Violence in video games

Violence in video games


Results of my survey

Most people are male.
Most people are 17 years old.
Most people play more than 21 hours of video games a week.
Most people often play violent video games.
Most people wouldn't describe themselves as violent gamers.
Most people don't take the age ratings into account.
Most people played their first 18+ video games at age 11 to 14 years old.
Most people's opinions aren't changed by violence in video games.
Most people are desensitised to violence due to violence video games.
Most people have no been distressed by violence in video games.

The fact that most people are desensitised to violence and the fact that most people played their first 18+ video games at a fairly young age means that the longer that someone plays violent video games the more desensitised to violence in real-life.

The fact that most people play more than 21 hours of video games and the fact that most people say that they are desensitised to violence means that the longer that you play video games the more likely you are desensitised to violence in real-life.

Audience Theory
  • Hypodermic Needle Model
The Hypodermic Needle Model is when media affects an individual to the point where they reproduce the actions they see in real life. This rarely happens, the fact is that it has happened before but in those instances it was due to a mental health issue, an example being how someone has murdered another person after playing Manhunt, but only that one person and not the other thousands of players who have also played the game, and the courts and police dispelled the accusation of the video game being responsible.

The fact that most people don't describe themselves as violent gamers and the fact that most people played their first 18+ game at age 11 to 14 means that violent video games do not make people violent and any case of violence due to video games is because of mental health issues.


  • Uses and Gratification Theory
The Uses and Gratification Theory which is used to explain why someone is into media, whether it before a stimulation from beating a game, a challenge from a game, a competition against other people, a distraction, a way to escape reality if only for a short while and because it is a popular thing to do. There is no way that this would result in violence because: committing violent crimes won't offer the same stimulation as killing someone because of the guilt, they won't find the same challenge in murdering someone as beating a hard video game, they won't compete against other murders because it is unlikely that they know other murders, they won't find a distraction from reality since murdering someone no matter how you do it will be realistic and murder isn't considered 'cool' or 'in-trend' by anyone anywhere.

  • Passive or Active Consumption
Passive or Active Consumption is when someone listens to a media outlet and takes everything at face value and never stops to question anything.  This might be a problem if the person has never been told about certain morales or like I said have mental issues but those are the only way that people would take violent video games at face value and commit violent crimes onto others.

Effects Debate
  • Effects or exposure to explicit sexual or violent content
The facts are that there are a lot of violent and sexual games, however these have and always will be kept outside of a childs range, by an age rating so it is impossible for a child to get a game that is not meant for them, the only way that they can get a violent game is with adult supervision in which case it is entirely the adult's fault and no one else's.

  • Effects of Advertising
The Effects of Advertising is how an advert is used to make people want to play it, an example being how the Dead Space 2 advert was a mother watching gameplay and her being disgusted and appalled by it, which children took as a game that looks 'cool' to play because my mom won't like it, which appeals to the rebellious side to kids and teens.

  • Health Concerns
Video games have had health issues linked to them, some of them are inconsistent like aggressive or fearful behaviour however the studies are inconsistent at best. Video games have been accused of damaging people's eyes, however the studies show that it actually improves their eyesight.

  • Censorship Debates
Video games are often stated to be violent enough that they should be censored or worse banned, however most people object to this because anything that has been said against violent video games can be applied to violent Tv shows and movies and yet they aren't banned, the reason is because video games are free speech and are literally impossible to ban

Responses
  • Negotiated
There are several different responses a person can have about violent video games, there are people who would; be disgusted by violence in video games, think it is 'cool' and 'mature', don't care about the violence,

  • Preferred
The Preferred reading is where someone plays a video game and agrees with it, this is not an issue because most video games, while showing violence, do not glorify it as a way to solve real life issues or say that it is acceptable in society.

  • Oppositional
The Oppositional reading is where someone plays a video game and disagrees with it, this has never caused issues since people even if they disagree with the message or characters of a story their common sense will never kill or assault another person.

  • Participatory
Being able to participate is a key point of a video game that separates it from movies and Tv shows, however this participation has lead people to believe that people can commit violent crimes because of violent video games, this has happened before an example being how on 25 June 2003, teenage stepbrothers William and Josh Buckner shot and killed Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, the game GTA 3 was blamed for putting the suggestion in their mind, but if this was true then why weren't there a thousand more killings? Thats because the issue lies with the stepbrothers and not the game.

  • Cultural Competence
Culture Competence is how a game needs to adapt to different culture whether it be as basic as changing language or something more complex like translating names into other names that different cultures can understand. There are several things that cannot be transferred into different culture 

  • Fan Culture
Fan Culture in video games is everywhere from mods (modifications) to existing games, making your own video game using online game engines or even something as minute as showing your support for a game in any way, however this has never extended to actual physical assaults and if it has not all the blame can be placed on a game. Most of the time that a video game has 'supposedly' been the reason that people have been killed is a lie an example being that at the Columbine Shooting they say that people who did the killings were inspired by and trained by Doom however one of them was bullied and the other was mentally unwell and there were no levels that had the schools layout in the game like news officials said there were, the reason this is said is because it would make bigger news than saying "they were insane", this has happened to both music and movies being blamed for crimes people have committed with little to no evidence.

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