Are Video Games Harmful to Society?

...now that I have your attention :P

This is a topic that just doesn't seem to want to die. Whether it's someone saying games are a time/money sink with no discernible payoff, to people crying racism/sexism/homophobic/agism over percived tropes and themes, to people blaming everything from mass murders to ritualistic suicides on the devil's playthings: the culprit always seems to be within reach of the controller, according to some.

Now it's safe to say we all like games here, some a little, some a lot. But do you think the neigh-sayers have a point? Do you think there might be some truth to it -- that games themselves or the gaming industry has a lot to answer for as far as creating items that do not add anything productive to society and contributes to things like childhood obesity and increased violent tendencies in players?

Or do you think games are just a convenient scape goat for more complex, matrixed issues society just isn't capable or too lazy to actually fix?

No.

Most forms of assault against other people have been going down since their release. It's not to say that they're correlated, but the fact that they've been going down when people suggest that it is not related to violence.

Not only this, but pretty much everyone who has presented this idea seems to hate video games without playing very many.

There are some people who take their gaming too seriously but these individuals are a small minority that should be treated as such.

Honestly if there is any harm in video games it's with obsession, not with violence, which is the typical claim. It costs a lot of money to get all those games and you spend a lot of time playing them in order to complete them, especially if you're a completionist (something a lot of obsessive people are). Obsession can happen with anything. There are people who are essentially chronically obsessed with collecting baseball cards, coins, war memorabilia, even inflatable pool toys - so to pin the blame on just video games is kind of unfair. Kind of reminds me of how people say MLP is bad for kids because there's porn on the internet of it, even though every other kid's franchise has porn of it on the internet.

Honestly if there is any harm in video games it's with obsession, not with violence, which is the typical claim. It costs a lot of money to get all those games and you spend a lot of time playing them in order to complete them, especially if you're a completionist (something a lot of obsessive people are).

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I saw this thread and immediately thought, "The only bad thing about video games is the damage to my wallet." Haha.

But I agree with daigonite. Video games are just a scape goat used for blame. Let's also keep in mind that movies tend to have the same themes as games in some cases. There are plenty of horror films, documentaries, and sci-fi films that are much more graphic in terms of how things are portrayed and yet I have never seen them blamed, or at least less often than games. If I had to guess though, because games tend to have you playing as the shooter or killer, that's why movies tend to go under the radar more often. And if I recall, the Columbine shooting had the head turned against the band Judas Priest, so music has also been under this type of limelight.

What should really be to blame? More often than not, it's parents not monitoring their children. Simple things like checking the movie ratings and WHY the movie has those ratings is a step in the right direction, and the same goes for games. What frustrates me is parents buying an M rated game blindly for their child, but then coming back to whatever store they got it from and complaining about how violent it is. We live in an age where nearly everything you would want to know is accessible online. A simple Google search on that M rated game that 8-year-old Brandon has on his list doesn't take long. Rated M for mature for sexual themes, violence, and alcohol references? Probably not the best thing for him. It's as simple as that. My mom, the most video game ignorant person ever, even followed the simple rating system. I couldn't see a PG-13 movie before I was 13. I couldn't rent Goldeneye as a kid because it was rated T. People are capable of understand the rating system if they just take five minutes to read about it.

This is WAY longer than I really wanted it to be. Sorry. lol

I don't believe people who attribute negative ramifications solely to video games have any basis for their argument. First of all, it's a hobby just like any other. To say it's better to spend your time watching movies, practicing an instrument or playing a sport over playing a video game because you're more likely to turn that hobby into a career is absurd. I'd like to see a ratio of big-time Hollywood directors to avid movie-goers (hint: it's gigantic). Same goes for musicians, and even moreso for pro athletes. "But wait marz, people who like movies and music don't necessarily have to become superstars to make a living!" No, that's right, and neither do video game nerds. The gaming industry has more demand for programmers, level designers, sound designers and art directors than ever before. With a myriad of gaming platforms available these days, and with mobile games becoming a huge contender in just the past five years, that demand is not dropping anytime soon.

