Adkins 1 Dylan Adkins Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 October 31, 2013 Violent Games: Violent Life

I walk back to my apartment right after a class with an annoying professor, I head straight for the Xbox because all I want to do is shoot someones face in Call of Duty to get all of my frustrations out. Two hours later I am still playing, madder than I was when I first started playing and much more aggressive. I notice that now I am even acting mean towards roommates even though they have not done single thing to provoke me. This has become the norm not only for myself, but many young people throughout the world today. With this in mind, I intend to argue that there does seem to be a correlation between violent video games, especially first-person shooter video games, and violence in young people. History of the Video Game The first video game that you could play at home was released in 1975; it was called Pong (Pong Power). It was a huge hit and everyone rushed to get the new and exciting game. From there home consoles and personal video games evolved dramatically in a very short amount of time. This innovation is epitomized in 1993 with the release of Doom, the first first-person shooter video game (Doom). The purpose of this new genre of video game was to make the person that was playing feel as if they are actually in the game doing all the activities the character is doing. In more recent years

Adkins 2 first-person shooters have become so realistic that at times it is hard to decipher whether you are playing a game or actual doing it yourself. Some modern video games even make the controller vibrate and make blood spray on the screen as if it were in your face when you are shot or injured. Video games would never be the same after the release Doom and all other first-person shooter games quickly became one of the most popular genres of video games (Doom). In 1994 the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an organization designed to assign content and age ratings to computer and video games in the United States and Canada, was established in response to the violent content that was found in some video games, such as Doom and Mortal Combat (Entertainment Software). The decision was made to start the ESRB after video games became less pixelated because blood could now be seen as more realistic, where it used to just look blocky and sometimes unrecognizable (Entertainment Software). ESRB defines its Mature category as content is generally suitable for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language (ESRB Rating). This is the rating given to most violent video games today and to purchase these games you are required to show proof of age while purchasing them, however, in my personal experience I have rarely been asked to show identification. This shows me that stores and the ESRB do not have strict enough policies when it comes to buying these games and they are letting anyone purchase these violent games and they are potentially adding to the violent behaviors of young people. Noticing a Problem

Adkins 3 Video games have been linked to many domestic terrorist attacks over the years, the most recent being the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Brandon Kiem, a PBS reporter, claims that Adam Lanza, the man who killed 26 women and children in Newtown, was a frequent Call of Duty player (Kiem). This was not the first time that violent video games may have played a part in a terrible school shooting; in 1999 two students from a Colorado high school killed 13 fellow students and teachers. The two students responsible reportedly played a lot of violent video games including Doom and Mortal Combat (Columbine High). Kiem also reports that the first-person shooter games alone are a $5 billion dollar industry and that these games are enjoyed by millions of people everyday (Kiem). Although it has become a harsh reality that violent, deadly attacks can be correlated, and likely enhanced by violent video games this is not a typical result (Kiem). I have personally played both Call of Duty and Doom, and after playing them I did feel angrier and easily annoyed. It does not help that both of these games are highly addictive, Ive played and watched kids play them for multiple hours without even realizing. According to the 2000 Senate hearing, The Impact of Interactive Violence on Children, young people who played violent video games are nearly 20% more likely to react aggressively when provoked than those who did not play violent video games on a regular basis (Anderson). Researchers also found that there was a 13-22% of variance in the relationship of violent behavior and violent video game exposure (Anderson). This is clear evidence there is a correlation between violent video games and young people committing acts of violence.

Adkins 4 Biological Evidence There has been very little biological research done concerning violence in video games and the way your brain reacts, but a study at a university in German has recently discovered that parts of the brain react differently in people who play video games and those who do not. The University of Bonn did an experiment on 40 people between the ages 20 and 30, half of the participants played violent video games and the other half had no contact with video games whatsoever (Montag). The test primarily consisted of pictures of disasters or terrible accidents being shown to the participants. Both groups brains reacted similarly when it came to the part of the brain that dealt with strong negative emotions, however, the video playing game subjects brains barely responded in the part of the brain that controls fear and aggression at all (Montag). First-person shooters do not respond as strongly to the real, negative image material because they are used to it from their daily computer activities. One might also say that they are more desensitized than the control group, according to Dr. Christian Montag, Biological Psychology professor at the University of Bonn (Montag). This desensitization may very well be the reason that young people seem to be more prone to act violently, in the most extreme cases by killing innocent people, than generations of the past (Montag). More and more young people are simply trying to live life like a video game and have the mentality that there will not be any real consequences for any of their actions, some of these young people even going as far as believing that nothing they do can actually kill them.

