Jade Cuevas

Professor Eva Pohler

WRC 1023-057
26 February 2014
Video Games: Advocating Animosity
In September 2013, the popular video game Grand Theft Auto V, made waves
throughout the country through social media and news outlets. Getting the game was a
journey within itself, as most patrons had to wait hours upon hours just to get into a video
game store and buy it. With all this ruckus, what exactly is Grand Theft Auto V? Grand
Theft Auto V is a video game in which a player takes on the character of a criminal in an
open-world environment where almost total anarchy ensues. Everything from gunfights,
gangs, prostitutes, domestic violence, and more is all included in this video game.
Despite the obvious adult themes, people of all ages and genders want it- especially
children. Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked is an article by
Henry Jenkins whom addresses eight commonly rumored thoughts about video games
and explains why they are untrue. Video games promote violence in youth considering
that the video game market is too directed to adults and discourage real-life interaction.
Jenkins starts off Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked
with a general opening statement of, A large gap exists between the publics perception
of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to
separate fact from fiction, stating exactly the main purpose of the article (449). Jenkins
then starts off his list of myths by saying it is untrue that the availability of video games
has promoted youth violence. He explains that putting the blame on video games is not

actually addressing the real issues that cause violence in youth. The second myth Jenkins
debunks is the common thought that a video game can make a person aggressive by
saying that scientific research only shows a correlation of aggression in people to video
games versus a causal relation. The third myth of dealing with children being the primary
market for video games, Jenkins gives statistics proving that adults are actually the main
market, and that violent video games are usually trickled down to children through most
adults. The fourth myth deals with the role of female video gamers, with Jenkins showing
that they make up a majority amount of the gaming community and stating that video
games empower females. In the fifth myth about video games training kids to be like
soldiers, Jenkins shows that the games soldiers must use to train and the games on the
market have two completely different subjects, therefore not training children. The sixth
myth of video games not being a proper form of expression, Jenkins explains that
choosing what happens to a character and treatment of the situation is a form of
expression. The seventh myth stating that gaming is socially isolating is where Jenkins
debunks it by discussing the world of gaming and the community that comes with it. The
last myth stating that video games cause desensitizing, Jenkins describes how the human
mind naturally knows the difference between play combat and actual combative violence,
overall ending his list.
The first reason video games promote violence in youth is due to the fact that the
video game market is too directed towards adults. Military-style games are especially
popular; not only promoting violence, but also showing war can easily be an answer to
opposing countries. In Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked
Jenkins states Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market

is age 18 or older (450). With such a high percentage, the majority of these games are
bound to contain adult content. With that in mind, the fact that this percentage is so high,
the most popular games on the market will be adult-themed. Due to the popularity of
these video games, children will have the adults in there lives- the main people they look
up to and tend to mimic- play these games when they are not at the proper mental state.
Jenkins claims that the fault to this should also be placed on parents and advertisers, but
what about the video game market? Why should the majority of video games be adult
themed, leaving youth with little variety of non-adult video games to choose from? The
second reason video games promote violence in youth is that they discourage real-life
interaction. Though the world of gaming has its own community and social networks
through modern technology, in the real world, technology-based communication simply
will not get you by. In fact, most college students these days must rely on communication
and networking to get through life and find jobs after their studies. If youth are not
experiencing that now, it will make it that much harder for them to find a job in the
future. As well, when youth start to solely play video games and stay away from the
world false perceptions can occur. This has been the case commonly with things like
public shootings. These two reasons of a too adult themed video game market and
discouragement of face-to-face interaction lead to why video games cause violence in
youth.

Works Cited
Jenkins, Henry. Reality Bytes: Eight Myths about Video Games Debunked. Writing
Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. Ed. John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, and
June Johnson. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. 449-452. Print.