Video Game Violence

I was digging through some documents on our computer, and I found this piece I wrote for a college class a few years ago. Some of it is a little outdated but it does a nice job of summing up exactly how I feel about the video game violence issue. Specifically the quote from Doug Lowenstein is something I've adapted into my own thoughts, it's a great source of comfort when it comes to thinking about the future of this subject.

With each new emerging art form there is inevitably some resistance toward it. Rock music and movies encountered much skepticism from senators and politicians. Right now video games are coming across the same heat.

Claims are being thrown around from both sides. Some say that violent video games cause people to commit violent acts themselves. Whether there is any validity to this remains pretty much unknown. There are studies and statistics supporting both sides of the issue.

Retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman says “Certain types of these (video) games are actually killing simulators, and they teach our kids to kill in much the same way the astronauts on Apollo 11 learned how to fly to the moon without ever leaving the ground.” That is essentially the argument from the anti-video game lobbyists, video games are killing trainers.

Can that be true? It is true that the Army makes video games for use as training tools for soldiers, and that some of these games were also released to the public. Mr. Grossman talked about an incident when a 14 year old at Paducah's Heath High School on Dec. 1, 1997 opened up fire on classmates and teachers.

“He held the gun up in a two-handed stance. He never fired far to the left. He never fired far to the right. Never fired up. Never fired down. He just
put one bullet in every target that popped up in front of him. What was he
doing? He was playing a video game ... And he was racking up as high a score
as he could.”

A study by Doctors Craig A. Anderson and Karen E. Dill helped second this
notion.

“Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations…" said Dr. Anderson "In the short run,
playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming
aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that can become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise."

The other side of the argument has a much different solution. Rob Cooper, the Senior Lead Analyst for Majesco Entertainment (a video game publisher) says, “Fining retailers won’t help. Censoring games should never happen. Reorganizing the ESRB [Entertainment Software Rating Board] isn’t the answer. In this fight to stop the criminalization of the game industry as an enabler to teen violence, the key is parents.”

Cooper himself is a parent of two. He understands his part in keeping video games meant for adults away from his kids. After declaring his love for video games, he went on to say, “So, why do I sit around on a Saturday afternoon and feel obligated to play another game in NHL 2k6…instead of…trying to finally get past that boss I’ve been stuck at in Resident Evil 4? Why am I shooting squares and circles in Geometry Wars instead of Nazis in Call of Duty 2? Because I have two kids.”

Matt Helgeson, the Senior Editor for Game Informer Magazine doesn’t condemn violent games, but says

“…The industry needs to re-examine its dependence on violence if it wishes to truly grow as an art form. Although there are certainly numerous exceptions, video games are, by and large, an incredibly violent medium.
Too often, game design involves coming up with new ways to place characters in a
virtual world, put a weapon in their hands, and give them things to kill.
Ultimately, this dependence on violence is limiting the creativity of the
developers that make games. By thinking beyond the traditional,
combat-based, adversarial relationship between the player and the game world,
developers might come up with new and unknown gameplay concepts.”

Doug Lowenstein, the President of the Entertainment Software Association, sums up the whole issue with this,

“Ten years from now, if not sooner, we’re going to have people in Congress and state legislatures and editors of newspapers and producers at television
stations who grew up playing Grand Theft Auto. Somehow, they will find themselves in positions of responsibility and power and they will have done it in spite of the fact that they played games that their elders said would lead them down the road to ruin. Many of the politicians who criticize the industry grew up with their parents telling them they couldn’t listen to the Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane and any other number of other groups that were going to lead you down the path of degradation.”

I think, in the end, that is the main fact. I’m sure we will hear plenty of politicians spouting off about violent games, and plenty of game industry representatives fighting back, but nothing will happen. It will become less and less of an issue in the future until it is a distant memory.

The one thing that we should take out of this, is an awareness. Video games aren’t square blips shooting across a flickering gray screen anymore. They are very realistic, very in-depth, and very much ignored by parents. Parents need to understand what their kids are playing and help to enforce the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s rating system just like they would movies. If you wouldn’t let your kid watch an ‘R’ rated movie, then you definitely shouldn’t let them play an ‘M’ rated game. Once parents realize this, the issue will slowly begin to disappear.