Adkins 5 The Other Side There are some arguments that violent video games do not actually make its players more violent in real life. Elizabeth Carll, Dmitri Williams, and Kevin Kieffer, members of the American Psychological Association, conducted an experiment to see what happened to violent video gamers over an extended period of time (DeNoon). This study was based on a particular violent role-playing game called Asherons Call 2. The study consisted of 213 participants with an average age of 28 (DeNoon). 75 of the participants played AC2 while the others were used as a comparison group. The participants had never played the game before the experiment began but by the end many were playing over 5 hours a week, the minimum time participants had to play the game (DeNoon). After a month of game play the participants had not become more aggressive. "For aggression, I found really nothing," says researcher Dmitri Williams, "This is in terms of the acceptability of aggression as a way to solve problems, how often they got into arguments with a spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend, or how often they got speeding tickets. We used both attitude and behavioral measures," (qtd in DeNoon). These results show that the majority of people may not respond more aggressively after game play but there are certain situations where some people may get consumed by the game and have a very different result. I do not believe that playing violent video games can affect everyone for the long run, but I believe that even after playing games for a couple hours young people are more prone to act violently towards other people, at least for a couple hours after finishing playing the games. James Fox, a professor at Northeastern University, told Daily News that video games do not cause people to be more violent but instead people who are violent tend to

Adkins 6 be attracted to violent forms of entertainment (Fox). Fox claims that playing these violent video games is a symptom of a deeper social or mental illness. He claims that violent video games have just been a scapegoat for media and the general public rather than an actual problem (Fox). I do believe that some people with violent attitudes do seek out violent entertainment but can someone really say that without these video games to enhance some of these violent tendencies shootings like the one at Columbine or the shooting in Newport, Connecticut would have still occurred? People with social issues or other mental problems are now living out violent acts while they play these violent games, and without this other persona that they have from playing video games a lot of violent crimes may not have been committed. Potential Benefits Some researchers also believe that video games have benefits that greatly outweigh the potential negative side effects of video games (Stienburg). The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences president, Joseph Olin, believes that "Games are an amazing invention that entertain and inform in ways different than traditional media, but many critics have little or any experience with them and therefore don't understand where there could be artistic or educational value. (qtd in Steinburg) Olin claims that the brain stimulation that occurs from playing video games greatly outweighs the stimulation that happens through other types of media (Steinburg). Therefore, Olin believes that even though games can be harmful to a select few most people only get healthy benefits from playing video games. I do believe that video games can be helpful in a few different ways, such as stimulating brain activity and improving hand-eye coordination, but there will always be a select few who cannot separate the virtual from the reality. These select

Adkins 7 group of people who cannot separate the two are the ones who cause who tragedies that kill multiple people, and I believe that it is not worth the risk of having these violent games on the market and risk have more attacks like the one in Newtown, Connecticut occur. Conclusion Violence consumes everyone from the time they are born in this generation, from television shows to music, and violent video games are one of the major contributors to the violence young people are exposed to. People taking on a second persona with such realistic attributes begin to consume young people and in some cases makes it difficult for people to draw the line between reality and fiction. Popularity of video games is increasing ever year, especially violent video games, and it is causing young people to get more and more consumed by the violence. With this in mind, I believe that it is a necessity that video games become more restricted and take on a less realistic and less violent gameplay before more people become even more violent.

Adkins 8 Works Cited Anderson, Craig A. The Impact of Interactive Violence on Children. U.S. Senate Hearing (2000). 1-6. Web. "Columbine High School Massacre." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. DeNoon, Daniel J. "Do Video Games Really Spark Bad Behavior?" Fox News. FOX News Network, 19 Aug. 2005. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. "Doom (video Game)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. "Entertainment Software Rating Board." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Apr. 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013 "ESRB Ratings Guide." Rating Categories, Content Descriptors, and Interactive Elements from ESRB. Entertainment Software Rating Board, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2013. Fox, James A. "Expert: Banning Violent Video Games Would Do Little to Avert the next Mass Murder." NY Daily News. 24 March 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. Keim, Brandon. "What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence." PBS. PBS, 28 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. Montag, Christian, Dr. "Violent Games Emotionally Desensitizing." Universitt Bonn. University of Bonn, 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. "Pong Power!" Classic Gaming RSS. Web. 30 Oct. 2013. Steinberg, Scott. "Why Does the Media Still Think Video Games Are Bad for Kids?" CNN. Cable News Network, 28 July 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.