Violence A Result Of Games?

[Peaktao 0]

Well, I think it's a generalisation to say that violence is a result of violent games. There are many things which influence violent behaviours. Games might be one of them for certain children eg those who play violent games unsupervised, or those who don't socialise or talk to people and whose parents are never at home.So some people who play violent games are not at all affected by them.On the contrary, some people don't play games but develop violent behaviours from elsewhere eg telly, society etc.

[iwuvcookies 0]

How come I don't hear people die because of listening to rap music. They have violence in them. lol. Some people are just born crazy or acquire it through like countless days of non stop game playing. And you just develop mental problems wanting to likeeeeeee zap every person that acts annoying to you. That's when you serioiusly need help. When you thin you have super powers is when you lose it. Parents need to watch over their kids and there game choices.

[Joshua 0]

How come I don't hear people die because of listening to rap music. They have violence in them. lol. Some people are just born crazy or acquire it through like countless days of non stop game playing. And you just develop mental problems wanting to likeeeeeee zap every person that acts annoying to you. That's when you serioiusly need help. When you thin you have super powers is when you lose it. Parents need to watch over their kids and there game choices.

156835[/snapback]

I think violence stems from a variety of sources and it's not just the games sending the messages kids interpret to mean violence is ok. Our naturally competitive society is bringing up kids to be more and more aggressive in reaching the top and acquiring material wealth. However, I think violence in video games and music as someone said are culprits in the increasingly violent atmosphere in which we live.

 

That kids should be able to get stuff like this so easily shows how far our society has come that it deems anything appropriate even for its children. Perhaps another clue to how little our society values its children, and why we hear of such horrific crimes involving children these days? If the retailers can't prevent children from getting this stuff then maybe it should only be sold specially through ordering and not in general stores. Or maybe *gasp* it shouldn't be sold at all.

[brainless 0]

ok, once again: It's not the video games. It's society - and games may become part of this.

 

I've read here that someone's nephew played GTA (doesn't matter which - the first two parts were innovative, the latter one's lame rips) for a couple of days almost non-stop. I don't care who to blame but isn't it crazy that [i suppose] a boy can play games on his console non-stop without anyone trying to get him out? well, if this boy didn't have any company at all, I am not surprised that the world of GTA became his substitute reality - and almost anyone who loses touch to reality for a long period of time has problems getting into reality again.

 

A story from my life, which IMHO proves this theory even though it's a non-violent thing:

A couple of friends of mine and me participate at two to three Model United Nations conferences per year. In an MUN conference, hundreds of students from all over the world assemble to simulate a United Nations General Assembly session plus two days of committee work. As we all know, simulations are intended to be as close to reality as possible, that means suits, tie and very diplomatic language for us. Although none of us can imagine to walk around in suit and tie, referring to other people in the third person all day long; we keep on adressing each other as "the honorable delegate" for a few days and we don't stick to "i want an iceream" but say "motion to have an icecream".

well, nothing wrong with this kind of behavior for the general mass, huh? I think it's kinda scary to experience such a loss of reality.

By the way, in our everyday lifes, we dress kind of normal but don't try to fit in too much...

 

I'm sorry I've gotta get to work now but I'm not finished yet. Call it a conspiracy theory or f***in' leftism but you'll see...

[brainless 0]

