Poll: Do Video Games Cause Negative Effects In The People Who Play Them?

[FalloutJack]

Hmmm, do games actually cause real harm to any person or thing? Let me think...

NO.

The problem here is that anything that happens unhealthily which is somehow connected to a game is automatically perceived as game's fault. This is wrong. You see, since games are a business, and people in business want to have customers still. So, it is never in their best interests to DO anything that would CAUSE people to be more violent, obsessive, or whatever else that has happened around a game (like death).

This happens because people are stupid.

There is no other way to put it. The game is just a game, a plaything. It doesn't say "We think you should go to your school with an uzi and shoot people.". No, it doesn't. Even if you say it does, it doesn't, because that would kill potential customers. Never think of gaming corporations as evil bastards, but only as greedy bastards. They're as pissed off about people bitching at video game violence as you - the one who likes to make people splat messily in games - do. They just want money, and all this flak about the supposed harm of video games hinders the process.

So you see, it can't be THEIR fault.

Whereas people in general allow themselves to be deluded, to let their games affect their lives and 'cause problems. I call them stupid because, frankly, you must've been stoned as a child not to be able to tell the difference between the real world and fake, and to know when to apply ANYTHING from either. And if you can't save yourself, then the only advice I can give is Press X Not To Die.

 

[XzarTheMad]

No.

I don't believe video games are any danger to normal, rational people. But what the people against video games do is, they get someone who was unstable and who killed/injured someone, and link it to their playing videogames. Personally, I think that's bullshit.

If a person does something terrible, and they claim it's because of a video game, it's either because they're already unstable or have some kind of mental illness, or they're lying to get let off easier. Can video games inspire people to do crimes? Yes. But only as much as reading the newspaper about a grizly murder, or watch a horror movie with a murderer. If they're impressionable, it's "their fault"*, not the game's fault, and not the developer's fault.

I think people who blame video games for violence are just ignorant. It's the same thing with blaming comic books about super heroes in the 60's for encouraging crime and violence. Nonsense! Video games are, if anything, therapeutical. They let you do things you normally couldn't. They let you stress off without taking it out on anyone.

And to the fuckers who think it "corrupts" children, there's fairly solid proof that children at a very early age learn to distinguish between fiction and reality, sooner, in fact, than most adults recognize. No, you shouldn't let your 8-year old daughter play Painkiller or Left 4 Dead, but only because of what she might think later on - her imagination could run wild and make her afraid (I know this from personal experience). But that's why we label games and try to enforce these restrictions. But, I will say, not everyone is the same in terms of what they can handle. If a parent thinks their 14-year old boy can handle a game like GTA 3 or Duke Nukem, it's their choice to let their kid play. In this regard it's up to the parents to enforce rules and guidelines which they set themselves - not be led like sheep by organizations. Stickers, caution-signs and ratings are only suggestions. Some can handle NC17-rated stuff at 13. Others can't. But whatever happens, it's neither the fault of the game nor the game designer if anyone comes to harm.

So my overall point is, no. I can not see how video games, comic books or movies could ever be hurtful to people. Normal people. To mentally ill, retarded or young people? Perhaps. But we're not talking about them. We must apply games to their indended audience. If not, everything but the damn Teletubbies should be banned, because it -might- be offensive to sociopaths, mormons, gays, teenage girls, geologists, conservatives, liberals, sheep-farmers and whoever the hell else wants a piece of the publicity-pie. Oh, scratch that, I find the teletubbies offensive. Guess it's time for another game of Monopoly since everything else was banned to "protect" us.

*It's not someone's "fault" if a mentally unstable person does bad things. Such people can often not control themselves, thus they're treated differently etc.

 

[Chunko]

We all naturally have violent tendencies. Videogames are a safe and healthy way to get rid of them.

 

[TheEnglishman]

In my view the sort of person who goes on a GTA style killing spree is the sort of person who would have done so innevtibaly, it just required the snapping point which could have come from anything. A passer buy shouting abuse, an argressive movie promoting violence, a hurtful T-Shirt slogan, whatever.

 

[geldonyetich]

Sort of an ambiguous question. Is X or Y Good/Bad? Depends on what you mean by Good/Bad. Is Z Harmful? Depends on how you would define harm being done.

That said, my vote (like the majority) goes on "depends on if you already have problems." Some people are indeed quite impressionable, yes?

 

[Psychophante]

No, its just a minority of people do stupid things, and happen to play games. Hitler was a vegetarian, does that make vegetables harmful?

 

[Jdopus]

At a young age then yes.

Children are biologically programmed to imitate. Be it their peers, movies or as it may be, video games.

This is evidently a good survival trait as they can learn from their parents, however, it opens the window to misfiring if they are exposed to violence at a young age. I'm sure a lot of kids here saw wrestling on TV and decided it would be fun to be a wrestler.

