DISCLAIMER - This is in the debates forum, but I think a lot of video game playing people will not visit the debates forum, or it will not a get a tru understanding there, so to appeal to a wider audience, I give you Antisocial Behaviour and Video Games.
Recently, (and in fact, over the last few years) there have been many, many attacks on video games and the violence that they portray. Lately, I got very angry at a news report shown the other night, entitled "The new welfare generation, how they are addicted to video games". Before that, on another current affairs show, there was a case study on how violent video games affect kids.
Now, I thought that I may make a thread, post my own views, and see what other people think.
Firstly, I play video games. I play them, I enjoy them. I don't think I play them obbsessivly, but some other people may think so. But, for some reason, when ever people say that "Video games killed my baby", or "Sony manufactured the PS2 to kill puppies" or something equally absurd, it gets to me. Violence in video games cannot make a person violent. Violence is given by experience or influence, not by a group of randomized pixels.
Example number 1- Grand Theft Auto 3 and the highway.
Feb. 22, 2005 | NEWPORT, Tenn. -- When the cops arrived, Aaron Hamel was dead. Kim Bede was gushing blood, fragments of bullets in her spine. The woods under the faded billboards along the highway were shrouded in darkness. As word spread around the small town, investigators scoured the brush with spotlights and heat-seeking equipment, looking for a trace of what they feared might be a replay of the Beltway snipers. "We don't know if it was road rage, a sniper, or what," Deputy David Jennings told reporters that night.
It didn't take long to find the answer. Lurking anxiously in the bushes were a lanky, quiet 15-year-old named William Buckner, and his short, hyperactive 13-year-old stepbrother, Josh. The two had been stepbrothers only for a brief while, but had instantly bonded after growing up in unstable families. They had no prior record, a clean slate at school, and seemingly no reason to have fired the deadly shots. But, after breaking down in tears and confessing to the crime, the boys volunteered a reason of their own. A video game made them do it.
Source -http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/02/22/gta_killers/index_np.html
That is all that is available from the site without joining up. Now, the kids claimed that the video game made them do it. So, these two kids played a game, got a gun, went down to a highway, and killed someone. Video games, therefore are bad, right?
Wrong. Why?
A) How did they get the gun? Their father/mothers? Their own, given to them as a present, bought illegaly, whatever. The gun was not provided by the video game, it was there before.
B) How did they know to shoot the gun? Pressing a button on a mouse or joypad is very very very different to cocking, loading and dealing with the recoil from the shot. These kids must have had some prior experience with guns. maybe being taught by their father.
So far, all this proves is that gun laws should be changed in America, not that a virtual environment should be taken away. So, what do the bright victims families do?
Sue the publishers of the game, Take Two (http://www.take2games.com/), saying that they need to (and I quote) "Stop pushing adult games on kids."
(Source - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/09/11/grand_theft_auto/)
Now, excuse me, but pushing adult games on kids? Yes, these games were made for adults. Not kids. They were rated for adults (in Australia, that is an MA rating [restricted to ages 15 and over], and an Mature rating in America). Now surely America has some system where you must be of a certain age to buy something with that rating?
So how did these kids get the game that was too old for them? A present from the parents, maybe. Or a fake ID? Anyway, it was not the publishers fault, it was the kids fault. So why sue the publishers and developers of the game? I leave that to you.
So, to example number 2 - the current affairs show that had the case study. (URL for further reading - http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/stories/262.asp)
Now, these kids played G rated games on day one. Then, these kids, aged between 6 and 9, were given MA15+ games to play on day two. Now, I don't think I am out of line when I saw complete and utter bulls**t. Why, when studying violence in video games, would you give a group of underage children games that have been shown to have adult matter within them. It was later revealed that the program had not received parental permission to play these games, as they should have done, and have not said any more on the matter, despite promising to follow up on the segment.
For further reading, I give you these web pages -
http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/a/vidgameviolence.htm
All of these are bias against the video games. Now to the point - video games are being used as a scape goat for everything. It happened with comic books in the 50's, television in the 60's, music in the 70's and 80's, and now video games from the 90's onward.
I daresay that I have written an essay of Shavixmir proportions, but I hope I have also made a point to people. I would definatly be interested in hearing opinions of others on this board.
Originally posted by NyxieI agree.
I don't think changing a gun law would stop them. I also don' think the game "made" them do it. If not a gun, something else. If not a game, something else. There will always be an exscuse and a place to put blame.
Although many video games reflect the most repulsive elements of modern western society and pop culture, the persons who commit such crimes are likely to have done so without them. I've counseled many prison inmates. They were well on the road to a life of crime and incarceration before vidgames came into their consciousness.
Originally posted by D43M0NIt's easier to blame music, films and video games than it is to own up to the fact that the system is at fault.
[b]DISCLAIMER - This is in the debates forum, but I think a lot of video game playing people will not visit the debates forum, or it will not a get a tru understanding there, so to appeal to a wider audience, I give you Antisocial Behaviour and Video Games.
Recently, (and in fact, over the last few years) there have been many, many attacks on video gam ...[text shortened]... a point to people. I would definatly be interested in hearing opinions of others on this board.[/b]
Bad-mouthing Judas Priest is so much more easy than confronting a system which systimatically reduces people to "Products" with the sole intention off making a few people richer.
However, there is some research which proves that television does influence a kid's behaviour. I remember reading about this when I was studying. I think it was Albert Bandura (a behaviourist) who did the research. I'd have to google to find it though.
Taking this into account then obviously music, video games, news(!), books, etc. will also influence a kid's behaviour. To sum it up: The environment influences a child's behaviour. And our environment is different than it was 20, 200 or 2000 years ago.
Just like the adventures penned down by Homer so many thousands of years ago influenced the young then, so it is now that video-games and cinema now influence the youthful.
Whether it's a kid watching Batman and jumping out of a window, a kid listening to Marilyn Manson and committing suicide or a child playing Resident Evil II and going out and shooting somebody, the problem is not the influence (because EVERYTHING influences) the problem is the lack of distinction between fantasy and reality.
There are various causes which lead up to this lack of distinction. One is the system. It's bleak. Sometimes it's better to live in a fantasy than in reality (do you really want to realise that you're going to slave your guts out for 50 years to make someone else richer whilst you and any family you have will have to suffer bullying and poverty?).
Another is a lack of parental attention. If parents are playing the same games, watching the same films, listening to the same music, they will be able to explain what's going on. They will be able to coach the distinction that's needed. Again...it's the system which discourages parents from giving kids the attention they need (Both parents working to buy all the stuff they need to keep up with the neighbours, single parents having to work instead of viewing "rearing" children as work in itself, ever more children in classes, etc.).
well, since we're repeating everything... 🙂