Does Gaming really cause violence? Help me become more knowledgeable

[SteewpidZombie]

In my opinion, No. Usually the only people who become violent or inspired to commit violence from video games, are people who are either violent to begin with or have deep rooted physcological problems. Though it should be noted that if a child is raised in a violent enviroment or one in which they are allowed to have violent outbursts without any sort of control or punishment, then they could possibly be influenced by videogames. Most children with anger problems that I have encountered, are the same children who sit around and play M rated games (Which their parents buy on a whim for their children) all day and then throw a tantrum when something doesn't go their way. In essence, it's just deep rooted to bad parenting choices of allowing children access to Adult games without any sort of restrictions or monitoring, or emotional/mental issues.

 

[Blue_vision]

Not really. Gaming acts as a piece of culture, a single medium in all the other examples of violence, from TV, Literature, Movies, and even real life things such as real wars and serial killers. Since time immemorial, humans have been required to distinguish between these things as bad role models, and good role models in what's expected in their society. The only reason a person would seem to become more violent because of games is because they have some underlying mental condition that could play out the exact same from a violent movie, or a book, or an idealistic poet. Or if you censor all media, they'd just have an unfiltered form of their condition and they'd be labelled as crazy, rather than a victim of violent video games or ideologies.

So no. I'd say that video games could be harmful in the way people interact with them (i.e. locking themselves in their houses for 3 days after the newest game comes out,) but that's also a much greater problem with our social values, and can be seen from other media, notably TV but also books or music or whatever.

 

[Wintermoot]

wasnt there research done that said that video games and violence where unrelated?
games arent killing people people are

 

[Chunko]

From what I've heard there's no reliable evidence that videogames cause violence. Videogame addiction on the other hand looks pretty legit, but it's hard to tell for sure.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I think it depends on what yo refer to as violence. I'm certain most can relate to a story of either themselves or a friend that end up breaking a game controller out of rage, which technically is indeed an act of violence. However, gaming is no more likely to induce a violent attack on a person then death metal or a movie. I can see where the people accusing a video game become concerned about violence in games over a movie, though, due to the interactive nature of video games, which is why I think they are more likely to get up in arms about something like the airport in MW2 then if their was a similar scene in a movie.

 

[Kaytastrophe]

Ultimately there is no proof that video games cause violence. When you hear media reports they always say violence is caused by video games or violent person-A is violent because he plays violent game-b. However they don't mention the books he has (the anarchist cookbook perhaps, maybe a book about charles manson, or maybe even just a violent novel), the movies he has (any violent movie), or the violent shows on tv he watches (maybe even seeing violence on the news). Honestly, blaming any electronic media is arbitrary. I think what it is is that News Report and Grandma and Grandpa Bigot say it must be video games, it couldn't be television, books, or movies because they enjoy those things. I think the problem is that when violence occurs no one is doing proper investigation (whether authority figures, the news whoever) because those karate lessons or domestic abuse at home could cause little billy to be as violent or even more so then if he plays video games.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I read a study where it found that people tend to enjoy more games that have violence, but not that playing violent video games cause you to be violent. There isn't enough evidence yet to say either way. It may be true that it could affect people who are already more inclined to violence, but if that's the case then any other type of media could have the same affect and has more to do with the person in question than the game itself.

 

[malestrithe]

videogames.procon.org gives you both sides of the debate as it pertains to this topic. The site is updated regularly when new information comes out.

 

[Thaluikhain]

As video games get more violent, violence among youth has gone down. There's your evidence, don't tell me that's coincidence.

Video game violence being the only thing to change in society that could possibly affect such things?

 

[PatientZero]

There is some psychological research that suggests that exposure to violent video games (eg Anderson et al, 2010) is a risk factor for increased aggressive behaviour but even then its usually not a link to serious aggression. There is also a link between violent television, films and music which all apparently "increase the liklihood of aggressive and violent behaviour" so for the most part according to pychology at any rate we should only play games or do anything that has a prosocial message. I felt the need to bore you all with this as I have had to spend my christmas holiday attempting to write a discourse analysis psychology project on this.

 

[Wondermint13]

Games dont kill people..

Rappers do!!

 

[Thaluikhain]

In any case, does it matter? However many examples of violence caused by games you could find, it'd be nothing compare to those cuased by alcohol. And nobody at all is going to suggest banning that.

 

[gamemeister27]

I promised myself that I would brutally murder the next person I heard insinuate that my precious videojuegos cause violence! Your days are NUMBERED!

(sarcasm)

 

[Jojo1378]

This picture is all we need.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3Yn3qc/media.gtanet.com/illspirit/randompics/videogameviolence.jpg

 

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

For game Violence, and you want to see the Harvard study, I suggest reading this book on it -
http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Theft-C...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294620250&sr=8-2

Pretty well written and has some surprising results. No, Video game violence wasn't linked overall.

 

[Mohanimus]

ABC's Big Ideas show covered a talk on the future of robots in warfare that included some interesting data on combat stress amoung drone pilots.
Evidently they have similar suicide rates to combat pilots. These guys are operating in a computer game environment (even more so than jet pilots).

The conclusions I drew from this were:
That it would seem that exposure to computer game violence may make it easier to commit certain violent acts (military trainers talk about no longer needing to teach recruits to overcome the human resistance to pointing a weapon at a human and pulling the trigger).
That this does not necessarily reduce the impact of commiting the violence on the perpetrator.

 

[Azdron]

I applaud the OP's dedication to enlightenment but unfortunately the nature and timing of this subject renders any search for truth or factual analysis void. Political and corporate agendas preclude any real or reliably honest study from being completed that you could really trust to hold your weight. And since the media is Not only very new but also constantly evolving in relevant and drastic ways any really meaningful study you might miraculously find will be irrelevant in a few years anyway. (personal speculation: the wii shooters would make you far more prone to violence than say.. tabletop gaming or playing wow.)

TlDR: to much bullshit right now check back later

Id love to say that we will know for sure 20 years from now, but since the topic is so hard to pin down (violence is huge and pinning a rise or fall in its nature to any one variable is a nightmare) that by the time 20 years have passed society and the world stage will be so different it will be impossible to tell if it was video games or something else.

TLDR: Nobody will care later

I personally believe any act of violence against another human is a disturbing and complex issue that has to be looked at on a case by case basis. Society as a whole (along with the courts) tends to agree.