Poll: Do video games cause violence?

[Koganesaga]

To put it simply, yes techinically the impressionable mind could get very wrong signals from video games, but this is why we have the esrb, to keep these games away from the appropriate age groups, so it boils down to the parents who were too lazy to return the game they got as a gift or too stupid to say no to their 6 year old girl when she begs them for leisurely Larry.

 

[Donttazemehbro]

IT DOES IN STUPID PEOPLE. people with an IQ less than 40. Smart people know the difference from beating the shit out of people in games like God of War and the real world. I cant stand people who say there is a correlation between game violence and real violence. You cant hurt pixels , you can hurt people. What the major problem is that people jump to conclusions, "this guy got into a fight because he was emulating a thing he saw in the video game" no he got into a fight because he was stupid or something.

 

[Samcanuck]

I personally don't believe that they cause violence. However, thats not to say a person cannot act on what they fantasize about if it relates to violence. More often than not though, I feel violence is caused due of how a person is raised, and how they interact with society. Not to mention social status and probably the most important....biology. Let's be honest...some people are just wired for crazy. When people push those kinds of people, they lash out violently. (I personally don't trust a skitzo, do you?)

Infact, now that I think about it, videogames and music would give an outlet for violence, atleast thats how I see it.

 

[TheScottishFella]

To be honest so many people have different opinions the media are really bad for saying video games are violent when only a very small number of violent acts can be linked to video games in some obscure way the fact of the matter is what age you are and how mature your minds are. What I am saying is simple a 13 year old who is an avid gamer is more likely to be violent than a 25 year old that hardly plays games however the young boy may be use to games to be smart enough to figure out that this is all fake while a 25 year old might become violent what I am saying is it is hard to tell there are so many variables in the world to not really predict if video games are a direct cause of violence yet this has been a huge argument couldn't movies be just as bad? yes they could be. I guess it depends if the childs brain has matured and has accepted video games for fun. To go off topic this has been bugging me for a while the status of "noobs" people
believe that if you are a in a certain age group you are a "noob" now I will say I am a young gamer I play team fortress 2 I play as the engineer to help, but people will still call me a childless noob who knows nothing, yet if they say that, they themselves are the noobs they are being anti social and cruel yet have I done anything to cause this hostility? No. Yet people automatically assume because I am young I am gonna tk everyone. Like video games and violence there is no way to really say if the 2 factors really do go hand and hand but what we must remember video games can be a release of violence after a hard day.


Well that's what I think, now if anyone complains about my age and not agrees that I make a few valid points, I have played games my near entire life and I observe others and make arguments I am open to critisim however if you stopped reading after I said I was younger then allow me to be a little less formal and say fuck you.

 

[Gardenia]

Violent videogames do not cause violence, but people who are inherently violent and mentally disturbed may seek out violent games in order to try to deal with their issues, before committing a real act of violence. Correlation does not imply causation. I am amazed by how many people who still commit this fallacy.

 

[MetaKnight19]

No I don't think they do. OK there might be a small minority in which this applies, but realistically speaking, the only violence that probably does happen is someone rage-quitting after getting repeatedly killed on Halo 3 and throwing the game out the window, but that's it.

Apparently they cause bad spelling. Also after playing Super Mario Bros I tried to kill a tortoise by jumping on it, but it just ignored me and slowly walked away.

I tried that once but I got reported to the RSPCA

 

[amazosaur]

No, I don't think so. Most people site the fact that many kids who commit violent crimes play violent video games but correlation does not imply causality. It's not that they're likely to commit acts of violence because they play violent games but that they're more likely to play violent games because they're likely to commit violence. Also, violent crime by youths has steadily decreased since the 80's and video games have proliferated since then so I don't think video games cause violence

Edit: Dammit, just saw that someone else posted the same thing

 

[Arachon]

Fellow Escapists, I call on you for help. My professor assigned my 200 level english class a 3-5 pg. paper on video games. My topic will be about how video games do not directly cause violent behavior. I'm probably going to use the stats from this poll in my paper somehow. Also, I could paraphrase your thoughts on the topic.

Empirical data, as well as meta-analytical studies suggest that there is a correlation between violent video games and aggression (note: "Aggression", not "Violence"). However, most would argue that this correlation is so small, that only people who are already pre-disposed to violence, or mentally unstable, would present any "risk" to others.

I've written a similar paper as yours (allthough it was 15 pages rather than 5), and I'd recommend checking out the studies that have already been done, setting up a poll like this isn't really "research", it's a poll, and it will be very biased. Give me a shout, and I could PM you my reference list, if you'd like.

 

[Woodsey]

Not at all (that's been proven, in non-biased research).

I'm even struggling with the idea that they desensitise you to violence in any way. Yeah, after a while of playing a game I get used to the amount of "gore" it shows - but that's a shit load different to making me less sensitive to real-life violence.

On a side-note, be careful how you use this poll. If you say: "Games don't cause violence, the evidence for this is in this poll..." then you're not going to get any marks for putting it in. Saying that gamer's introspective of the situation is that games don't cause violence will work much better.