Now I'll be the first to admit - the gamer culture is a competitive, frustrated and agitated community. Especially in frag-based eSport and in first-person shooters. Are games the root of anger issues, and mental problems that lead to murder in a worse-case scenario? Definitely not. If anything, these shoot-em-up type games empower me with something I'd never dream of doing in the real world. If I've got a short temper, or am rude and disrespectful, there's something else wrong in life. If I'm about to go murder somebody 'cause I saw it in a video game, there's somethin' else wrong upstairs - and likely can be traceable to back even before I started playing these games.

As far as the claim that it motivates our youth to be unproductive and will lead to obesit goes, I'll say this: Before video games, did every single kid go out and play sports? Doubtful. Board games, card games, number games, all of these are just precursors to the next gen of gaming. Obesity is caused by many, many things, and laziness is one of them. Video games won't help. But cutting gaming out of your diet won't net you a thin waist.

I love video games. One of my favourite hobbies. Anything that can occupy me and take me out of the real world for x amount of time is fantastic. I can be angry, sad, depressed, rude...but that's my own fault. No blame game here.

Oh, and I'm thin as a stick, too. :P

To offer a slightly different view than most people... I would honestly say that video games, or more specifically computer simulation is the most important invention in human history. Seriously.

They haven't fulfilled their purpose yet, but think about it for a minute. The video game industry is constantly advancing forward technologically with the goal of creating true, perfect virtual reality. That virtual reality requires a complete understanding of the human mind and a computer large enough to store it and powerful enough to process it. Interestingly enough, those are the exact same requirements for computerized immortality. Which means, yes, video games will make us immortal. Of course, (almost) everyone wants immortality, but it's such a long term, expensive goal. Very few scientists are going to be willing to actively work on this, and very few people are going to be willing to actively fund it. Fact of the matter is, if they did there's not going to be any profit in it, and chances are, they wouldn't be alive to see the work completed. Video games on the other hand are actively progressing toward this goal naturally, with a multi billion dollar industry backing it.

So yeah... no, I don't think they're bad.

movies spur sociopaths to kill people. music is satanic. books are racist, homophobic, misogynist, and sexist; people read them and feel the need to kill people just like how the people in the book were killed. art is evil!

video games aren't any more harmful to society than your favorite song, or your favorite movie, or your favorite book, i.e. they aren't.

WHOOPS SYD POINTED THESE THINGS OUT TOO BUT WHATEVER. STILL VALID.

The argument about childhood obesity caused by video games and other "modern technology" will never cease to amuse me.
First of all, the parents should be more encouraging when it comes to playing outside or exercising in general. Find a hobby the kid likes and spend an hour or two just getting them to move. There's a bazillion things that require you to move, it can't be that hard.
Secondly, genetics and metabolism and whatnot play a much larger role in this. I lead a very sedentary lifestyle, I thoroughly enjoy junk food, I eat fast food almost daily, I live off of Pepsi and Vanilla Coke... and I'm "underweight". 5'2 and constantly hovering around 98-105 pounds. I've always had trouble putting on weight.

Limerent said:

You genuinely cannot fix some issues blamed on video games because they are a part of human nature. Regardless of whether the games are there or not you will always have people who are anti-social, obsessive or displaying violent tendencies. Media over reporting has linked the idea of video games to violence whilst crimes by people who have barely touched a game do not gain widespread attention since they are seen as run of the mill.

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I essentially came here to say the same things, especially that last bit.
"Dog bites man" or "Man bites dog" -- which do you think would be the more popular story? The one that gets completely blown out of proportion? The more abnormal it is, the more attention it gets.

