Violence in Video Games

First off, take a look at the video provided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_IBSuXIoo

Now that's out of the way, what's your stance on video game violence as a whole? Now, it's true that games can get rather violent in places but so does TV shows and movies. In fact, violence just for the sake of it appears to be a very rare once you think about it.

Let's talk about guns just to name one example. Generally, when you use guns in a video game, more often than not you're playing as someone who would be expected to tote guns around in first place such as soldiers and the like. On the other side of the spectrum, you get Hatred whose protagonist is clearly a psychopath who wouldn't be allowed near guns in first place. And since said game was developed by a Polish studio, it can be seen as a cautionary message.

Without something to back up the "violent videogames inspire violence" then it honestly remains what is what back when it was brought up earlier. A stupid notion that doesn't have any meat to it other than peeps holding it over.

Until some ample evidence of a trend in this behaviour being linked to games is found I fail to see this coming to fruition.

It's just a game.
It's bad parenting and broken families more than anything really.
Also based off being able to perceive the difference between reality and fiction.
I can't connect any links to it either.

I think it's more than just bad parenting and broken families, but yeah there isn't a distinct connection other than "two peeps played call of duty and killed peeps on time."

I'm sure there's more to it than that. But a broken family could initially be the root of the problem to a broken individual leading to losing their self and never turning back. Even most insane people (mentally) know they can't kill someone with guns or any weapon because it happened in a game. They may be really far out there but I can't see video games connecting a trigger. Games are simply for ones entertainment.

But being traumatized, and something triggering that outside of video games that reminded them of their past. Yes, I could see that.

This has been studied extensively, and video games, films, and rock music do not magically make people more violent. But boy is it handy to bring it up every time people start talking about gun violence as a distraction so we don't focus on the issue at hand and discuss reasonable gun laws!

All you have to do is repeat the same myths once a decade with a new coat of paint. Works every time.

~Psychic

Yeah, sadly these types of re-runs have been happening more than we give the concept credit. I mean, some still persist even after being shown false, or not nearly to the extent of the claim.

People will try to tie gun violence to anything they possibly can even if it's something as ludicrous as this

Ughhhh. This has already been disproven by multiple studies. It's a closed book.

It's only being brought up as a diversionary tactic to trick those who don't know it's already been solved.

I still remember many years ago, when the whole discussion arose and the politicians tried to come up with the most ludicrous ideas to make it totally apparent that a game had violence in it. They actually succeeded partially. That is, if you can call "ruining game covers forever" a success.

It's ironic that people like Jack Thompson brought more attention to violent video games than marketing ever could.

And the wrong kind of attention they wanted, too. Seriously, Rockstar should pay Thompson for the free advertising for GTA 3.


I think people who are capable of real violence will do it whether or not they actually have a video game depicting it.

I'm fine with violence in video games so long as the idea of having to like them isn't pushed down my throat too much.

I much prefer watching things that don't have a lot of blood or killing. I guess fighting games i'll enjoy to a point, though. Especially now that I have SUCH a crush on a fighting specialist gym leader xD;

Coming from someone who is a gamer herself (obviously), I don't think that pinning the blame for violent actions on video games is portraying gaming in a whole in an unfair light. If Thompson's statement was true, we would all be fitting our pets into tiny balls and forcing them to fight, which we don't. I will not discredit cases in which violent individuals had been unintentionally trained, but that is another case entirely. For games such as Call of Duty, most of the series entries take place during time periods such as WWII or the Vietnam War. All in all, don't judge the book by it's cover.

Come on guys, it's not the 90s anymore.

Violence is in ALL media these days. You may as well focus on violence in movies, or books, or music, for all the difference it makes. Ratings exist for a reason - and if impressionable children get a hold of violent video games and emulate them, it is the fault of their parents - and for those old enough to make their own decisions, it is just that: a decision. They're going to do these things whether they play the games or not.

Jirachu said:

I honestly still don't see how people can like games like call of duty and call themselves 'good people'.

Call of Duty is all about the most negative parts of human history :(

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People can separate fiction from reality, mostly.

Jirachu said:

I honestly still don't see how people can like games like call of duty and call themselves 'good people'.

