Do Games Promote Violence?

CantGetAWii · 03-13-2007, 05:30 AM

In my english class , the teacher had us do this debate thing on violence and what promotes it. Of course games were brought up and were said to be the main cause of Violence. Me personally im kind of on the fence on this one. I mean if you are well educated or even somewhat you should know a game is just a game. And some games show how bad violence can be some, not all of course. However I guess some games get people thinking of different situations they face in their life and how video games solve those problems.

Your thoughts?

The_Dal · 03-13-2007, 05:46 AM

Well, if you see a guy holding a sword, sheild, and bow-and-arrow, shootin every body, slices them in halve, and breaking their pottery....then yes.

Rabid_Toaster · 03-13-2007, 05:51 AM

well if a gamer went on a massacre people might say that it was because of the video games, but there has to be something else wrong with their head if they on on the massacre in the first place. i psyco maniac is a maniac with, or withought their video games.

Syntax · 03-13-2007, 06:00 AM

In various cases it has been proven that some games can provoke violence. One of the main games being the Grand Theft Auto series for both the playstation and xbox consoles.

Mitch2025 · 03-13-2007, 06:04 AM

personaly i was a very angry child and for me video games HELPED me vent some of that anger so i didnt use it on others. personaly if videogames cause you to go out and kill someone, its not theg games fault your ****ed up

Napalmbrain · 03-13-2007, 08:06 AM

If we're going to blame violent video games, why not blame other violent media too? What about films, music, books, or even the news? The Bible's pretty gruesome, there's massacres, rape, pillaging, torture, racism and much more! Bet most people wouldn't be so quick to ban that though (well, maybe Richard Dawkins fans...

).

Violent video games are just being used by lazy politicians (who've normally never played a game in their entire lives) to try and get themselves off the hook for their own failures, and unfortunately like all good politicians they've fooled just enough people to make their view credible. No need to bother trying to fix society's socio-economic problems when video games are a much easier target, since they're still relatively new and unfamiliar (especially to older people).

In a democracy that is truly free, people should be allowed to make their own informed choices, not have the Government tell them what is suitable for them. Remember, if you don't like something, you're allowed to not buy it.

Darkprinny · 03-13-2007, 08:23 AM

Tears the head off someone using his hair

I have been playing violent games all my life and I'm not violent

AM I ill kill anyone that disagrees

But on a normal note

Do movies promote violence
Does the radio promote violence
Does that cave wall promote violence
This goes back years before video games where even thought of

Its the human mind that can tell if its realty or not
I still say kids shouldn't play GTAs and manhunt because there aimed at a older crowd
Most killing in games is to unrealistic

But admit it wii all have tryed VG moves

Mau · 03-13-2007, 09:31 AM

Well, all I have to say is that if someone is ****ed up in the head, by playing GTA I'm pretty sure he will be satisfied by stealing more than 4 cars a day in the video game, or at least less violent. Video game goes far more than real life. But this is just my opinion.

Gaz · 03-13-2007, 03:22 PM

i had to study a study of this in media studys. and a film can promote violence just as much as a game, it's about the person not the nature of a game, if someone has the pyshco tendinces to perform violenct acts, then they will perform them wether or not a game promotes it.

Sovieto · 03-13-2007, 10:28 PM

people want to ignore movies and try to make a dent in something rather new
movies promote the most of anything if anything because their mostly real actors....
not polygons scripted to do so and so
you can get ideas on how to kill someone anywhere, we should blame places like those like Google and Yahoo, cause we can find it on there
but hey, why stop there? its because of the internet you can go on google and yahoo, so lets attack the interent!!!
but wait a second..internet was created for needs to communicate, so lets blame each other for promoting violence, but its our own reasoning to have those people in our lives so lets blame ourselves! and thats where it ends and beings, YOU.