On that note, 1.) Violence is a rather prevalent part of humanity. Always has been. It's not exactly a new 'thing' to us. Neither is learning how to be a decent human being, with a conscience and everything. Again, it's usually your parents that should play the role of being there to tell you what is and is not acceptable behavior in public, and how one should treat other people. The forms of entertainment we choose to indulge in isn't going to make or break one's psyche-

Which brings us to 2.) If watching a violent movie or playing a violent game was the thing that triggered someone to go ballistic and shoot up a school -- perhaps you should be more concerned with this person's mental state, rather than attacking the people that created the thing that made **this one, single person** do the thing he did.

Leading to point 3.) If your teenager cannot differentiate fantasy from reality, don't give aforementioned child a copy of GTA and then shrug and blame the devs because he wasn't mature enough for it.
Now granted, it's not always as black and white as "follow the rating on the box." Your 10-year-old might be able to handle M-rated games, while your 17-year-old shouldn't play anything rated higher than E. You just have to know your kid.
I played Conker's Bad Fur Day at 10-years-old and I never shot anybody.

I'm rambling.

tl;dr The media blows everything up; parents will always blame someone else for their "perfect" child's behavior; and at the end of the day, some parents just need to be more involved in their children's' lives.

Of course they're not. They're the current scapegoat for whatever is going on with the world that's turning it upside down. Currently, video games are being attacked for being "sexist" and "misogynist" by radical feminists and social justice warriors, and here's a shocker: the same video game websites who have protected their hobby from those who claim they turn people into murders are on the side of the SJWs. This angered many gamers and minorities with all of this corruption, so that's why #GamerGate and #NotYourShield were created and are still fighting today.

Pinkie-Dawn said:

... Currently, video games are being attacked for being "sexist" and "misogynist" by radical feminists and social justice warriors, and here's a shocker: the same video game websites who have protected their hobby from those who claim they turn people into murders are on the side of the SJWs. This angered many gamers and minorities with all of this corruption, so that's why #GamerGate and #NotYourShield were created and are still fighting today.

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To be honest, I'm not really into the gaming community much. I just buy games I like, I play them, I move onto the next one. However I have looked up some of these so called "attacks" on the game community and to be honest, I just don't see why it makes everyone so enraged -- let alone hurling all the death threats; it's frankly a bit overkill.

While I don't agree with the majority of what is said , some of these "social justice warriors" as you call them do have a point at times. I just don't see it as sexist, however I've never been a woman working in the game industry and I don't play enough games to really have an opinion. I will say all of the games I DO buy tend to fall well outside the kinds of games most people play.

While I prefer to protest games I don't find all that interesting to me by, I don't know, not buying them, at the same time I would love to see more diversity in themes as well as characters. Girl gets captured, guy goes on adventure to save girl, gets girl in the end is just old hat no matter what medium it is (books, games, movies, etc). I personally don't find it sexist, just not interesting to me.

Then again, why do you think such a trope-subversive movie like Frozen was so explosively popular? People generally want change, though many marketing folks are very slow to throw away old, money-making forumulas.

That's a completely different topic though: innovation in games vs the need for the company to make money off said games.

Before I can make a proclamation either way, I would like to see some data on frequency of video game playing and outcomes.

With that being said, movies, music, television, and Pandora's box of internet media may effect behavior in beneficial and non-beneficial ways, video games are one component of this media smorgasbord, distinguished by its interactive role.

Now, violence is mostly involving the condition of poverty not behavior changes due to videogaming. Though if we are to hold all things being constant, perhaps among non-poverty ridden populations, videogames inspire more violence, but to which extent? Is this difference trivial, and therefore, should poverty be the target of this discussion of violence?

Further, there is a directional correlational issue that needs to be examined. Does gaming cause violent behavior, or do those with violent or antisocial behaviors play videogames at greater frequencies then those with nonviolent and non-antisocial behaviors?

Anime and videogames bridge social commonality and economic interdependency between the East (Japan) and the west (NA, EUR, SA, AUS).

