Game Violence makes Violent People?

[hoots7]

Blaming games for violent behavior is not the same as blaming guns for murder. Weapons make killing easier, and that is their purpose; games do not make violence easier, and their purpose is entertainment.

I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you; some games in the hands of some people do make violence easier in the form of learned behavior. I see learned behavior everyday in my son, he sees something (usually from his sister) and he mimics it. He watches a Spider Man cartoon & later I find him acting it out, which is a perfectly normal thing for a child to do.

 

What’s important in both issues guns & video games is the person’s mentality and the heart. Guns don’t kill people, people do. I have guns & I have a different mentality about them I’m sure than the average gang member. My Dad grew up in a town full of guns & people didn’t go around shooting folks, that’s crazy & I’ll tell another thing if staff members at Virginia Tech would have been armed a lot fewer students would have been shot. I use to watch Speed Racer, that show was real violent, with automatic weapons, crashes, cars going off cliffs & more. But I knew it was pretend & TV wasn’t real.

 

I changed my view on things when about 15 years ago I was in the break room of where I worked & this 20 yr old guy was talking about Wolverine & how he was so cool & could beat so & so. I jokingly walked up to him & said well Godzilla could just step on him & squish him. -I swear this is the truth- he turned, looked me right in the eyes (straight face) & said “I’m talking about real people”, I just stood there in disbelief.

After a few moments of silence in the break room some one spoke up & said something and he finally snapped into reality. After that experience my opinion changed & has been supported since then after working with children.

 

Learned behavior is real, why do you think the military uses video games?

[ResidentWeevil2077]

Blaming games for violent behavior is not the same as blaming guns for murder. Weapons make killing easier, and that is their purpose; games do not make violence easier, and their purpose is entertainment.

I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you; some games in the hands of some people do make violence easier in the form of learned behavior. I see learned behavior everyday in my son, he sees something (usually from his sister) and he mimics it. He watches a Spider Man cartoon & later I find him acting it out, which is a perfectly normal thing for a child to do.

 

What’s important in both issues guns & video games is the person’s mentality and the heart. Guns don’t kill people, people do. I have guns & I have a different mentality about them I’m sure than the average gang member. My Dad grew up in a town full of guns & people didn’t go around shooting folks, that’s crazy & I’ll tell another thing if staff members at Virginia Tech would have been armed a lot fewer students would have been shot. I use to watch Speed Racer, that show was real violent, with automatic weapons, crashes, cars going off cliffs & more. But I knew it was pretend & TV wasn’t real.

 

I changed my view on things when about 15 years ago I was in the break room of where I worked & this 20 yr old guy was talking about Wolverine & how he was so cool & could beat so & so. I jokingly walked up to him & said well Godzilla could just step on him & squish him. -I swear this is the truth- he turned, looked me right in the eyes (straight face) & said “I’m talking about real people”, I just stood there in disbelief.

After a few moments of silence in the break room some one spoke up & said something and he finally snapped into reality. After that experience my opinion changed & has been supported since then after working with children.

 

Learned behavior is real, why do you think the military uses video games?

Obviously someone mustn't have taken their meds :rolleyes: :whistling: ...JK :P No, but seriously, I agree that it's not these things (guns/video games) that are the root cause people dying - it's some idiot who can't distinguish fact from fiction. *sighs* And it's now becoming more evident that people are starting to not be able to think for themselves - people are lacking a little something called "common sense". But that is another debate for another time.

[Jhaerlyn]

i wish I had time to respond ... :( but I have to say that I really agree with Hoots on this one ;)

[Jhaerlyn]

ok ..I can finally give a short response to this:

 

 

Needlessly Violent Video games help train our young people to see Violence as the most logical response to a situation ... It helps their mind justify actions taken against "them" -- an ability human's have had for a long time ... something that Games and tales have been helping us do for a long time ... Stories about monsters etc have been there to help desensitize the young to the killing of the "other" who may attack the village or tribe ... the desensitization is important, because, as soldiers will tell you ... a moments hesitation at the wrong time could mean your life and/or that of those around you.

 

... silhoute targets are used in military training, not to make the soldier better at hitting targets ... but better at hitting HUMAN targets. we have a naatural defense mechanism against killing people. MOST human-beings don't like the idea ... my brother-in-law nearly commited suicide in a drunken depression after he thought he had stabbed and killed some guy in a fight... the remorse was nearly unbearable for him because he kept thinking about whether or not that guy had a family and kids etc ....

 

 

Does this mean all you people who play Grand Theft Auto are going to become car thieves and murderers? no ... but it does mean that given a certain circumstance, you are more likely to run someone down who is threatening you, than you (the same person) would be had you never played GTA1-4

 

...violent games also make violence more tolerable ...at least, violence to others ...

 

 

I didn't realise how desensitized i'd become to the idea of killing creatures ... until someone watched me playing LotR Online .... She started asking me if I like hunting ( i live in an area of the country where Hunting is almost a religion) .. and I answered not really ... i'm not sure I could kill an animal if I went out there ...

 

... then she said ..well ... what if someone paid you 60 bucks to go shoot em down ... I thought for a moment ..and yeah Sure .. why not? then I noticed that I was killing deer on sight to get the exceptional hides ...

 

the thing about the above is that ... I've never been able to hunt because of my aversion to killing animals ... I've caught fish twice ...and the remorse of having ended the fish's life made me sick :( ..stupid I know, but I recently went hunting from a friend and I first balked at shooting the deer .. until I noticed how accurately the LotR's people had made their deer ... in the next instant I pulled the trigger. Didn't even think about it.