Lets just say age ratings exist for a reason, you wouldn't let a kid watch a gorey horror movie, so don't let them play a violent game.

 

[omega 616]

Well this is the natural elaboration on my first point, we are inspired by media. Media as a general term, in this case the media was a game. However I am all for games but due to his young age and his exposure to this game, do you feel that if perhaps this content was with-held from him, his issue could have been shown in a less fatal way and help could have been offered which would have resulted in the survival of the young boy? Just a thought and something to dwell upon from what I said in my first post in this topic, media can have a negative or positive influence on a person, and the same piece of media can have both a positive and negative effect on different people.

Well I'll assume that the kid who killed the other kid was about 10, he was playing the game so he must have been old enough to understand what to do and control things.

If he's old enough to do that then isn't he old enough to relies that killing is wrong? I know kids are very impressionable but not to the extent that they kill somebody.

Who ever let him play it or left it out were he could get hold of it isn't very responsable either.

 

[squid5580]

Are we really bombarded? Or is it just the media attention whoring by using biased arguements? Funny how they forget to mention books like Grand theft Childhood written by 2 child psychologists that say games are good for kids. That infact denying young boys especially games can have a negative impact on them. While people who have no degree in anything claim that they are.

 

[AkJay]

Too much of anything is harmful.

 

[sln333]

No they aren't harmful. They're another form of entertainment. I don't hear people asking if movies are harmful.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Video games are no more or less harmful than any other form of popular entertainment. In the hands of someone who is already mentally unstable it can potentially push them over the edge, but that doesn't mean there should be any censoring of games. A good policy is just to make sure people are fully aware of what the content of the game is exactly, that way when some crazy person does something, uh...crazy, Fox News, Jack Thompson, and co. can't just jump on it and shout, "Oh no! The games are secretly corrupting our youth!"

 

[Geekmaster K]

I've heard of many cases where someone stupid will actually carry out what he does in-game, and in those cases, it's not the game's fault, but the person who did it. Sadly, the non-gaming politicians ALWAYS blame video games for this, even if the game itself was unrelated. For example, little Jimmy brings a gun to school, shoots a teacher and a couple of students, and then shoots himself. The police and lawyers in the case find out that he was a gamer, and they immediately blame video games on the shooting, then try and find some way to get a law passed to ban a certain game or video games in general. They completely ignore the fact that he had a dysfunctional home life, his parents were getting a divorce, he had no friends and was picked on all the time at school, the teachers at the school did nothing about him being picked on, etc. Instead of looking at these factors, they blame it on the video games, and ruin everything for people who AREN'T screwed up.

This is why I'm thankful for the Wii despite Nintendo's casual gaming shift. Getting older people into gaming through this console may help them understand that video games are not inherently evil.

i completely agree here, though you can't ignore the fact that there HAVE been cases where the videogame in question was the cause of what happened

In those cases, the person was most likely screwed up anyway. Those are the kinds of people who shouldn't be playing video games. However, when they act out on their fantasies, they ruin everything for the people who CAN separate fantasy from reality, and the legal system and politicians get the idea that all video games are "murder simulators" that encourage people to carry out what they see in-game. If the older generation better understood gaming, they might not think that it's the root of all evil. This is why I'm thankful that casual gaming exists for that generation of people, even though I'm not a huge fan of most casual games in and of themselves.

 

[TheDoctor455]

What Jack Thompson and every other so called "lawyer" has failed to notice about most of the "video game related murders" is that the people who committed the crime were already unstable to begin with. And handing an unstable person anything with extreme violence in it is a bad idea no matter what medium it is.

 

[haaxist]

Where's the "No, they're beneficial." option?

I'll put that in now. Sorry if you already voted.

Man, you guys have some great answers going on. I can't lie, I am a bit (a lot) biased in this discussion, so I can't actually post my own opinion on here until I'm done the ISU. However, I will take this time and do some boring stuff, i.e. clear up the confusion about some of the terms I'm using.

When I say harmful, I mean do they cause negative effects in people? I should probably just say that, shouldn't I? My fault, I'll change that...

I probably shouldn't have posted this question on a site for gamers, but...

 

[DomEReapeR]

No! 'nuff said.

 

[TOGSolid]

No, they don't. The video game community on the other hand kills braincells by the dozens and makes even the nicest kids into total assholes.

 

[Jirlond]

In uni I had to study the adverse effectsof video games - aside from the violent ones - they encourage team building and can teach people things without them knowing.

Sure violent games can affect some people negatively, but so does every other form of media on the planet..... people pick up guns when the news tells them an apocalypse is coming.

It all depends if you LET it affect you or not.

 

[KrakFoxx]

Voted yes then realised it said negative effects... games do change people but not necessarily badly