Argumentative Essay: Does Violence Cause Video Game Violence?

Competitive video games progressed and eventually became violent. A game called Death Race, which was released in 1976, was the first widely released violent (to the standards of that time period) video game. The point of the game was to run over gremlins with your car. There was public outcry and the game was taken off shelves across the nation. By standards of most people living today, gameplay in this form would not evoke anywhere close to such a reaction.

Video games have become a major occupation of majority of the youth these days. They spend hours on end concentrating on video games, some of which are apparently very violent, yet this is actually the whole idea. Coming from the horse's mouth is an argument in support of video games coined from a video programmer's point of view, stating that violent video games allow people to do what they can not do in reality- virtual reality. ( http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-15/roc15-08.htm ) For instance, someone said to be having a bad day could use a violent video game to release stress by shooting down a couple hundred bad men than actually taking an AK-47 and spilling down a few brains down the

Over the past few years, the United States has seen violence that has come from the inside of the country. Various high schools, have had shootings inside of them from some of the high school students that go to that specific school. Some experts blame the shootings by categorizing the students as someone who has been tormented and bullied basically most of life, while other experts believe the shootings were caused by the violence in video games. There has been a lot of nation-wide discussion about if violent video games really do cause violence and aggression in young gamers ever since shootings at high schools increased. However evidence has shown differently than what most experts think. Violent video games do not cause violence and aggression in young gamers.

then video games could be responsible for much of the bad news we hear on television.

Videogame violence is nothing new. As was noted in a recent Washington Times article by Eric Rozenman, one of the earliest videogames, Death Race, created controversy back in the mid-1970’s: “The game involved an automobile driver running down pedestrians. The later expired with unconvincing moans, the skilled motorists recording a tally of crucifixes.”

Video games; a pastime for many people across the world, a form of entertainment, and, of course, a way to destress yourself from the outside world. Video games have been around since October 18, 1958 and have been evolving rapidly through the years. “ More than fifty years ago, before either arcades or home video games, visitors waited in line at Brookhaven National Laboratory to play “Tennis for Two,” an electronic tennis game that is unquestionably a forerunner of the modern video game” (“The First Video Game” 1). Since then, you can play video games at a local arcade or buy a copy of a game you like at a store like Gamestop! There are several companies and millions of titles of games to play from and, definitely, a wide variety of platforms to play on. Video games have a plethora of genres and types of games to play. For example, one could embark on a new journey in a role-playing game like Fallout 3 to playing an american football game in the Madden series. The options do not just end right there! Since video games are advancing so if there content! Specifically, in their action and shooter genre. In a modern action/ shooting games, one can see the blood and even characters get their head blown off. Some video game titles have mass murder scenes and even sexual themes. “As the level of violence in video games has increased, so has concern for the effects on those who play - especially those who play a lot” (“Video Game

Violence in video games, more specifically where the whole violent video game controversy came up, was a game called Death Race. This game had you running over gremlins but ended looking like “looked a lot like humans, since all that could be rendered was a blocky stick figure” (Luke Plunkett, Death Race, the World's First Scandalous Video Game, Kotaku). Death Race got a spot on 60 Minutes “looking at the psychological impacts” (Luke Plunkett, Death Race, the World's First Scandalous Video Game, Kotaku) of the game, was protested and was covered by National Enquirer and the NBC's Weekend Show and even “The National Safety Council said Death

Bloodshed and aggression is everywhere; in magazines, in the shops, on the TV, on websites like YouTube as well as in video games. Yet, why is it that those video games are assumed to be the biggest media source responsible for the violent outbursts of different individuals? Is this really the case? Every eight out of ten homes in the United Kingdom own a existing generation games console and video games have become a extraordinary source of education when helping kids to learn, such websites like educationcity.com or the VTech Learning System that teach kids literacy, numeracy and the sciences through their games. However, it seems an American politician called Joe Biden deemed that violent video games should be taxed just because some

From the late 1970s until the present day, the video game industry has been growing in popularity and profit at an amazing rate, with profits exceeding $10 billion in 1999 (Senate Commitee on the Judiciary, 1999). As time has progressed, the content of these games has become more and more realistic, and the violence in them has become more realistic. Concerns about this violence, from the relatively tame Pac-Man of the early 1980s to the near photo-realistic bestsellers of today, have been around since video games first enter the public consciousness. Video game violence appears in nearly all genres of game, from fantasy, to action, to sports and children of both genders have indicated a preference for video games containing violent content (Funk J. , 1993).

According to Henry Jenkins, an American Media Scholar and professor at MIT, “young people in general are more likely to be gamers —90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play.” That is an overwhelming amount of young people. In recent years, there have been incidents such as the Columbine school shooting which have shown young people committing terrible acts of violence. In the case of the Columbine shooting, the teenagers who committed the shooting were both found to be avid players of a violent computer video game known as Doom (Ferguson, 26). This has raised lawmakers and concerned parents to begin opposing violence in video games. These people believe that video games (and violent video games in particular) can cause young people

Over the years violent video game sales have sky rocketed and there is no correlation with juvenile crime rates that suggest that those games cause more violence in society. In a recent article from ProCon the National Center for Education Statistics and Nicholas Lovell stated “The number of high school students who had been in at least one physical fight decreased from 43% in 1991 to 25% in 2013, and student reports of criminal victimization at school dropped by more than half from 1995 to 2011.” (1). This clearly shows that violent video games do not cause violence but actually caused it to decrease. Teenagers were no longer worrying about fighting in school, but were no worried about fighting on games instead which is

Teen violence is a term used to define collective behaviors by teenagers that are not acceptable by the society. These behaviors range from slapping, bullying, hitting, assault and even armed robbery. Teen violence has been affecting many societies and has destructive history to communities. Although many factors have been pointed out to cause teen violence, studies show that modeling behaviors are the most common causes of teen violence in the society. These include behaviors as seen in the movies, on the streets, on the video games and at home. Social engineering factors and psychology behind teen violence are some of the main challenges contributing to teen violence. Video games, in particular, have caused the prevalence

Firstly, the banning of video games is unconstitutional and violates the first amendment. There have been a few states that tried to regulate and even ban the sale of certain games to minors. However, these laws were brought to the attention of the Supreme Court and the laws were determined to be unconstitutional. The laws the states tried to pass violated Freedom of Speech and expression. One article that had plenty of examples of such cases was: “Violent Video Games: Should the government pass laws restricting children's access to violent video games?". An example of a law that was deemed to be unconstitutional is the one California tried to pass: “In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in the case Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children without parental consent violated the Constitution.” All the similar cases were also deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme court:

Ever since the video game was invented many years ago, violent, bloody games have existed also. Some include killing zombies, shooting people, and fighting that ends in either someone dying or being hurt. The outcome remains the same, and a select few continue to live out these games throughout their daily life. These games can sometimes cause people to become angry. Although, some video games may have a negative effect on some people’s lives, other reasons such as their home life can be a factor in these people’s behavior.

The American Psychological Association reports that more than 90% of children in the United States play video games.Among kids between the ages of 12 and 17, the number rises to 97%. The psychological group also reported that 85% or more of video games on the market contain some form of violence (Do Video Games Lead to Violence). A video game may be considered violent if it contains “violent” language, gore/blood, and crime. Video games are given parental levels of what age is mature enough to play that game. A video game with a higher parental level should be played by a more mature audience. In today’s society there may of kids under the age of 17 playing these “Rated M for