 

[llew]

i dont think games cause violence but in all fairness i did hear on the news of someone killin their friend and said he did it because he could do it on man-hunt but thats the only game-related violence i have ever heard of...

 

[llew]

You'll also notice that some of the most violent and conflict-stricken nations in the world do not have video games, or at least, the majority of the population don't, and this majority are usually the ones being violent.

great point killer. That will definitely make its way into my paper (giving you credit of course)

If anyone believes that video games do have a direct affect on stable minded people, your viewpoint could be very useful considering that it would most likely be coming from a gamer.

Can I just ask what results you were expecting this is a gaming site.
they may be biased but they are still reliable seeing as no-one on here is in jail yet, if games caused violence im pretty sure at least 40% of us would be in jail by now just saying

If I went on a George Bush appreciation site and asked if he was a good President what would they say... they say yes...

You must relies that the results of this will be bias... an 12 year old doing history could see that!

On the subject I don?t agree that games course violence

 

[skibadaa]

Cause, no. Contribute? Yes.

At the bare minimum, the frequent, repeated acts of violence in videogames have a desensitization effect, which leads to a reduction in our ability to feel empathy and which makes us more tolerant of images of extreme violence. That said, the effect is, as far as I am concerned, not significantly more pronounced that that of any other form of visual media.

There's evidence to suggest that there is some increase in aggression in people, particularly kids, after playing violent videogames, but there's also evidence to suggest that that influence is easily countered.

AT WORST, videogames serve as a model for already violent or unstable people to base their violence on, and as a reinforcer of aggressive tendencies. No normal person is going to be made to commit an act of criminal violence as a direct result of playing videogames.

-m

Have to dissagree with you slightly there, almost all of the evidence supporting an increase in aggression following a session of exposure to violent gaming content is at best speculative and more often entirely circumstancial (the bobo test), most of the methods used to test this theory on children were incredibly biased, or at least the studies ive read were.
Violence in video games, as in films, books, comics, on the news or any media format can and will be used as a model for people who are already commited to performing an act of violence but that in no way substantiates the argument that said media is providing motivation and or justification for violence, aka turning otherwise non-violent people into raving sociopaths with the complete lack of empathy that entails.
The key issue in this as in all arguments against explicit media is the context in which said media is viewed. I think its not the violence itself that is a factor, it is the moral justification (or lack of it) for said violence that is offered by the game's story, ie violence for violence's sake with no justification. even in some of the most ultra-violent games there is still a clear definition of right and wrong whithin the story. And even without that definition it would again take a complete sociopath devoid of any moral compass to take that as promotion of violent acts. The only exeption would be very young children who are not fully aware of right and wrong, and in that instance any ill action would be a direct product of poor parenting.
On the desensitization issue, i dont see how exposure to game violence makes you less empathic to others at all, i do believe it gradually removes any shock/fear/disgust that you are instinctively compelled to feel when exposed to such violence but that is a mere physical response to visual stimuli. empathy is a complex emotional connection, the ability to view things from the perpective of others, you are born with it and it is reinforced on you from the early stages of infancy and onwards. It is not something that can be watered down by anything short of intense psychological trauma or brain damage. Those cases aside people with no empathy were like that from birth and no video game "made" them do anything.

If anything, i think age restrictions on games should be better judged and better enforced. Banning violent content alltogether will achieve nothing. games dont kill people, people do.

 

[Trotgar]

I believe it can, but only if the player has mental problems or is easily manipulated etc.

And gaming can cause frustration and aggression (and through them, possibly violence) but that is temporary, at least in my case. I've been playing some violent games, but I'm still very calm. The possible anger usually fades away in seconds or minutes.

 

[Tharwen]

Only:

"Get off the bloody computer!"

"OK, I'll just save it first"

"NOW!"

*Violence*

I'd also recommend not using the results of this poll in your paper, because this forum is going to be sort of biased.

 

[Lim3]

It may desensitize us to death, but TV has been doing that for years.

On the other hand city boys - like myself - would be sickened by the slaughtered of a calf or a chicken and all the blood, but a farm boy wouldn't be since he has grown up around it.

So who's more likely to commit murder, a city gamer who has only played games or a farmer who has frequently had to kill living creatures and shoot creatures and is used to blood and death, etc.?

In my home city we have a large amount of glassings (a lot of establishments now use plastic cups) yet all those people are drunken idiots who don't play games, no instead they get drunk and copy what our footballers do - glass their girlfriends.

 

[William Dickbringer]

I think there is no concrete evidence on this subject for every yes on this subject there's a report saying no and vice versa

but in my opinion video games get a bad rep because people in courts tend to use them in court as a scape goat prime example is a case involving a boy who killed his sister he tried blaming it on halo through an insanity plea but when attorney Jack Thompson (everybody's favorite joke of an attorney) stepped in to help the boy took off the insanity plea because jack wanted him to blame the game

 

[Buccura]

I feel this is the kind of question that cannot be answered with a simple yes or no as the psyche of people from person to person is drastically different.

 

[Arachon]

Not at all (that's been proven, in non-biased research).

What research would this be? And how do you know it is non-biased?

 

[Srdjan]

I'm pretty much sure that games help people to vent them selves and doing so prevents violance.