Games and violence

General Forums Off-topic Chat
1

Last Sunday I read from somewhere, that a couple of teenage boys had been shooting at cars passing by, causing the death of a 45-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman was wounded. They said that they got the idea from Grand Theft Auto-game.

Another thing I read was that a mother left her 3 years old daughter in a car while she went to play EverQuest. The car had no air conditioning, so the daughter died.

Now people are blaming videogames for the violence. This makes me kind of angry. It’s not the games fault if a the person is so stupid that one doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong or the person might be bullied in school or something.

So I wanna ask you what do you think about this?

I apologize for my grammar mistakes.

2

it says it all

Martin

3

shrug the army DOES use video games for conditioning… anyone played America’s Army?

I hate to break it to you guys, but what you play DOES affect you. sure, some of us can handle it better, but video games can be the trigger that set someone off.

and lets be honest. we’re all computer guys around here… and we like games… so we’re biased. of course we are gonna say no.

certainly not ALL violence is derived from videogames, but it CAN be desensitizing. remember the first gorey movie you watched? it was a little gross right? but eventually, you don’t get that same “grossed out” feeling. and you look for something more…

4

yeah of course … its just important in doing multiplayer games to loose your nervs and go crazy. only insane ppl have a chance to win. without real anger and hatred you wont have any chance, you must shake and have a red face. kill somebody has to be pleasure for you. i luv those emotional players, not thinking, just shooting. they win just by flaming at the enemy :slight_smile:

… just $ 0.02 of a mp-gamer over years :slight_smile:
… and my lil bro lives all the time …

5

I agree with most of what NateTG said, but ultimately they do not cause violence.

I’m affected by what I play. I’ll admit, when I was into Everquest I fantasized about sneaking up behind people, stabbing them in the back, and taking their money, but I never acted on it. Why? Because I know what happens in real life if you rob and kill a person.

When I played Real War (based on an Army training game) I was influenced by the ILA’s opening video, particularly where they talk about America’s decadence, but does that make me anti-American? I’m disgusted with the greed of the majority, but I would never take up arms against my country, and if the cause was just I would even go to war.

The point is, games do affect you. Whether it’s fantasy, war, or just pointless shooting, it does have an effect. But, the ultimate responsibility lies with the player to control the results of those games.

6

lets seeeee…

highschool or any other major shootings in britain in the last year = 0

america = loads

its all to to do with the avalibility of guns. guns kill people.
its to do with phycology as well. some people dont have the destiction between fantasy and reality that they should so they pick up a gun and go around killing there bullies.

7

I’m with theeth.

8

There was violence even before video games existed as well as troubled individuals . There will be violence after video games disappear. If someone hangs themselves because they listened to Judas Priest(heavy metal), you can’t blame that as a cause, instead you have to realize it’s an effect and not a cause. The individual had problems to begin with, same as the person who went on a shooting rampage because he played GTA. Violence in societies is a lot more complex than that, they are many factors. So, I think you can’t correlate violence with video games as a single cause. You have to take broad comprehensive look at social conditioning rather than taking a simplistic reductionist approach to violence in society and blaming Sony for all of society’s problems. Poverty, how someone is brought up, social conditioning, anomie, family situations, abuse, substance abuse, level of education, mental health, etc etc are bigger influences that affect the level of violence in a society. That’s my 2 cents CDN x .73 or 1.46 cents US :smiley:

9

They could have just as easily said the idea came from a movie or a TV show (there are so many far worse than GTA).

10

Exactly, big bear. They couldn’t have seen it on the news as well.

11

in most cases, i beleive video games actually prevent violence… the regular gamer spends quite a bit of time at home playing games, and cant get in much trouble at home(normally) =)

but thats the minor reason… the main reason that video games are a great way to vent anger without actually killing someone… you can take out youre anger, and everyday stress by blowing up a few cars or evil enemies… it calms you down… people can sit down and forget about all their problems no matter what game theyre playing, and afterwards they feel alot better, and empty of any disturbing stress and anger… its a vent, like dreams, it helps us work through some problems… it also helps you gain freinds and gives you something in common with a good bit of people in the world

i often turn to games to calm down. and when theres nothing else to do, instead of going and and looking for trouble at 2am, i sit down and blast some evil racoons… im not about to actually go out and kill some racoons after i play a game though :wink: games help keep us mentally healthy… the only game i even remotely thought about reinacting was gta3, lol, just because its way too easy to steal cars in that game

video games do more good than bad, they let us vent, calm us down, and inspire people to want to learn art… thats why i started

12

Steve343 wrote:

highschool or any other major shootings in britain in the last year = 0

america = loads

its all to to do with the avalibility of guns. guns kill people.

