Do violent video games cause violence in real life?

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I know i'm in the minority here, but I think violent video games and movies do cause violence, BUT, I believe this is the case with CHILDREN playing them, not adults.

It's hard for me to put it into words but I'll have a go. Children's brains are still busy wiring themselves and it is a bad thing for them to be exposed to violence of any kind whether it be in video games, movies or domestic violence. Mainly because children have very active imaginations and the line between fantasy and reality is sometimes blurred (eg, My son used to think we had a dinosaur visit us and it would talk to him).
If they're exposed to violence at a young age they are desensitised to it. And I think it especially worse these days with the awesome graphics in the games, you know blood, brains, limbs flying everywhere, that kind of thing.

When my son was younger I rarely let him play violent games, I could notice the difference in his behavior after playing Tekken (and others, but that's the only one that springs to mind at the moment).
He's 13 now and I let him play anything he wants.

I work in a game store and I'm horrified when a 5 year old hands me a rated 15+ game full of gore (we don't have R rating over here because our classification system sucks arse big time). I have to confirm with the parent that it's 15+ and I can't sell it to a 5 year old without parental consent and they look at me like I'm an idiot.

I'm currently playing Fallout: New Vegas and besides the normal currency that are bottle caps from bottled drinks there are also special star caps that will grant you a special reward if a big amount of these are gathered and turned in to a rumored treasure holder out in the New Vegas Wasteland.

So I'm playing the game and I hear gunshots at 12:00 o'clock so I zoom in with my Single Shotgun and see a scruffy young woman killing a random wastelander.
She then runs towards me and starts asking about Star Caps, she continuous to tell me that the man she just killed stole her special caps at gun point and that she got them back. She then starts going on asking about my caps and reminds me of how "special" they are. I tell her I have some on me and end the conversation.
She says good bye and starts running off but before her second step her head is missing and my Single Shotgun has smoke coming out from it's barrel and my inventory of Star Caps has just increased by + 9.


Now,... if I've only known this before when I was 11 years old and all the kids were collecting those Hockey Cards, I could have had so many more Wayne Gretzky cards.

You live and learn...

Some good points spiders, I definetly agree that very young kids should not be playing violent games, I might feel some small urges from playing games but a child is much more susesptable, my brother (now 9) has had many cases where I have gotten angry at him for playing GTA. The should only play those more violent games once they can properly tell right from wrong.

Also I agree about the rating system here in Aus, the damn government won't give games an R18 rating, possibly becaus they think of it's conection to children. Don't realise it would be better if they introduced it, it would stop kids from playing the really harsh ones and we could stop getting masacred versions here based on the standards of some beurocrats.

I played the first Doom game as a child on a laptop, so did my sister and it never had any effect on us, I believe that video games don't cause violence, people do, and maybe some violence prone people get ideas from violent video games, but if it wasn't video games it could be a T.V show or a book as well.

I could be wrong but that's my two cents.

There ARE impressionable people out there, sure. But if you are smart enough to realize that it is not real and is only a form of entertainment, there is nothing wrong with video games

Fallout games are great. Fallout 1,2 with Bloody mess perk and Fallout 3, New Vegas when shooting people in head, hand, leg or torso. Especially the head shots. But of course i make difference between real life and video games. In real life i am a very quiet and peaceful person.

Violent video games probably are less of a cause of violence than more accepted activities in the US such as playing football and joining the military. We WORSHIP those things, and then we act like violence on the gridiron doesn't lend itself to violence off the battlefield. Now, I think once a kid reaches the teen years, he/she should be able to play whatever games he/she desires. At that point...well, they are going to find a way to do it anyway, and by that time their brains will be developed enough that it won't become a major problem. The critical learning period is over by then. Now, they play a part in violence in kids in some instances, but how often are video games the main cause of the problem? Never. The main cause is usually poverty and/or neglect of some sort.

i don't get how the poll is biased. people would argue that if you play grand theft auto, it would make you shoot up people, steal their cars and playing mortal kombat would make you want to beat the s**t out of someone and cut their head off, etc

If it wasn't for video games, I think I would be a much more violent person. Particularly when I was being bullied every single day, violent video games were an outlet for all my anger and aggression. However, there were some times where I caught myself thinking darker thoughts; one day, after one of the people who had been bullying me turn his back, I had an image of stabbing him in the back AC style.

I think it has a lot to do with the mindset of the person.

Video games have been used as a scrapegoat for violent behavior pretty much since the Atari days. The real problem is the lack of parental involvement regarding exposure to electronic entertainment and the responsibility involved.

It's pretty sad, being how this is 2010 and people are still misinformed about electronics and their good/bad sides.

academic studies show a lot of things.
http://www.sfu.ca/~amb4/Fall07/209oldwork/week4_4page%20essay/sdarticle-3.pdf
there's even a bias in the literature. from what i can see, it can cause desensitization, perhaps a bit more aggression, but not necessarily violence. I mean, if a kid becomes violent, he or she probably has some issues that should be dealt with by the parent. from what i see and read, video games are a healthy outlet to some. It's much better, I think, for a frustrated member of society to vent by playing Postal rather than going out and committing real crimes.
And who ever said video games never taught one anything? I learned tactical skills, logical thinking, problem-solving, and what-to-do-if-your-quad-becomes-airborne all from a variety of them.

my vote is maybe.

See, this is kind of embarrassing but when I was playing Postal 2 almost from sun up to sun down and some in between, I swear, I started seeing people in real life like at Wal mart, the passing throng as the characters in the game - just the passers by that I would just hit upside the head with a shovel for no reason.

I stopped playing shortly thereafter.

No, people are wild beasts. All violent video games do is provide one outlet of anger on aggressive people who are already messed up. I personally don't play a lot of M rated games cause they tend to gross me out. However I don't think they do anything to a person other than mess with the head of someone who is already messed up. If the video games weren't there, he or she would probably just take out their anger on animals or a tree. Which is much less pleasant than taking it out on polygons on a screen. People who are violent need help. Merely taking away violent video games won't take away violent desires.

From some comedian I heard on TV years ago....

Women claim that watching porn results in rape?

Let's be real.

We all know what watching porn leads to....

Which leads to having a sandwich....

Which leads to taking a nap afterward.

Watch Penn & Teller's episode on "Video Games" (finding a video via Google isn't that hard). They go over this topic quite well.

My most favorite video game characters often steal things. I'll die before actualy trying it! Dehydration can't hurt that bad can it?