Lantzy 1

Zack Lantzy April 19March 15, 20143 English Campbell

Case Closed: The Innocence of Violent Video Games One1 billion dollars. That is how much money Grand Theft Auto V made during its first three days of release. The game was so popular that it broke the world record for fastest selling item in entertainment history. According to Owen, Aas of February 3, 2014, there have been 29 million copies of Grand Theft Auto V sold (Owen). However, these numbers have some parents and politicians shaking in their boots. Many people are afraid that the extreme sales of such a violent game will lead to the explicit content falling into the wrong hands. The worry here brings up a very important question: Should video games be blamed for violent crimes? Or are there other causes that lead to the crimes? Many criminal acts have been blamed on video games in the past. Recently, an eight8 year old boy shot and killed his 90 year old sitter after playing Grand Theft Auto IV. The news immediately jumped on the game, blaming it for the crime, and said that the game has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people (Russel). However, did the news question why such a young boy had access to a Mature (17+) video game, let alone a fully loaded firearm? No, they did not. The news constantly feeds people information that violent video games make people more violent in real life, and they are always supported by a child psychologist or another person that evaluates situations like this. In 2008, Fox News had a segment where they talked about the newly released game Mass Effect, saying
Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic Formatted: Font: Italic

Lantzy 2

that it allowed players to engage in graphic sex, and that it was marketed towards teenagers and kids. Fox News had two representatives for this segment; a game expert and a psychology specialist. The psychology specialist stated that kids are the ones playing video games today, not their parents. She also stated that as a result, kids will be the ones to see full nudity and engage in graphic sex. However, all of these statements are false. Mass Effect only contains partial nudity, not full nudity as suggested on Fox News. The age of gamers was also completely incorrect. The average age of gamers is 37, and most have been playing games for about 12 years (Top 10 Gamer Facts). Therefore, it is the parents that are playing these games, not children. Perhaps most important, however, is the psychology specialist admitted to never playing Mass Effect in her life, yet was still on the air critiquing it. Having never played a certain video game, it is hard to critique it for explicit content without knowing for a fact that the game contains it, evident here at the false accusations. Following this trend, Tthere was a story on the DC shooting, where a gunman named Aaron Alexis shot and killed 12 people during his rampage. Fox News focused on the fact that he played violent First Person Shooter video games, but the gunmans father was never quoted talking about video games. He mentioned that his son suffered from anger problems related to post-traumatic stress from the 9-11 attacks. His neighbors were also reported as saying they liked Aaron and he was a nice person (DC GunmanFoxNews). The PTS due to 9-11 sounds more serious than playing violent video games, but the news barely touched on it. They were focused more on the video games. Video games get a lot of bashing from people who watch the news and do not know any better, due to the biased opinions fed to them by the news. Similar to the Fox News story on Mass Effect, statements made about the content in Grand Theft Auto IV are completely falseOften times, the person talking about the game says things about it that are

Lantzy 3

is false. I own a copy of the game, and there is no scoring system present anywhere that is related to killingpresent anywhere in the game. That being said, Grand Theft Auto IV is most meant for children. The game allows you to kill innocent civilians, contains scenes of partial nudity, has a lot of bad language, and wraps it all together with a very dark and mature story. However, no scoring system is present within the game. The false claims about Grand Theft Auto IV really give off the impression that the people critiquing are just going by popular belief, and have never actually experienced the game for themselves. On the other hand of the debate, the gamers know exactly what is in the game, so they can defend the game by pointing out false claims about it. Gamers dont pretend to be psychologists on the air, so why do psychologists pretend to be gamers? Being a gamer, I have taken great interest in the topic, and am curious to know if video games do cause people to become more violent in real life. It was initially accepted that

playing lots of violent video games waswere related to violence in real life, but recent studies have disproved the older studies that claim they do, and have related the aggression to other causes. . Other studies have even proved the opposite effect in people. A recent study done by Drs. Christopher Ferguson and Cheryl Olson has shown that people with depression or ADD actually demonstratedshowed that they were slightly calmed by playing violent video games. It also seemed to help reduce bullying and aggressive behavior. The researchers concluded that there is no correlation between the playing of violent video games and increased violent behavior in the world (Nauert). SOther statistics disprove the link between video games and real world violence as well. Although many reports say that criminals play video games, it has been shown that 72 percent, or

