Violence in Video Games
It is the fact that video games are becoming more and more realistic.
We have new games like series "Battlefield" and "Call
of Duty". These games are used by the military to train solders.
As such games promote violence Red Cross decided to
stop people from playing them .
Red Cross made a special list of crimes in games. These are torture,
attacking civilians, killing prisoners. But, it is not specified what
they want do with those games
My question is: it is really gamers who are
at fault here? This topic wouldn't be so hot without GTA V (Grand Thief
Auto V) in which a player has to torture an innocent man.
Red Cross arguments that playing that kind of game causes more aggression
. It makes people go out and kill, they don't know what is reality and what is just
a game.
But it's really stupid. Believing that we should have only serial
killers around us.
In other way development of GTA V, and war games have really nice
promotion.
What do you think of it?
I think that violence in video games is only a trigger for unleashing the hidden self of psychotic players. For some others it's Marilyn Manson music, history shows that it can also be The Beatles... Or salty soup. Anything. I wouldn't blame the creators - maybe forcing players to torture that guy in GTA V was too much, but it was the major part of showing them the portrait of a character - Trevor, the torturing one - who is called one of the most interesting, complex psychos in history of video games. We watched "The Silence of the Lambs" and we all know that a good written psycho lies in the base of a good story!
ReplyDeletePeople should stop blaming Rockstar for making a good game and start doing something with the selling problem. All those games are PEGI-18, which means they should be sold just like alcohol - only after ID of the buyer is shown. However, I personally saw an Empik employer selling GTA V to, in my eye, 12-years old kid. This game costs 200 zlotys, so I pressume he had to get an approval from his parents. This level of ignorance scares me a lot.
Oh gosh, this subject is really hard and difficult...
ReplyDeleteWe all have an inner side, where we are violent. It's evolution, we had to survive somehow. And we need, from time to time, to get it out in some way. I write violent things. My husband is playing Battlefield. But it doesn't mean that we'll go out on a street and kill everyone, just to see how it is in a real world.
Problem is with people. Some of them are psychotic from the beggining, and so those kind of games, or movies, or books, are just a trigger. It's so easy to pass all the fault on something else. "I didn't do it, GTA V made me do it!". Just stupid explanation!
I agree with Martyna: there should be age restriction! When you're younger, your mind, ideas, emotions, are not established well yet. So those kind of games could be dangerous! Kids don't know yet, what danger is, they don't feel a great remorse, or fear as mature people do. That's why kids are doing crazy stuff, their brain is not emotionally developped yet. So those kind of games could change this developpement. Let's give age restriction!!! That would help a little bit, but little bit is better than nothing!
Comment written by Martyna shows a huge problem. Children in adolescence have access to violent games. In my opinion Pan European Game Information (PEGI) doesn't work, because parents don't pay attention and the seller want to have the biggest takings. I think the Polish law should be more restrictive and punish shops selling games above childrens age.
ReplyDeleteMaybe convened a referendum? This is a recently fashionable :)
It is ridiculous that there are those who allow their children play such games...But I am not convinced that it is 100% safe for adults. It can liberate a lot of agression in a real life......Hm..on the hand my sister plays such games and she asures me that it's definately not true, so maybe this is just me talking...People should give up playing so many video games and do something outside, excercise!:D
ReplyDeleteI, on the contrary think it is silly to think that video games promote violent behavior. There's numerous research done on this subject proving that video games, even violent ones actually are promoting healthy growth and intelligence levels as well as improve problem solving skills.
ReplyDeleteThe also allow people to do what they would think they would like to do in a virtual world, and unleash their negative emotions there instead of in real life. I think prohibiting video game developers from using everything they want to in video games only limits creativity and possibilities of the virtual world.