ok, I just got another 90 minutes before I've get to get to my other job 'cause there's nothing to do for me today at the lake :unsure:Something of which I think that it has to be mentioned is that those who yell "bad games, bad games" the loudest is that those people never ever admitted to have played these games themselves. Anyone among us who did play the one or other violent game him- or herself can probably tell that most people don't play the game because of it's violence but because the amount of training necessary to win - some people play soccer; others go swimming; others try to achieve highscores in video games [or best frag-death-ratios or whatever]. The common gamers plays for the competition, not for killing.The IMHO funniest (if it wasn't such a sad thing) faux-pas has been pulled by the german Federal Secretary for Traffic etc: "Video games like GTA or Need for Speed are to blame for the many traffic crimes young drivers committ and the accidents happening to them."--For your information: In Germany, adolescents can get their driver's licence at the age of 18 and only after a 45 minutes test ride with an examinator paid by the state. For the next two years after the driving exams, the new driver has to drive pretty careful because there are very strict regulations what happens when the new driver violates traffic rules. For example, anyone who drives more than 20km/h more than the speed limit within the first two years loses the licence immediately and has to take a break of a couple of years before he or she can enter the process of acquiring a driver's licence again. And it's almost impossible to get a driver's licence for less than 1250 euros, imagine having to pay this twice. Right, the average young driver will not risk this...--As you might guess, the most common traffic ticket is a ticket for false parking. Neither GTA nor NFS can be won by parking; it's simple laziness which is to blame for this (if you don't park your car at a very dumb place like in front of an hospital's ambulance entrance, you will get away with a EUR 5 fine).As you might also guess, no one with a driver licence will run over people just for the fun of it - and it's impossible to do so in the NFS games and it's dangerous to do so in GTA, just like in the real world. Once again, video games are not to blame even though an government official told us so.Most accidents which involve young drivers happen during friday or saturday nights (about six to seven times as many as during the week); guess what is not to blame? Yep, it's once again not the video games which are to blame. In these times, most of us get the parents' car for driving to the next party so we don't have to call them to pick us up. It's common to pack the car with 3 or 4 people because fuel is expensive in Germany. On the way to the party, it's quite safe. On the way home, everyone but the driver is drunk - and it requires a pretty strong personality to stand against your friends teasing you 'cause you don't drive fast enough or too careful. Sometimes it's also just because you're not used to the road you're driving on and the weather conditions.A few weeks ago, I asked a friend of mine to bring me to another friend's house after we went partying because I was unable to get a car for the weekend. I did not drink alcohol that evening anyway but the road from the highway to my friend's place is pretty tricky, even on sunny days. This friend of mine had to get through this in a rainy night. We were able to get through this pretty fast because I could give her directions like "you can go fast here"; "watch it, sharp turn" but for some reason I got distracted after I told her that she can drive about 80km/h for the next minute and yelled "brakes" just in time for the next corner but we still sliddered onto the track in the other direction. Luckily there was no one driving in the other direction...... did you notice any involvement of video games here? Right. It's rather a story about lack of experience...oh, and one more thing about people driving way too fast: It's a common thing to see people in big cars (Mercedes, BMW, sometimes even foreign cars in that class) driving something like 180km/h where 100 is the limit when there hasn't been a restriction by traffic signs. These people don't drive dangerously fast because they think it's fun but the drive that fast because they think they don't have time to stick to the limit. well, the average speed on the roads is 110 to 120km/h, somewhat reasonable when you consider that the 100-limit is for security reasons and rather on the safer side...I think I've made it clear that I can't accept the theory that violent games are the cause of violence, though I don't think that they can't catalyse violence.My theory is that when politicians yell "bad violent games cause violent children" it's either for publicity reasons or to distract from real problems.Publicity because most people who do not play violent games will blindly accept violent games as the cause of violence - they don't play them, they aren't violent - must be true. That's almost anyone older than 25, way more voters than the group of people below 25 (while everyone younger than 18 is not even allowed to vote). I've told you earlier about loss of contact to reality. In this case the people did not even have contact to reality before.Plus: Groups of people who claim to represent the nation's parents put pressure on the government so the politicians will be quick to assure that something will be done.In the "distraction theory", I claim that 'the goverment' distracts from their plans to implement a more and more complete system of censorship. After a 19 years old boy shot down some people in his school in Erfurt, about 2 years ago now, some major politicians told us that he used to play violent games like "Counter-Strike" and "Unreal Tournament" which were most likely the cause of his violent outbreak;a few days later, the police announced that they found a pile of so-called "spladder movies" in his room, stuff like "Braindead" [story: A guy mows down several hundred zombies within an hour or something].Two weeks later some newspaper foud out that he had serious problems at home and did not dare to tell his (divorced) mother that he has been expelled from school some weeks before he wanted to take the graduation exams. He took the pistol and lots of ammunition out of his father's apartment when he visited him a couple of days before the school shooting; his father didn't report that he was missing a loaded weapon and some ammo. Unfortunately he was unable to explain that the video games he played, according to the people who said they knew "a bit" about his life (obviously these weren't friends), only occasionally were not the cause of his excess use of violence.While noone except for some gamers was watching what the government did, they passed a law which requires any video game which is supposed to be sold in Germany to be examined by an "independent" government office which gives out "not suitable for children under 12/14/16/18/any age" certificates which have to be printed on the package clearly visible and games dealers are required to check ID cards if in doubt. Games without such a label are only allowed to be sold to people over 18 and they may not be visible in the store. well, that wouldn't be that bad if the certification process is free of charge - but according to the GameStar, an german video games magazine, it costs several thousand bucks. EA Games might be able to pay this without noticing it but small companies might be ruined if the people don't pay thousands of copies.by the way, why don't we get a federal office to check newspapers for appropriate content? What I read everyday makes me way more angry than any video game could do; would it be ok if I get myself a gun, shoot the managers of the local BurgerKing/McDonalds/Shell franchisees and tell the police that I did that because I learned that it's ok to kill people who you don't like from reading about their corporate actions in a newspaper?(well, I made that part up for BK and MD but you might want to searhc for Ken Saro-Wiwa's story...)

[squall780 0]

I think that violence is a result of videogames, BUT only if it is the result of a person introduced to excessive violence at a young age or if they lack common sense and think it is alright to go around acting violent. Studies show that some people who play violent games like Tekken 5 can learn to defend themselves better as well as let of some stress they have on someone that's virtual as opposed to their friends.

