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I was unsure if this should go to Homework Help. If it does then just move it.
I got my big project for one of my classes. We have to make a 10 minute movie or higher so I chose to do a documentary on "Does Violence In Video Games Encourage Children To Act Violent?" I'm trying to prove it isn't. I wanna ask anyone if they wanna volunteer to give their opinion so I could use it in my movie. Any help would be great.
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Sure man.
Violence in gaming is not directly connected to violence in real life.
Individuals who exhibit violent tendencies are more often than not predisposed to this action, and the media they consume will not change that fact. This issue has cropped up many times over the years. "Do movies make us violent" "Does this music make us sadists", etc. Really, its such a common trend to blame new mediums and medias for the problems of a generation as opposed to the root cause that you could make an ad-lib (or whatever it is those fill in the blank sheets are called) and you probably would find something that has been asked. No, video games don't make us violent if they're violent. By that logic, I should be a national leader because I play Civilization, or a chef because of Cooking Mama, or the devil because I played Dungeon Keeper, or a warlock because I play World of Warcraft, an architect from Minecraft, a city planner from Sim City, a mushroom dropping plumber from Mario, etc.
In synopsis, games do not directly lead to violence in humans. There is an underlying cause, and if the event occurs to a child, it is the parents and community at fault.
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I think it all depends on individual differences, education from parents, peers (friends/family) and a person's environment.
The first truly violent game my parents got me was GTA San Andreas. My personality didn't change one bit because I played it.
I often play violent games, but I'm a very peaceful and happy chap who hates violence IRL.
A point I would make, is that many people like to channel anger into a violent video game, shooting up people on screen rather than beating up someone IRL. There will always be the outlying cases who then go on and be violent IRL, but that's always the case for everything.
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Don't know if you still need opinions but I'm throwing this in. I did a similar paper about 3+ yrs ago for my Intro to Psyche class. One thing I regret not including when it dawned on me was the concept of the "magic circle"
This video explains it better:
In my opinion, with the concept of the magic circle, you basically step into a fantasy world of play and when you are done you step back into reality or real life.
If a person does commit a violent act based off what they saw in a video game, it isn't the game's fault. They are either mentally disturbed already and can't separate from fantasy and reality or they can but chose to be an asshole and do something violent and stupid. Either way, the video game is blameless.
In my own personal experience I've played tons of violent games some ranging from cartoonish violence all the way to blood and gore. I've always been able to tell the difference between what is the real physical world and the world of fantasy/virtual reality.....unless you are watching ReBoot then all the rules get screwed.
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"Of course not, that's dumb." -Arjahn, 2014
No but in all seriousness, the assumption that videogames cause violence in kids is just a bunch of scaremongering bullsh*t based in misconceptions and absurdly broad generalizations designed to appeal to overly sensitive parents who have minimal knowledge of the subject. Videogames are just the new boogeyman for easily swayed people to point at as a cause of mental health issues and violent crimes.
There's a good episode of Penn and Teller about it, I'll link it below.
WARNING, EXPLICIT AS FUCK
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Thanks everyone for the help you've been giving me. Past days I've had to read many controversies regarding video game violence and I must say it's sad. If a kid does something violent that gets the media's attention they immediately point their fingers at video games. There was once a case where this guy killed his friend by putting him in a headlock and stabbing him repeatedly. Their excuse on why he did that..... he was influenced by Mortal Kombat 3 and Cyrax's fatality meanwhile if anyone has ever seen Cyrax's fatality in MK3 they know that his fatalities involve him blowing up the earth or himself. The media finds every excuse to blame video games especially Jack Thompson and Fox News. Don't even get started on Jack Thompson........