With all that said, not all games are created equal. Some might bolster learning and problem solving skills. Others inspire tactical finesse in order to command mastery and hand-eye coordination.

Which brings me to my most concerning thoughts about videogames, which is time management. Do games increase the total number of hours of non-productive activity? To what extent? If yest, what are the implications of less market inputs? If not, is it a matter of less need for market inputs, and thus a rise of increased non-productive activity, regardless of what that non-productive activity is.

I do love videogames, but objectively, I will not assert that "I know" the ratio of beneficial, benign, and detrimental effects of gaming. Anyone that does is an expert or full-of-it.

Put simply? No.

Video games are no more dangerous than any other media.

Lately gaming has been getting a bad rep, what with Gamergate happening and all.

The media in GENERAL has a direct relation to our everyday lives. Music, movies, television, video games, even social media all have a part to play. To blame just one out of all of them is obscene. Any event in a game can be seen in a movie or television show. Sexism exists in all of them. You can find a fault in literally EVERY FORM OF MEDIA.

That being said there are good things to come from video games. They are an art form for one. They also have a direct effect on technology. Look at how far games have progressed and don't tell me it's not true. Also there are research projects that have confirmed that those that game actually have slightly heightened reaction times and coordination skills, they are more able to solve puzzles, and can be more attentive to detail.

Not really.

I think video games can, as in 'have potential' to put ideas into people's heads, but anything can ranging from books to television shows to actual living people. Anything in your household can put ideas into people's heads. It's more the person or the guidance they get early on, I believe, than the actual content themselves.

Not really.

I think video games can, as in 'have potential' to put ideas into people's heads, but anything can ranging from books to television shows to actual living people. Anything in your household can put ideas into people's heads. It's more the person or the guidance they get early on, I believe, than the actual content themselves.

It'd be fair to say that majority, if not all people here play or have played video games in the past since this is a Pokemon forum.

Now, let's assume that the question posted is true, and video games are indeed harmful to society and bring racist, homophobic, and sexist thoughts on people who are exposed to video games for a period of time. Wouldn't this forum then be full of selfish, homophobic, and (whatever negative adjective you can think of) people? I don't see that myself.

I also frequent the video games section often and people there are nice and rational, no-one who wants to abuse others because of their different opinions. I don't see video games section moderators having to close every other thread because things are oh-so-chaotic in there.

If you're talking about those radical feminists and "SJW"s harping about video gamers how are misogynistic and all that BS, just ignore their opinions and move on because they shouldn't be taken seriously.

They are harmful to some extent, especially the M- or AO-rated games, such as Grand Theft Auto or Counter Strike (which every 10 year old in Romania and Eastern Europe plays). Games like Pokemon and Mario are very safe imo.

Warsmith said:

The answer is no. There is no solid or scientific proof that videogames cause any sort of anything.

Let me remind you that people have been shooting at people for nearly 1000 years. The wild west is the pinnacle of these, such that you could be shot if you were thought top be cheating by a belligerent drunk. Let's also throw in some of the school shootings that happened in the 1950's and 1960's. Throw in some of the school shootings that happened during the 1800's and you've got yourself a party.

Also, some of the more famous criminals have never ever played videogames. Ted Bundy? John Wayne Gacy? Charles Manson? Albert Fish? Ed Gein? Nope.

Fun Fact: Ed Gein was caught with a shoe box with 9 vulvae inside. Lovely.
Quiz question: Which videogames was he playing at the time?

In short: I believe that videogames are just a convenient scapegoat for more complex matrices society just isn't capable or too lazy to actually fix.

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well, video games causing violence (which is what people are purporting) =/= violence only being fueled by video games (which I doubt is what you actually meant but it sounded that way to me).

Society isn't able to properly handle technology. It is developing way faster than society and as people fear to lose control, they just blame it on, what they think is, the weakest member of the technology family.

Most of the complains come from people, who're either too old, or refuse to change according to the newer technological standard.