Call of Duty is all about the most negative parts of human history :(

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Call of Duty is mostly just a competitive multiplayer game. It usually has some tacked on action movie type of story mode but its not what people are playing. Only six out of 14 mainstay titles are set in an actual historic period. Five of them are set in the future, three of which have robots and crap.

I can call myself a 'good' person based on my actions in the real world. Helping people around me and pushing kindness and compassion over selfishness. You need to seriously reevaluate your thought process if you think the 30-50 million individual players who've bought CoD games over the years are all bad people because of it.

Jackster 136 said:

What Jirachu probably means by not good people, is that most COD fans bully you for liking a video game that isn't related to Call of Duty.

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I mean 50 million people are not out there bullying others for not liking CoD when CoD's fanbase are the most critical group of said franchise.

Also, the thread is explicitly about violence related to video games. Not whether someone chides you for liking a different game.

I don't think fandoms are an accurate way to really measure anything, especially not violent/antisocial tendencies or the likeliness of developing those as a result of exposure to media. Like minds have a tendency to congregate, and in anything and everything there are going to be those who consider themselves superior to others. Competition doesn't bring out the best in a lot of people, and that is not limited to just video games.

I have no experience with the online community with Call of Duty so I can't speak for its general temperament, but I can say that there are other games that do not have as much of a reputation for being violent where you can be met with hostility if you aren't as proficient a player as some, or have an opinion that the majority disagrees with. I've had some truly horrible experiences playing as a Paladin in FFXIV in the past when I've made some mistakes, for example. When you think "violent video games" that probably isn't one of the first that comes to mind.

But considering how large the player base for games with online multiplayer often are, judging the many by the actions of a few doesn't seem particularly fair; it's not indication of violence as a whole. If anything, all it shows is that there are people who take these things very seriously, and nothing else...and in a competitive environment, isn't that natural? It might not be healthy or particularly nice, but it's not unnatural or unusual.

Jirachu said:

That isn't what I meant Jackster *sigh*

I meant what I meant. That people who go around liking negative things like war games just add to the ugliness of the world. And I hate it.

I don't care if CoD fans are nice or mean or whatever. I just don't like that they're wasting their lives on a game about World War Two when they could be making themselves smile looking at stuff like flowers or at least cute pokemon instead.

Why do people feel they have to excuse the negative so much? Its the very reason I felt attacked for my girlyness all these years. I want no part in liking negative media. At least, not overly negative like CoD is.

>:(

And I just wanna enjoy girly things and not feel wrong about it just cuz the rest of the world feels it has to be unhappy with itself.

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Uh... The rest of the world doesn't think like you.

You assume they're unhappy because you don't like it. And you fail to get that instead a lot of people would think looking at cute things or Pokemon would be nothing but a waste of time. You're in the mega minority.

And, man, if you think CoD is the greatest evil someone can be interested in, simply due to WWII, then you have no idea what true evil even is.

Your post actually made me quite concerned with how you view happiness. I get the vibe you intentionally try to brainwash yourself into solely 'happy' thoughts and block out anything else.
You don't see the danger in that? Repressing negativity?

Everyone enjoys themselves in different ways - your idea of what is positive is not a universal truth. Nor is your idea of what is negative. If you don't want to partake of it yourself, I think that's fair enough; nobody is forcing you. But is there really a need to disparage or label those that do? Isn't that doing to them what they did to you? Is that positive behaviour?

People are NOT their taste in media. Their taste in media is but one small facet of who they are as individuals and, whilst it might tell you something of their tastes and what they find enjoyable, it does not tell you anything about what kind of person they are. I mean, if you enjoy Pokemon, does that mean you enjoy watching creatures battle against one another in real life? Would you train a dog to attack other animals because that's what you do in the game?

At the end of it, a game is just a game. Whether or not it depicts something that would be considered negative in reality is (arguably) irrelevant: as has been stated, most people are capable of differentiating between fantasy and reality, and those that are not either should not be playing these games in the first place, or are likely to enact their fantasies whether they play the games or not.

Precisely what constitutes violence is open to interpretation as well. Even the most benign of video games can be considered violent if you think about it.