Do violent video games cause violence in real life?

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I have noticed that my son becomes very angry when a game doesn't do what he wants it to and that his behavior afterward is more aggressive and confrontational. This is also true if he plays games for too long. I can see how if he was older and went out and then an indecent occurred with someone else it could lead to him being more violent than he would normally be. I don't think that's caused by the games but more how playing them and being frustrated with them makes him feel.

If a child is being taught that violence is wrong by parents etc then a few games aren't going to make them go against everything else. if not then the game maybe seen as normal and ok to act that way so why not copy it?

I earned a degree in Computer Science and got hired straight from school.

I believe games can influence mood but not behavior. You'd have to be a severely weak person to actually act on the emotions a game causes. For example, playing Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2... I definitely become more violent and even survival instincts tend to kick in (Those feelings get directed towards the game)... so yeah I get upset when something's going awfully wrong, but when I stop playing those feeling are gone. I don't turn around and walk out my front door Izuna Dropping small children and throwing shurikens at old people. I think people use games as BS excuses for why people do foolish things. Yes I'm more tense after playing a game that has been kicking me hard, but I understand reality is around me when I'm done and I honestly have no interest in hurting anybody.

Hmm... anyway you can blame poor actions on anything. Here's one. I can kill people because nothing's real and we all live in the Matrix or how about... I kicked somebody's ass because I was doing god's work. Common... can't we just except that the people doing violent things are maybe... violent in general.

It's kinda the point . . . people, especially parents, are willing to blame something other than themselves to cover for the fact that they were negligent. But yes, games can be drug like in that we seek to escape back into them, dump our stress, and get some form of refreshment after getting "buzzed." NOw, I can understand that if a person has a weak hold on reality, then the game may be an influence, but the rest of said person's life should be examined leading up to an incident. Hell, i can imagine quite a few killers are/were retail clerks having to deal with jackass customers, idiot managers, and lame policies . . . if they lose hold of reality while playing a game, sure, that might be the spark.

While the poll is pretty one sided I do agree that the people who believe that Video Games cause people to be violent are mentally ret*d and just want an excuse to take away our individual freedoms.

well im one of the free roaming game type of person to exept i play rainbow 6 which isnt as
good as gta because if u kill a team member you forfeit the misson

Even though I agree that games do not directly cause people to be violent, this poll seems a tad biased.

I don't believe that games cause violence for a second.
Did we have wars and brutality, rape etc only after computer games. Omg, are people so dumb or what?

I'm worried about what the psycho's can "learn" from games and films, to enable them to use more torture than ever before on their victims.

When I see and hear news articles about horrific acts that are original, I wonder if the details should be kept quiet. That way, the psycho's will not have something new to try that is more painful and long running than before, not that I'm saying being tortured in a less painful or quicker method is acceptable in any way wwhatsoever..

I blame the cultural warriors , their no better than back in the day that day I would have parents tell me "I don't want my little Johnny going to the city and playing video games " that's where criminals and other undesirables hang out while giving me a look that would curdle plutonium, their still at it I 've just finished reading this book:

www.goodreads.com/book/.../391772.Playstation_Nation


Their just as bad as back in the day, the moral hysteria and all that , though I wonder now it's a more popular medium it would be interesting to see the figures, have these views in the community increased or decreased over time ?

Anyway I wouldn't bother reading it, it was clearly not "research based " as you would expect having been written by team members of the good ship captain America bias bias bias, of cause they completely miss the point eg.

They say Game boy is marijuana , MMORPG is the = to Cocaine, a fact I do not dispute for one moment , I used to self medicate game as a child , yet not once, not once, I kid you not do they suggest going to a MD for a diagnosis of a chemical imbalance/ chronic pain issue etc.

They also claim children use gaming as a way to escape harsh reality (ditto)) yet not once do they suggest talking to to child "what are they escaping from" maybe it's the parents who at fault?

Their simple solution to a complex problem :

1. Limit game play to 20 minutes a day are these people for real ? where did they get that figure from, their backside? Certainly not from the medical community!

2. Encourage the child to do more "healthy" and "productive" activities such as going to the movies.

3. If it all becomes a bit to much they say bin the console even make a ceremony out of it , while the child is their eg they suggest , go to the top of your roof and through the blasted thing off it (I kid you not)

Way to go guys if gaming is the crack of the electronic world that would be the equivalent of asking a heroin addict to go "cold turkey" would it not ? idiots!

These people are insane their should be a law for people that publish this piffle!

PS I thought conservatives believed in individual responsibility or does it only apply when it suits them?

Last edited by aussiebloke on 27 Oct 2010, 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hitler liked Disney , so what was their point again ?

There is a saying about opinions' being like a certain bodypart. - everyone has one.

A book is just either a big opinion piece written by someone with either a balanced/unbalanced/extremist view.

Dramatic title names only add to my opinion that the author is just trying to make money.
I wonder when the last time someone wrote a book just for the hell of it was?

EVerything is done for a reason after all, and a lot of reasons are hidden away due to factions/allegiances/cartels/conspiracies/religions etc.

We should just ignore these overdramatic articles/books.

As for going to the cinemas lol, that could be an addiction if you're going often enough, all the flashy lights, effects, drama up's and down's, powerful music.

Anyway, just my "opinion"

No. And movies with superheroes don't make me want to wear a costume and jump of a building to see if I can fly with a cape.

no.

every single study showing results that they did were massively flawed. (my personal faverate, one of them had two groups, one group was made to play fifa and one to play cod. then they said that because the people who played cod killed were more violent in game, having killed people, that proved real life violence. if you're having trouble understanding that it's because IT MAKES NO f*****g SENSE). anyone who can't tell the difference between real life and video games should not be playing video games. fact.

Well, I play Rock Band 2 a lot, and so far this hasn't caused me to go pick up a real guitar and start playing bars all over the world...

I voted "yes" because I loved your humor.

Anyway, no it doesn't. It's just in these kids to get a gun and shoot people... in real life.

People love to create drama. "Our kids are getting violent because of video games!" and "There's too much nudity in media, this teaches kids bad habits!" and all that crap. Ignorance, incompetence, nothing pisses me off more (other than Injustice).

Now I do not have a PhD in physcology and I am most certianly not going to be telling the truth when I say I do not have any opinion on the matter (the fact that I am replying makes this evident) however, after watching the world grow restless over this pea under its pillow, I think I know why the pea came to being!

You see, video games are one of the first, if not only, sources of non-passive media. In other words, in order to seek entertainment, you as the consumermust utilise it as opposed to press play,watch film. This in turn leads to greater activity in our brain since one is not only feeling as though they are influencing the scenario (say, moving the decsending blocks in a game of Tetris) but they are also thinking about details within the game in far greater detail that one would if the were just watching a movie.

As a result, fantasy and reality blur for the moment the player is playing the game, no longer are they John Doe from Anytown, USA during the gameplay, they are Sargent Bill McKickAss from 1337th Regiment fighting Drunken Kung-Fu Space Nazis in bikinis! Once the game ends though, the brain winds down are returns to its inital, placid state.

So why the ruckus? Simple, the common man is too frightened of something as unique as unpassive media! As such, they are confused, they do not understand where the charm of four-segment blocks falling from the sky enters the human mind. This in turn leads to one media sinking its fans into attention.

Newspapers.

News finds something irregular between John Doe and Joe Bloggs the non-gaming guy and publises it, overexaggerating the differences and possible evil of it that makes video games out to be the next illegal high, homosexuality or abortion!