I think everyone opposing video game "violence" and children playing video games needs to watch this video, it makes a much better point than I could ever make on this subject:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FktsFcooIG8
To add to the video I posted, there was an interesting case related to probably the most controversial case in the video game industry. A few years ago there was a Japanese video game in which the main goal was.. rape. When it became introduced to several other markets such as Australia, UK and the US a huge controversy started and it was all over the media resulting in an immediate ban of this game everywhere outside of Japan and the developer was forced to make apologies.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the game was not banned in Japan and it that country the video game was just not a big deal. For such a huge case of a video game about one of the most controversial topics you can imagine actually following research was made concluding that.. the year following the release of that game real life rape rates in Japan actually dropped to their all time lowest for the last 20 years and the drop was more significant than any previous drops in those kinds of crimes suspecting that people who wanted to commit those crimes could just do it in the virtual world instead and satisfy their evil fantasies. That makes another major case making the "violence in video games" issue an urban legend. After making personal research I believe that actually trying to limit game developers in what they should be allowed to do in video games is just wrong and limiting for really wrong reasons and does not introduce positive consequences.
I still advice people with different opinions to watch the video I posted in my previous comment. It's backed up by probably the biggest researches on this topic and was actually shown on TED, which should dispel all doubts about credibility.
There is some issue about children playing those video games. It's proven that children are not naturally prone to violent behaviors until taught so.
There should be control over kids playing games promoting certain crimes and evil actions, but that is parent's job to ensure what their kids are doing. In the end, there's much more negative influence in other media such as movies or even newspapers, and they are widely available. Video game developers should not be limited because bad parents blame video games for their kids' misbehavior.
In my opinion there is not much to discuss in this topic. We should ask if there were killers or people with other violent behaviours before the video games were introduced. And the answer would be "yes, of course". The problem lies much much deeper - if you analyse the profiles of several random killers you will easily notice that the most of them had serious psychological, financial or family problems. If you assume that it is the video game the thing that induces somebody to commit a crime, should not be the person then declared not guilty?
ReplyDeleteOf course we should not introduce these games to kids, they should not be exposed to too much violence and sex. But every man has its own brain and will and we should remember that it is the man who kills not the weapon or violent game.
I think games are impulse, stimulant negative emotions in man. On YT there are many films showing how people react when they lose. This is only game but reaction is often so real. Problem of violence in games is complicated.
ReplyDeleteAs Kasia said often depends on psychological and family problems. It's true but we can't say that without this type of games, world would be better.
Łukasz, referendum is highly used by power to give people thinking that they can change something :)
As Martyna said, there is some age restriction which means that game is dedicated for adult, thinking people. As far as a player understand that this is virtual world and things that he does in game are not always normal in real life, it is ok. When someone has mental problems (which usually are result of brutal life experiences), playing violent games can lead to bad consequences. In the other hand the same influence on someone could have television or even a book.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I recall violence in the video games was always a topic of debate – even during the Game Boy era. I remember my first interaction (Middle School) with a game called Postal which my older brother downloaded to play, it was probably the most brutal (a different type of brutality compared to Doom etc.) game that I have played where you can kill a person with a shovel or simply spill some petrol on they and lit them on fire to watch them run around. Even though game producers are forced to put age restrictions on their products parents usually don’t take them seriously and buy whatever their beloved children desire just to make them happy – at least in the US.
ReplyDeleteLike with everything it would depends! On a person who play the game, or rather his state of mind. This topic is more psychological. I believe that younger people are more affected in terms of psychological changes. Therefore we have age restriction law, which in practice as we know... is not really effective. It seems to look like the higher the age restriction for the game, the more often younger people will that not casify to this restriction will play this game. The problem is in Parental control which is simple not effective enough. But human is only human. We people: me , you, him, and her... we born capable of doing almost anything. But something tell us not to do it. And this is usual configuration when we know what is good and what is wrong. We don't put us above anyone and we treat everyone equally. This is because we were learned to do so. We know what is wrong and what is good, because we were told this way.
ReplyDeleteGame should never be a tool educating us in this manner. And as far there is a clear message that people understand it should never be a problem. But reality is different. Now a days young people end up spending so long time in this virtual reality that they starting applying it to normal every day life. Enone heard about buy who stole a car and run from police because he wanted to have his virtual GTA applied in real life :) ? Good Job he did not had a gun otherwise he could shoot someone. Anyway thats all from me on this topic.
There is this saying “People have their own brains.” I don’t agree with it, especially when it comes to kids. Maybe people should have their own brains, but they don’t always do. Brutal films and video games have big influence on society – especially young people. Children, whose brains are developing, tend to imitate, and that’s why they should be exposed to positive behavioral models. I’ve read an article recently about increased number of school fights after the movie “Enter the Dragon” came out.
ReplyDelete