In Britain they just take them down to the railroad tracs and beat them to death.

People kill people, not guns.

%<

13

its all to to do with the avalibility of guns. guns kill people.

Here we go again %|

Guns are not a factor. Sure there are more shootings here than any other country, barring the ones currently involved in civil war, but it is not because of the guns. It is because of the mentality. If there were no guns there would be more stabbings. If there were no knives there would be more beatings.

If there were a gun in every house in Great Britain there still would be fewer shootings (it would be a lie to say there are no shootings in Great Britain) because of the mentality of the English, Irish, Scots, and Welsh.

And there are major shootings in Great Britain. Are you familiar with the IRA? They’re not violent because they have access to guns. They gained access to guns because they’re violent. I own a gun and I have never even shot a squirrel. My dad owns guns, and he hunts, but he has never entertained the idea of shooting a person. Even when he was on the highway patrol he went further than any other officer in the area to avoid having to shoot a person.

14

yea, w00t to having your own opinion!

15

I agree with most of whats been said, which is kind of a bugger as it means I haven’t got much to write :wink: , but here gos:

1)Computer games do affect people, but they don’t cause violence, if people are violent then they arte violent and if they are not then they are not, computer games just give them ways to be violent (if they have no imaginations).

2)I used to play games to vent anger, and it certanly does work, it’s better than just hitting things, (which is what I do now) and is a very good form of stress relif.

3)Games keep you occupied, so if your playing games you can’t be being violent, (which is a good thing)

4)People like excuses, they like to blame other people, it almost makes them feel like they’ve done nothing wrong, and that makes things asier, takes the edge off.

5)I have been playing GTA games since I was about 8, and I have no desire to shoot anyone, steal anything or piss off the pigs (cops). I have wanted to drive like I do on GTA3, but I’ve thought that was cool from about 6. I have also wanted to burn blow up things, but most of my friends will testify that I’m a natural born pyro. I have been playing Diablo games since I was 12ish, and I have thought it’d be cool to do all the slashing killing stuff, but I know I couldn’t kill someone in cold blood, and most of sword fighting desires come from the LOTR books.

6)There are many things that can change people more than any cmputer game ie. death, abuse, poverty, famine etc. etc. etc.

7)People kill people, guns, and cars don’t, they are simply tools, if you put up a shelf, you say ‘I put up that shelf’, not ‘my screwdriver put up that shelf’, and in the same way games don’t cause violence, people use games to cause violence.

Wow, I’ve hardly ever written this much, the start doesn’t make sence anymore :slight_smile:

16

I think it’s an example of an idiotic kid, probably with idiotic droned out parents, who did something really stupid and happened to play video games. If you take the video game away from this kid, He will likely get another eaqually stupid idea from some other source and act it out. Most entertainment these days has a theme of violence. T.V., video games, movies, all full of violence and depravity. Perhaps collectively there is some influence there, but I am going to pin it on the parents for raising a stupid kid.

17

I agree with theeth all the way. A kid would go on a rampage like that only if he was seriously messed up while being raised, or maybe really made fun of in school. I play violent games all the time, and have been since like 9, and i have a great family, and i never get the urge to go shoot people. It’s all in how somebody is raised.

Pooba

18

eheh, everyone agreeing with me and I only posted a link to PA :smiley:

Martin

19

Whereas I had a big long post saying that it’s the ultimate responsibility of the player (which was essentially what the comic strip said) and the only person to really agree with me didn’t even mention my name :frowning:

20

highschool or any other major shootings in britain in the last year = 0

america = loads

its all to to do with the avalibility of guns. guns kill people.

Watch “Bowling for Colimbine”, guns are part of the problem, but it’s still up to the persons mental state, guns just provide an easy way to kill someone.
If you forced a person to kill another person bare-handed or with a gun most people would find it nearly imposible to kill them with their hands but with a gun you don’t need to think about killing the person, but on pulling the trigger.

But back to the topic, i don’t think game’s cause violence, but instead gives them ideas on how to kill poeple, without games people would just look for other sources for violent ideas like TV or movies

If games caused violence then people would be going round eating pills and people :wink: