S COMMON *bleep*ING KNOWLEDGE. Only ignorant people think shit like this. Obviously you shouldn't be letting small kids play overly violent video-games, young kids shouldn't be introduced to any form of violence passed playground bullies and the Power Rangers, but to think games can trigger some kind of murderous intent in someone's mind like a lot of these retards seem to think is the epitomy of stupidity.
  • 0
    HisServant77 Aug 12, 09
    You know, it's not a matter of Monkey See Monkey Do. It's a matter of seeing something so often that it looses it's value and impact on a person. This is called desensitization and it's a REAL thing. You move next to a garbage dump and you smell the horrible stentch. After a few years to a decade, you don't smell it like you used to because you got used to the smell.

    You see violence, and in video games perform or interact with it, then over time violence doesn't have the same effect as it used to.

    This doesn't cause a change toward violent nature in some people, just that they wouldn't be as shocked or affected at the sight of it. HOWEVER, in some people it DOES cause violent nature to increase because it becomes the norm for them, as often as they see it. Since the barriers of shock and horror have been weakened/torn down, it makes it easier for the person to commit the violent acts.

    This is neuropsychology. Ask a Neuropsychologist about it and you'd find out the truth. You need to ask the right questions to people who know what their talking about, to get the right answers. Also just because you don't like an answer, doesn't mean it isn't true or doesn't have SOME truth to it.

    Desensitization happens to any age. However, because kids and teens have yet to develop a strong connection with their logic-area of their brain until about mid-20s on average, it makes them more susceptible.
    • 0
      Fallen Royalty Aug 12, 09
      You're talking about moving next to a real live garbage dump. Obviously after ten years of living next to a garbage dump you'll be desensitized to the smell. Obviously after ten years of killing people in the street's you'll be desensitized to the act.

      But if I take my character in The Sims and move them in next to a garbage dump, and then I move into a house next to a garbage dump in real life, I'm not going to like the smell any better because, you know, I "experienced" it in a simulation before.

      I've been playing games rated 17+ since I was seven. I could blow someone's head into pieces with a shotgun in Gears of War 2 and laugh out loud at the TV screen. But if I was walking along the street and some guy pulled out a shotgun and pumped a shell into some lady's head, I think I would take it pretty seriously. You know why? Because I can tell the difference between video games and reality.

      There's one thing you're missing. Video games aren't real. Real life is, in fact, real. If a kid can't tell the difference between animated characters on a television screen and real people, his biggest problem isn't desensitization.
      • 0
        HisServant77 Aug 12, 09
        The brain does not always know the difference. When the brain begins to release certain chemicals while we are having fun and enjoying things, there comes a point where the brain does not know the difference between simulated and real. Sure if you're asked "Hey are you doing this for real" you will know to say "of course not" however, your subconscious mind does not.
        • 0
          Seeker X Aug 12, 09
          To a normal person...I would guess that happens when you're dead drunk or tripping balls on some mind altering drug? And even that is a stretch.

          I remember another study that concluded that violent media desensitized its viewers to actual violence. There's a fine difference between watching Cops and walking down the street and watching actual cops chasing someone down.

          Either way, there's no study needed to tell you that a child needs to be managed on what they watch, the media can't honestly be blamed for that.
    • 0
      Hideo1 Aug 12, 09
      quote
      Ask a Neuropsychologist about it and you'd find out the truth.
      Please, do, because any Neuropsychologist who knows what they're talking about will also tell you that for desensitisation of violence to happen to anyone because of a game to the point where they think it as just a mundane occurence, let alone acceptable, would take endless hours of playing violent games, which shouldn't be the case in the first place anyway. That's not the game's fault for being violent, that's the fault of whatever incompetent moron lets their kids do nothing but play violent games and watch violent films.

      If this was a case of trying to stop the media outlook on violence in films, games, books and TV then that would make some level of sense, however small, but this is just people scapegoating games because they're *bleep*ing ignorant and can't admit that the parents of anyone who turns violent because of media influences needs to have their kids taken away from them.
      • 0
        HisServant77 Aug 13, 09
        That's just it, Hideo. I'm not attacking your friend the video game, don't worry or get upset. I'm a gamer too, my friend.

        And yes it would take hours and hours of playing violent video games for someone to reach the point that violence becomes the norm and mundane. But like I said, it doesn't cause everyone to act violently. All I said was that it lessens the affect violence has on a person over time. And some take those weakened walls and end up acting violently, whereas others don't.

        I'm not attacking video games, nor am I using them as a scapegoat or something. All I am doing is providing info on issues that would answer the "Why" it happens, and also would hopefully deter parents from letting their kids play games they shouldn't, while also hopefully deterring people from playing so much that they end up being literal ADDICTS.
        • 0
          Hideo1 Aug 13, 09
          I know you're not attacking games but you're defending people who are attacking games, which I find quite silly, in a manner of speaking, since their attacks are born from ignorance and scapegoating. I'm not saying you're scapegoating or ignorant, it just perplexes me how you can play advocate to people who are.
        • 1
          Gamesta100 Aug 13, 09
          quote HisServant77
          And yes it would take hours and hours of playing violent video games for someone to reach the point that violence becomes the norm and mundane.

          Though I hate to admit it I probably spend 70% of my life gaming and violent video games haven't desensitised me in the slightest.

          I could play Manhunt for 10 hours every day and it STILL wouldn't desensitise me in the slightest.At least not in the real world.Sure I may get a little desensitised to violence in video games but that's not going to make it any easier for me to witness violence in the real world.

          Case in point: When I was a child I wasn't alowed to play or watch anything too violent and one day when I saw Mortal Kombat, the violence in it almost caused me to throw up.Now I'm perfectly fine with exploding heads, torsos etc in video games.
          But I don't find violence in the real world any less horrible than when I was a child.


          Now sure if I was in a war and had to watch people get killed all the time, I would eventually be desensitised to violence in the real world.But I'm not going to be desensitised to violence in the real world just because I'm perfectly fine with violence in video games.
  • 0
    Gamesta100 Aug 12, 09
    I play violent games where you blow peoples faces off and sometimes I enjoy it too much.But when it comes to the real world, I don't even like seeing two people get into a fist fight, let alone someone get shot or stabbed.


    Personally I think if you become desensitised to real world violence just because you play violent video games, then then you're not the smartest tool in the shed.


    There's a HUGE difference between blowing up a bunch of pixels/polygons that look like a person and killing a real life, living, breathing, thinking person that probably has a family.

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