[biscuitrat 0]

I don't believe any of that. If parents think that their children are killing people because of video games, they're pretty screwed over. Video games aren't real to most people. When you're playing GTA and stealing cars, have you ever thought of stealing an actual car off the street and watching yourself get little stars as you run from the cops? It's not virtual reality. It's just how the game is played. If parents can't take care of their own children at school or at home, and don't notice obvious psychological disorders, they really need help themselves. I'm just plain disgusted about idiotic parents still thinking things like that to keep their precious children out of trouble. It's this same kind of thing that made Sesame Street's Cookie Monster spew out his nutritional mumbo jumbo instead of the traditional cookie song. I mean, we all grew up with that. Stupid parents - just because your kids are overweight doesn't mean you can cut out a generation's favorite childhood song to keep yourselves away from persecution. Finis.

[ckuehner 0]

Perhaps just the opposite is true... Think about this one for instance.Let's say for example that I am a slightly psychotic person who has violent urges sometimes because my mother threw away my favorite toy when I was 5 years old.What if... instead of going on a murderous rampage through a high school in the midwest... I decide to play Grand Theft Auto instead and take all of my aggression out on computer generated characters instead of on real people, thus avoiding a disastrous bloodbath in the real world?

[squall780 0]

Perhaps just the opposite is true...

 

Think about this one for instance.

 

Let's say for example that I am a slightly psychotic person who has violent urges sometimes because my mother threw away my favorite toy when I was 5 years old.

 

What if... instead of going on a murderous rampage through a high school in the midwest... I decide to play Grand Theft Auto instead and take all of my aggression out on computer generated characters instead of on real people, thus avoiding a disastrous bloodbath in the real world?

162750[/snapback]

That's creditable and it's better at letting out aggression. That was my original point. Games let out steam...

[slatterly 0]

I highly agree with ckuehner. I wouldn't think violent games would prompt people to do the violent things in real life - why would they, if they can already shoot people/beat them up in the game? Violent video games are just an outlet. Anyone who can be driven to violence just by playing a few rounds of Street Fighter, or whatever, obviously had some problems already, and it's useless to blame the trigger when you could actually do something about the problem.People blaming video games or loud music for violence reminds me of the Japanese solution to their climbing suicide rates. Did they consider what their strenuous exams were doing to teen stress levels and adjust accordingly? No, they just put fences around school roofs so people couldn't jump off anymore. That's pretty lazy, if you ask me, not to mention it doesn't actually solve anything. Same with finding media scapegoats.

[wakelim 0]

I think that you can't really say "games" encourage violance any more than you can say that "people" get enraged by them. There are many different types of games and even the most violent games aren't necessarilly damaging. It depends upon the age of the person playing the game, and for how long and entensely they play it.

[Joshua 0]

I don't believe any of that. If parents think that their children are killing people because of video games, they're pretty screwed over. Video games aren't real to most people. When you're playing GTA and stealing cars, have you ever thought of stealing an actual car off the street and watching yourself get little stars as you run from the cops? It's not virtual reality. It's just how the game is played. If parents can't take care of their own children at school or at home, and don't notice obvious psychological disorders, they really need help themselves.

 

I'm just plain disgusted about idiotic parents still thinking things like that to keep their precious children out of trouble. It's this same kind of thing that made Sesame Street's Cookie Monster spew out his nutritional mumbo jumbo instead of the traditional cookie song. I mean, we all grew up with that. Stupid parents - just because your kids are overweight doesn't mean you can cut out a generation's favorite childhood song to keep yourselves away from persecution.

 

Finis.

162743[/snapback]

At the same time, video games can encourage crime by allowing people to live out their fantasies. There's such a thing as feeding hate and lust, and our society is making it far easier to do so. Then when the natural results of that occur they act shocked.

 

Just because it lets you vent your aggressions doesn't mean it's a healthy way of doing it, since it can be feeding what's wrong as well as letting you vent. You can play a sport and vent your frustrations, you don't need something that lets you simulate crimes.

[B-T 0]

i think it's crap that parents should supervise kids when they are playing violent games. it's not games that make us violent it's the people we're around, and what we see them doing.

[Joshua 0]

i think it's crap that parents should supervise kids when they are playing violent games. it's not games that make us violent it's the people we're around, and what we see them doing.

174386[/snapback]

I'm sure you know how realistic RPG's and related games can get these days. With the level of realism, it might as well be them seeing real people committing the crimes...

[iGuest 3]

excuses, excusesViolence A Result Of Games?

It just never stops, I mean for peets sake if your kid is violent and messed up why blame video games? oh I know cuz its your silly and stupid and easy way out from the truth, the truth being the fact that in our generation nowadays parents let their kids have free access to internet, watch r-16-r-18 movies, read violent comics and hang out with drifters and God knows what.

I believe tht parents nowadays expose their kids to such horrible things(as stated above, r-16 movies,youtube, FAMILY violence) that when it comes to them realizing that their horrible parents  they go blame it on the video game industry because its: 1. The easy way out 2. Denial and 3.An excuse.

Let me get this straight, playing GTA and halo and CS is bad but shouting at your kids nonstop, letting them go hang out with whoever the hell they want and giving them access to sites like youtube isn't. Gosh parent are just nowadays being downright stupid. Stupid. STUPID

thanks for hearing me out, oh  by the way I'm 12 years old.

-reply by hamid