Lantzy 4

almost three out of four, American households play video games. Therefore, it is likely that a criminal plays video games. Criminal activity has also been decreasing steadily since the 1990s, while video games have grown more and more popular. The same games are also sold overseas, and the violent crime there is much lower than it is here. This suggests that the real problem lies elsewhere, such as the availability of guns or the background of the criminal (Video Game Voters). Video game consoles now have parental controls available, meaning that a parent or guardian can set the console to block explicit content. If someone tries to put in and play a game with content blocked by the parental controls, it will not work. Many cases involving a criminal act and video games often involve an individual who is mentally handicapped or unstable. For example, the Virginia Tech Massacre. Shooter SeungHui Cho, was deemed mentally ill and in need of hospitalization (Potter and Schoetz). Even the infamous Columbine Shooting has been blamed on video games by some people. The shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were diagnosed by the FBI as being depressed and psychopathic. The fact that they enjoyed the 1993 shooter Doom caused some blame to be placed on the video game industry. But the fact that the shooters were psychopathic and depressed should remain the biggest factor. The debate on whether violent video games make people more violent is very common, and leads to a lot of questions. Not all of the questions asked are scientific based, though. A common question is whether or not it is fair to blame a video game for a crime, or if we should look in to other factors that could have led to the crime? Some people wonder if it is fair to blame a video for crime when a person that is mentally unstable or extremely impressionable is the one playing it. The most common defense for game controversy is that the parents should know what their children are playing. If it is not something meant for their childs age group, it

Lantzy 5

is their responsibility to take the game away and not let them play it. Going back to the 8 year old boy shooting his sitter, the claims against Grand Theft Auto IV angered many gamers. people said that the game caused the boy to shoot his sitter. However, many gamers did not agree with the claims, and thought that other factors were to blame. First of all, the game is rated M for Mature, meaning that in order to buy the game the child would have needed to be accompanied by someone 18 years of age or older. And while the game may have inspired the boy to kill, why was he allowed to play such an adult-themed game? The biggest question of all, however, is why an 8 year old boy had full access to a loaded gun? This raises the question on whether it is actually the parents fault for the killing, as they did absolutely nothing to prevent this child from seeing explicit content at an impressionable age and left a gun out easily accessible. But just what exactly are the impressionable years? Can they vary from child to child, or from person to person? The impressionable years are when people can be influenced or have their attitude changed by someone or something, such as a video game. Young children can be easily influenced by something they see, and often do not know the consequences of repeating the action. For example, the young boy playing Grand Theft Auto. He was playing an extremely mature game at a young, impressionable age, and as a result, repeated the actions of the video game expecting there to be little consequences. At first glance, this may seem like the video games fault, but is it really? Millions and millions of people play this game, and so few ever do anything as a result. The real question should be in why he was allowed to play such a mature game at a young age, where he cannot easily tell the difference between fantasy and the real world. The game should have been kept away from him until he was old enough to process it and know that performing these actions in the real world will lead to severe consequences.

Lantzy 6

When adults play this game, they know that they cannot go out in the real world and act like a character from Grand Theft Auto. Games like this need to be kept away from kids until they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. But kids do mature at different ages, so one person may be ready to handle the game where as others are not. That is why it is the parents decision to make sure their children are playing video games that they know are appropriate. As you can see, video game violence is a very complex subject. Most recent studies show that there is no correlation between video game violence and real world violence. However, there are a lot of other questions surrounding the topic, such as if parents are the ones to blame for poor precautionary measures? Most of the studies done are on teens and college aged kids, because they are out of the impressionable years. But with a kid so young, it would the parents responsibility to keep explicit content away from them so they do not encourage the child to misbehave and commit violent acts. With many studies disproving any correlation between real world violence and video game playing, it seems that it is up to the parents to keep video games away from their kids until they are ready to handle the explicit content. There are many options available to parents that exist to help them shield their children from explicit content, yet some parents still take no action. It is not right to blame the video game manufacturer for making a game intended for mature audiences when a minor plays it. That is the parents fault, not the video game itself. Video games exist as a form of entertainment, not a murder simulator. The video games themselves do not make people violent; the problem lies within the people that play them that should not be playing them. Some people are just not going to be able to handle mature games, such as people with mental illness. People will mental illness are not going to be able to process the content like other people can, and as a result, will react to it differently. People like this should be kept away from mature and intense video games for

Lantzy 7

their safety and the safety of others. But this doesnt mean that the video game is to blame if it is played by the wrong person. The blame should be placed on the person who is supposed to keep content like this away from them. Whether it is a small child or an adult that cannot handle the explicit content, it is up to the caretaker to make sure they are playing games with content that the can handle.

"DC gunman obsessed with violent video games, reports say." FoxNews. N.p., 17 Septe 2013. Web. 19 Mar 2014. Fahey, Mike. "It's Video Game Competition, Not Violence, That Sparks Aggression." Kotaku. Nick Denton, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. <>.. .Ingham, Tim. "Mass Effect sex scandal 'embarassed' Fox News - Bioware." Computer and Games. Future Publishing, 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. Nauert, Rick. "In New Study, Video Games Not Tied to Violence in High-Risk Youth." PychCentral. N.p., 27 Augus 2013. Web. 19 Mar 2014. <http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/08/27/in-new-study-video-games-not-tied-toviolence-in-high-risk-youth/58934.html>. Owen, Phil. "GTA 5 has sold-in 29 million copies; more Take-Two financial results here." VG24/7. N.p.Pat Garratt, 29 Octob 2013. Web. 19 Mar 2014. <http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/29/gta-5-has-sold-29-million-copies/>.

Lantzy 8

<http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3052278>. game." CNN. N.p., 26 Augus 2013. Web. 19 Mar 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/louisiana-boy-kills-grandmother/>.