My answer is that some video games are bad and some are good, in moderation.

Take a game like GTA 5. This is not good for society. The game is jam packed with profanity, torture, murder, drugs, prostitution and mindless violence. This kind of stuff should not exist in society, period.

Why should this kind of recreation be allowed? The aim of the game is murder to make money, it really doesn't send a good message to anyone playing it, which unfortunately is a lot of young people because of irresponsible parents and even for adults this kind of game almost certainly takes its tole on the subconscious mind.

A normal human mind is not designed to indiscriminately kill and witness such an abundance of violence. Naturally we are designed to be peaceful and relatively non confrontational.

The slogan for the game is "Crime does pay". How can that be justified in a world that needs to progress and become crime free?

On the other hand you have games like pokemon! :)

These are good because they are very friendly, fun, and somewhat complex. They are a good escape from day to day stress and a good mental workout, with minimal violence.

It serves many people well who are introvert or have mental health problems. It is also a good sense of community like this one and is a creative outlet that requires logical thought and strategy. Overall just a very good, easily justifiable, fun activity for people to enjoy.

So many games revolve around violence these days that it saddens me. Why does it always have to be about who can kill the most people or who can cause the most damage? Where is the love!? :)

Mini Muffins said:

My answer is that some video games are bad and some are good, in moderation.

Take a game like GTA 5. This is not good for society. The game is jam packed with profanity, torture, murder, drugs, prostitution and mindless violence. This kind of stuff should not exist in society, period.

Why should this kind of recreation be allowed? The aim of the game is murder to make money, it really doesn't send a good message to anyone playing it, which unfortunately is a lot of young people because of irresponsible parents and even for adults this kind of game almost certainly takes its tole on the subconscious mind.

A normal human mind is not designed to indiscriminately kill and witness such an abundance of violence. Naturally we are designed to be peaceful and relatively non confrontational.

The slogan for the game is "Crime does pay". How can that be justified in a world that needs to progress and become crime free?

On the other hand you have games like pokemon! :)

These are good because they are very friendly, fun, and somewhat complex. They are a good escape from day to day stress and a good mental workout, with minimal violence.

It serves many people well who are introvert or have mental health problems. It is also a good sense of community like this one and is a creative outlet that requires logical thought and strategy. Overall just a very good, easily justifiable, fun activity for people to enjoy.

So many games revolve around violence these days that it saddens me. Why does it always have to be about who can kill the most people or who can cause the most damage? Where is the love!? :)

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Yes, so bad are the violent video games that since their inception and implementation violent crime rates and murder rates in the United States have been decreasing since the 90's, which is when they first come around.

Funny how that works.

CarcharOdin said:

Yes, so bad are the violent video games that since their inception and implementation violent crime rates and murder rates in the United States have been decreasing since the 90's, which is when they first come around.

Funny how that works.

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It's hard to say whether or not video games have had an influence on crime levels since the 90's. There have obviously been many other improvements in the United States since the 90's such as the introduction of the internet, school systems improving, youth clubs opening, etc.

Attributing the decrease of violent crime solely to the release of violent video games is a pretty bad argument, especially with no evidence that points towards violent video games decreasing violent behavior but on the contrary there is some evidence to suggest that violent video games may increase violent behavior, especially in younger generations who are at risk because of poor parenting.

Thus without any concrete evidence to support your argument, I think it's is easy to agree that we can only use common sense as a guide here and logically, subjecting people to monumental amounts of profanity, violence and aggression is not in societies best interest with regards to decreasing violent crime rates.

Think about a world where there is no violent movies, no violent games, no violent music and swearing and glorification of gangsters and drugs.

You're trying to tell me that by systematically eliminating each of those things, that wouldn't make a difference to the average quality of an individual American?

And furthermore, if this stuff had never surfaced for consumers, crime rates would probably plummet over the course of the last 24 years in comparison to the decrease you previously mentioned, in my opinion.