Violence & video games: The good, the bad and the ugly
A lot of people play video games nowadays. And the most controversial topic relating to these is of course the high level of violence they usually contain.
Taking a game like Grand Theft Auto, the concerns seem to be justified. The game involves players killing innocent onlookers, meeting prostitutes and joy riding. Ok so you have the choice if you want to or not. But the fact the game allows you to do so and even rewards you kinda gives out a dangerous message. Although I’ll admit that if you go on a shooting spree you’ll pretty much end up in jail or in hospital. But hey all you have to do is pay a bribe, give up your weapons and you’ll be back on the streets of GTA to do it all over again.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
I work at Blockbuster Entertainment I am not a gamer of any proportion but I do see the effect that these violent games have on children, although its hard to say wether they are gangster wannabes because of the games, or ifs its just been their upbringing
August 21st, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Difficult to know where to start with this article.
1. Did horrible violence and lawlessness in society exist before videogames?
2. Is it right to censor games if only a minority are ‘influenced’ in a negative way, what about books, audio and videos, films etc. where do we stop? All of these can be proven to have similar if not worse violence levels and have been influences on crime as well.
It is the minority being influenced who need help earlier in being identified and treated.
3. I love many types of videogames (including GTA). I’ve played them since I was a teen and now in my thirties I enjoy them as much as ever.
I’m married, have plenty of friends, go out to enjoy ‘normal’ activities as much as the next person does and do lots of useful things with my time but videogames is rightly part of this. Should I and others similar (the majority of gamers) be denied this right?
All Games nowadays like GTA carry age guidance just like films, The irresponsibility is of parents who buy unsuitable games for their children and shops who get away selling them.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:38 am
If video games have such an impact on people minds and influence them to do things they don’t want to do, then all of us who having playing video games for last 10-15 years should have been going around the house eating things incessantly (i’m referring to Miss Pacman) or back and forth going bing..bing..
Having said that when I hear my 12 year old brother say “now that you’ve had sex with the hooker, you can kill her and take her money” (we were playing GTA by the way), back be wanna go back and forth in the room going bing..bing.. (that bing is me baching my head against the wall).