Gaming theories essay

A recurring question that is frequently asked is do video games contribute

to violence in people. From my research I have gathered that is yes video
games do have a part to play in in violence however I do not feel that they
are solely to blame for how people react to them. There is more than one
factor to take into account for example personality traits, upbringing etc.

The first violent encounter due to video games that researched was the
Norwegian massacre in 22 July 2011. In this article that I found on the
Norwegian mass murder by Anders Breivik who killed 77 people after
using call of duty 4: modern warfare to train himself to brutally
assassinate so many innocent people. It was said that he spent around 16
months preparing himself for what he had planned for his disgraceful
massacre which he was later to commit. He later said in court that he
would "do it all again because my actions were motivated by goodness
not evil. Breivik showed no remorse for his actions and continued to pin
the blame on the Norwegian Labour party for imposing multiculturalism on
his country. Breivik said he could not plead guilty for he had "acted to
defend my country". However yes however awful the murders were I cant
fully blame the cause of the killings solely on the fact that he played video
games to train himself. From more research on the account I found out
that he had previously been in the army so did have prior training in how
to kill multiple people and how to do so in a the fashion that he did so, not
only had he been in the army but he did in fact also had a very troubled
upbringing in where after his parents divorced when he was a year old (he
remained with his mother) his father fought for custody but failed. At the
age of four reports were filed expressing concern on his mental health and
also saying that they though he should be removed from parental care.
Over the course of his school years many more reports were made on his
behaviour claiming that he had a peculiar smile (not anchored in his
emotions but was rather a deliberate response to his environment)
another one of his psychologists stated that his mother sexualised him,
and often told him that she wished he was dead. There were many more
claims to his upbringing over the years. So in many ways I feel that his
violent streak may also have come from how he was treated as a child.
From this research if I had to classify him the uses of gratification theories
he would be possibly be classed a passive user has he used video games

to inspire him on how to out go his plan on his killings ad to help him
rather than using the games and building up anger it was already in his
mind and I feel that by having access to these games helped him in fact to
carry out his plan and better
himself at what he already
knew he was planning on
doing.
Some people blamed the
media for this because of
him watching and playing
such violent video games.
This is I feel is more an
example of hypodermic and
reception theory as because
his potentially bad
upbringing and because of
his surroundings by watching
and playing this violent
games it was injected into
his mind that was he was
doing wasnt bad and didnt
see anything wrong with
what he was doing. He
himself even admitting into
overdosing on video games,
but is this just societies way
of covering human
dysfunction.
Other research that I gathered on a different case on Alayiah Turman the
17 month old little girl who was brutally beaten to death by Tyrone
Spellman by cracking her head several times while her mother slept in
the other room. It was said during the court case that the sickening attack
that was carried out "with a wickedness of disposition, a hardness of heart
and extreme indifference" to the impact such a battering would have, this
was said by prosecutor James Berardinelli. Spellman during his statement
told the prosecutors that little babys head cracked like a walnut. It was
also said that the reason behind his attack was because he thought she
broke his brothers 600 dollar Xbox and he didnt have the money to pay
his brother back. After being found guilty he has been convicted of third
degree murder as well as child endangerment and now faces up to 47
years in prison.

The denfeses attorney attempted to

cast suspicion onto Mia Turman who
has a history of neglect. It was said
that the offender would spend up to
7 hours a day playing the Xbox. I
feel that in this case that this player
was more active than passive as he
acted on his violence.
For this particular incident I believe
uses and gratification theory plays
a huge part in this, as this man
killed his toddler daughter over the
fact that he felt important when
playing these games and when they
were taken away from him he
reacted in a way in which a drug
addict would when not being able
to have what they want and he
used what he had played on his
violent video games on his
daughter to take out his frustrations.
From my research on both cases I feel that yes violent video games do
influence the minder of the player I dont feel that it is just because of
video games that people become violent. I feel that a lot goes to the
upbringing of a person and goes to how they are as a person sometimes
all thig will tie altogether times it will be due to factors outside of video
games -that they are just that way in nature.