Squall7 · 03-14-2007, 01:43 AM

There's numerous issues here. I'll try to explain my perspective as a list.
1. There has been many trying to connect violence and video games, yet each experiment assumes that voilent videogames create a violent person. They do not explore if a violent person is attracted to videogames.
2. It takes away the personal responsibility of the individual commiting acts of violence.
3. The media hype surrounding violent videogames has unjustly associated violence itself with computer games, despite there being no definitive proof in any situation (i.e. The media jump on the bandwagon of blaming GTA).
4. If you notice, only guns are involved in the effects of computer games. Why don't we see more people breaking their heads on brick walls "because Mario can do it"?
5. Those games were Mature ratings. Why are a) the parent's letting him play it and b) the parent's bought it for their child/the retailer allowed a teenager get hold of a mature title?
6. Most consoles today have an in-built parental lock on them.
7. The media effects theory has always been rought with criticisms.
8. The kinds of people trying to "protect" children from this are the "moral right". I know one of the biggest lawyers involved in this kind of case - Jack Thompson whom wishes not only to "protect the children", but also to take down Take-Two, thus meaning nobody, no matter how old you are could play their games.
9. Taking a single medium out of context and blaming it for something is not a good way to determine something. The single-cause idea denies the possibility that numerous factors, including other mediums, social situations and Global influences may have contributed to the killings.
10. It demonises a sub-culture. Whereas in fact, the number of people doing these killings are significantly smaller than those who have bought/play the game/s.
11. It implies that one's own perceptions of reality can be distorted to the extent whereby one cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality - it means that these people were under the influence of games.
12. These problems are mostly associated with America/Canada. Therefore, there's got to be a factor relevant only to the US/Canada that other countries do not have. (If it really was the fault of the computer game, we would see shootings happening all around the globe, not isolated a few particular countries).

Anyway, that's all from the top of my head there.

En4Neo · 03-14-2007, 01:47 AM

For me video games provide a solution to my lust for violence without really being violent if anything. Ultimatley if you can't distinquish reality from fantasy, you needed help before the games.

Just tell your teacher to remember people were violent before video games.

03-14-2007, 01:54 AM

i hate when liberals say that videogames promote violence. i dont believe in it whatsoever. i dont think that kids are violent because of video games at all. people are blaming outside circumstances for behavior.

however, i can say this. theres a reason there is a rating system on the things we do. but if i become a parent one day and that day will more than likely be soon, and say my kid comes up to me and he/she is 5 years old and she/he wants to play grand theft auto. as a resposible parent my automatic response would be NO primarily because he/she is too younge. BUT that doesnt stop my child from going over to little joeys across the street who has the game and playing it there? nope it doesnt. if i see that my child is a bright child and can differenciate between pointless violence in a well maintained enviornment/home then what harm does a cop killing car stealing game do to a 5 year old mind? they cant analyize it like the way we can.

think of loony tunes or rugrats or rockos modern life when we were kids. half the jokes we couldnt get but parents got them right away! the cartoons were funny but did we get the innuendos and the puns? no. now we do as we're older

ocdan · 03-14-2007, 02:44 AM

If youre debating american violence then that makes it tough, cuz we cant say its things like violent video games, or death metal or something that came here first from another land, cuz the origin is not as bad as america...

Gymdawg · 03-14-2007, 03:35 AM

I did my Senior Exit paper on this topic and, personally, I believe that it's society itself who promotes violent behavior; yet society fails to teach problem children where to stop. Most kids can separate reality for fantasy, there are only a few who cannot and video games are simply made the scapegoat for their parents inability to help their child. It's Pathetic.

CantGetAWii · 03-14-2007, 03:58 AM

Nice opinions guys I see where you are coming from and I agree with all your statements. But cmon wiichat people I think we can do better than just 14 people posting in here. Again great comments and I wasnt just talking about violence in one country I was just taking in general. and en4neo someone did bring that up but thx for the idea.

RedProdigy · 03-14-2007, 04:34 AM

Sorry, but everyone has covered this quite well and I agree with all of them.

Correlation is not causation. If a person commits violent acts after playing GTA, is it necessarily the game that caused the behavior? Sadly, I think many people who bash video games completely ignore the 3rd factor.

I believe the Columbine killers played video games before the massacre. From what I remember, the media blamed video games. But those dudes were nutty fruitcakes anyway.

Something I hate about GTA is how it gives video gaming a bad rep. People think all video games are ultra-violent because of one damn game. I mean, FFS, Mario is hardly a brutal game. There are plenty of games that do not have excessive amounts of violence.