 

... however, being able to shoot people or in general be violent to people, doesn't mean that the consequences of your actions don't settle in ... and this is what further convinces me that violent video games are having this really negative effect on people ... everyone of those guys who killed people in a school.. people they often times wanted to get even with ... were over come suddenly by remorse and killed themselves ( its actually pretty hard to kill yourself too ... theere is a BIG mental resistance against that thought that has to be over come .... i'd give the references if I knew where I learned it all ...but I've been in school for so long I don't knwo all the places I read, hear and learn all this stuff at ... :(

[IndorilTheGreat]

Okay. I usually stay away from things like this, but I just have to enter my input.

 

When I play video games, it's sometimes a way to vent my anger (not ALL the time, only sometimes). When people say, "If you play this, you will grow up to be a murderer." But, when you play a game, all you do is press buttons. It doesn't ACTUALLY teach you how to shoot a gun, or stab someone. That's like being in the military and having your trainer say, "Okay, press 'R' to reload your weapon." :P

 

Just thought I'd put in my two-cents worth. :yes:

 

 

Your fellow Nexus Member,

gman021

[Palpenious]

I have to agree that violence, in whatever form (video games, movies, news, etc.) after a time, desensitizes people. We get used to seeing it everywhere and are no longer shocked that people were shot or whatever. I think one of the main points is that politicians, and media still make video games out to be only for children. Like movies a rating system has been in effect for many years that clearly states when a game is appropriate for a certain age. Yet, working at Gamestop for over three years, I was continually surprised at parents when their ten-year-old would bring up a M-rated game. I tell their mom/dad, this is actually rated for people 17+ for: blood/gore, use of alcohol, realistic violence, etc. Almost invariably their response would be: "OK, as long as it doesn't have any sex." I wholeheartedly agree that ultimately, it is in the individuals own sanity whether they will actually decide to go out and perform horrible acts or not. But the responsibilty in teaching younger kids this, lies with their parents, or guardian. As a child, my parents were extremely lieniant with me. I watched R-rated movies as young as 8. While I did start cussing very early, (and continue to today) I have still never been in a single fight my entire life, let alone a shoot-out. I have also loved every GTA game since GTAII. Yet, have never stolen a car, or killed a hooker. I don't think I've ever even borrowed a car from anyone. In real life I am very reserved, and respectful, but when somebody cuts me off in that game, you better beleive I chase them down and make them pay! Something I would never even consider doing for real. I guess the point I want to add is, you have to pay more attention to the person playing the game, not so much the game itself. I am sure everyone here grew up on Looney Tunes. But have any of you been hit in the head with an anvil? -Thanks for listening.

[KzinistZerg]

Hmmm... We went over this a bit in sociology so I'll toss my two cents into the pot as well.

 

Basically, the human brain is not developed fully until adulthood. Skirting around the actual psychological stuff, basically children aren't fully capable of thinking out the consequences of their actions, and children like acting things out.

 

As for desensitizing violence, yes, hell yes, it does. I got through a particularly nasty series of photographs in a scare-tactic anti-drugs assembly i had to go to in school by thinking about how much it looked like half-life. To illustrate my point:

 

http://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/image_ed7vv0.gif

 

Violence in video games isn't necessarily bad; part of video games is that you can do in them what you cannot do in real life. Fantasy games, anyone? You just have to be able to keep your life and your entertainment separated. And, for children, who usually cannot, their parents have to get off their lazy worthless butts and actually check on what their kid is playing, and maybe tell him/her to go outside!

[DecalMirror]

Well, just a little about me..

 

My gaming history is pretty violence with Soldier of fortunes and such. I like violece in movies, games and I must to admit.. in real life as well. When I was a kid, I liked to hunt any little animal I could catch and do some "experiments" with them. I have shot down illegally some birds with air gun and left them to suffer. I have burned down a house(well, that's not violent but anyway). I've been also in MANY fights in my life and I actually enjoyed them.

 

Not to mention that I've been actually living under very offensive and mind pressuring mental violence caused by my step father past 10 years.

 

However, at this point I have to say.. I have NEVER started a single fight I've been in. Not with fists but not even with words. Despite the fact I do enjoy violence, I would never hurt anyone in the means of attack. What I'm trying to say with all this is that all the violent media and real life violence i've experienced has not made me to do any offensive movement toward anyone.

[Lord Barkmann]

With GTA 4 out does this mean every type of violence be blame on the game?

Cause everytime or most evertime something happens the GTA games get the blame.

Violence have been around for well longer then video games or TV, movies first came out.

I played games that had violence in them, as a kid i didnt go out and killed someone and try to blame video games.

[Gamerbird]

Okay. I usually stay away from things like this, but I just have to enter my input.

 

When I play video games, it's sometimes a way to vent my anger (not ALL the time, only sometimes). When people say, "If you play this, you will grow up to be a murderer." But, when you play a game, all you do is press buttons. It doesn't ACTUALLY teach you how to shoot a gun, or stab someone. That's like being in the military and having your trainer say, "Okay, press 'R' to reload your weapon." :P

 

I actually agree with this. I haven't become a complete lunatic, I WILL SLIT YOUR THROAT!, games that involve violence are just a way to vent your anger. (I was only joking about slitting your throat unless you make an apointment. :thumbsup: )