Violence in Video Games

[Lipstick Vogue]

Violence in video games is super cool and there should be more of it.

 

[strangerhypno]

Don't mind violence in games and I don't think it has a notable effect on people. Slightly related but I think video games makes kids even more annoying than they already are. Like it amplifies their already short attention span and impatience. And it's especially irritating when they think they're cool for playing some game that's deemed violent.

 

[Resolve]

Debates like these still exist? lol.

I don't get why video games are being singled out for violence when it's just another medium to project it like every other media. Like the majority says, we have ratings to assess such.

 

[Enpatsu Shakugan]

Like the majority says, we have ratings to assess such.

Sadly though, ratings don't actually do much. Try going to a community with any M-rated popular franchise and it's a guarantee most of the members there will be 12 and under.

I met a 15 year old gamer kid a few years ago, whose mom bought him any and every M-rated game he wanted. Ratings don't mean crap when your parents don't care. They'll just buy it for you.

 

[ErM]

I do not think banning violence in video games really serves a purpose. There are studies that show video games don't cause all of that real violence. I think there is merit to limiting exposure to really young kids though!

 

[LDSman]

Debates like these still exist? lol.

I don't get why video games are being singled out for violence when it's just another medium to project it like every other media. Like the majority says, we have ratings to assess such.

Low hanging fruit. It's easier to blame an outside thing like a game than admit that some parents suck at child rearing. Really easy when some of the games blamed are very gory.

 

[Trev]

It seems like it's really hard for people to label bad parenting or a terrible life as the cause of real-world violence. People tend to fall back on either "it was x thing" or "they were insane!!1!" I honestly think it's because addressing the conditions that would compel a person to enact large-scale or even small-scale violence forces people to address complex problems with our society and how it affects individuals, and I don't think people really want to do that because they might have to admit even a tiny amount of responsibility if they contributed to an aspect of society that might have encouraged someone to act violently.

 

[Enpatsu Shakugan]

It seems like it's really hard for people to label bad parenting or a terrible life as the cause of real-world violence. People tend to fall back on either "it was x thing" or "they were insane!!1!" I honestly think it's because addressing the conditions that would compel a person to enact large-scale or even small-scale violence forces people to address complex problems with our society and how it affects individuals, and I don't think people really want to do that because they might have to admit even a tiny amount of responsibility if they contributed to an aspect of society that might have encouraged someone to act violently.

Adding to the fact that video games are extremely common now, so it makes them an easier scapegoat.

For an example, they later search the dorm room of a student who shot a few other students. They find a copy of GTA V, despite the fact that game would be in at least 50% of all students' rooms, on a bad day, they go "AH HA, IT WAS THIS GAME THAT CAUSED IT!" And disregard the real factors.

To me that's like blaming a tube of toothpaste (that everyone else also has) on someone's behavior.

 

[MortalPhoenix]

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.

I take the free market stance on this one. Just require Video Game companies to label their products properly, and let the consumers decide what they want. If X product with lots of violence does well, then clear there were consumers that want it. However, if it doesn't do well, then video game companies will be less likely to produce said product.

 

[twocows]

I strongly disagree with Trump on this and I suspect many other people do as well, including people from all different political backgrounds.

This is a tired argument that I'm honestly sick of hearing. It's the umpteenth iteration of an ages old response to anything new and scary. You saw this crap decades ago with "the rock music" being the cause of all society's ills and the ancient cavemen probably believed "the stick flame" was an affront to the gods or something. It's a dumb argument with no basis in reality (which is made abundantly clear by the wealth of data available) and it only comes up because it's a convenient argument for the people making it: something they're afraid of, don't understand, and probably actively dislike gets to be the cause of some much more severe problem. Win-win for them, truth be damned.

Dumb arguments like this do nothing but derail more reasonable discussion and investigation into the causes of and possible solutions to issues like this. If we didn't have to keep talking about things that are obviously nonsense, we could be that much closer to preventing it from happening again, and this is coming from a very strong Second Amendment supporter. I'd be perfectly happy if I never had to hear this stale line of reasoning again for the rest of my life.

But then I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

 

[Altairis]

If violence in video games was actually a problem there would be higher rates of crime in the target ages, but I believe it has actually gone down, I can find sources later when I have my computer.

Adults just believe that it is a problem because they also forget that with mainstream media we now are told every single tragedy and large act of violence almost immediately and we can access this information easily. Because these issues are now being reported on and spread due to technology, it SEEMS to them like violence is increasing, because they never used to hear about shootings and such all the time but in reality they were still happening but the info didn't travel as fast or wide.

 

[tranceking26]

I have the ability to switch between violent video games and a normal life, as do most other gamers right.

Two separate things.