Video games

Features, Technology

Are videogames really violent?
By Heather Martin

Videogames have become increasingly popular over the past ten years. Since the release of the first videogame system called the Odyssey there have been many new systems released and thousands of different games. There are games that appeal to people of all ages from young children to adults. However, ever since the release of the videogame “Doom” in 1993 there has been lots of controversy on whether videogames are violent and cause children to become more aggressive and violent.

Videogames, like movies, have ratings. The ratings are to show what videogames are suitable for which age group. They have ratings for young children through adults. The ratings are listed on the front of every videogame box. The ratings start at early childhood and end with adult. EC for Early Childhood, which has content for children, ages 3 and up and would have no material that is inappropriate. E for everyone contains content for children 6 and up. These games would be suitable for any age group. T for teen has content for children 13 and up. Some games in this category may contain violent content, and some inappropriate language. M for mature, has content for children 17 and up. They may include more violence and language also, sexual content. AO for adults only, contains content for adults only. They may include more sexual content, violence and language usage. Only people over the age of 18 would be able to purchase videogames rated AO. These ratings are to give guidelines for what each game contains and what ones would be appropriate for what age group.

Are videogames to blame for children’s violent behavior? According to an article by Karen Sternheimer many critics believe that videogames cause school shootings such as the shootings in Kentucky, Oregon and Colorado. Each of the shooters responsible for the shootings had one thing in common; they all played the videogame “Doom.” It is argued that there are many things that could cause children to become violent. Feeling isolated at school, not having a lot of friends, depression. Videogames are not necessarily the only reason for violence in children.

As videogames are continuing to appeal to more adults they are becoming more violent. It’s hard to monitor everything a child sees or hears. A kid could be at a friend’s house and see an older sibling playing a violent videogame and then want to play or go home and ask their parents for the same game. Violence is more easily stored in a child’s memory then something less violent. Children think it is cool that you can fire a gun at the television and “kill” the opponent. It’s all fun and games when you can beat up other characters and receive points to get to the next level. By playing the videogames children can interact by controlling each move that they make using a joystick. By just watching the television there is no interaction you just sit there and watch it. With videogames young children don’t fully understand the difference between fantasy and reality. They might think playing the game is fun because it is all just pretend but kids are unaware of the real violence.

The video game industry will continue to make these violent videogames as long as people are interested in purchasing them. It doesn’t matter what the ratings of the game are as long as the graphics are good and the games are exciting to play. Newer versions of each game come out so often that it is hard to keep up with all of them. They even have videogames based on wars and fighting in them. The graphics keep improving as the games become gorier it’s almost like you are actually there and fighting. Once you have beat one game you need to have the next version. The videogames are probably not going to get less violent in fact the violence is probably going to continue to increase until it hits a point where no one is interested in playing them anymore.

mwalsh @ April 10, 2008