The Influence Of Video Games
For better or worse, video games exert an influence on the people who play them. Most gamers, including the people I interviewed, scoff at the notion that violent people are the result of violent video games. However, with the tragedies in Newtown, Connecticut and in Aurora, Colorado this past year, the media has put a lot of focus on the messages found in video games and have tried to report on the link between violent video games and violence in the real world. As Henry Jenkins puts it in his book Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture, “Here is one of the most economically significant sectors of the entertainment industry, the real beachhead in our efforts to build new forms of interactive story-telling as part of popular, rather than avant-garde, culture, but the media only wants to talk about violence”(Jenkins 189). Out of the 14 people I interviewed all but two said that there was no way a person who plays video games would become violent just because of the games they played. The other two felt that this link could exist, but it just depends on the person. The one thing that stood out to me was that when most people answered, they felt that blaming games were just a way for people not to take responsibility for their own actions. No one wants to think that a human being is capable of a mass shooting. Despite my own research into this topic, there is definitely another side to this. According to the ESRB, 58% of 2000 adults surveyed believed there was a link, but of those 58%, 71% weren’t even aware that games had ratings based on their content. I think a quote in The New York Times put it best: ““I don’t know that a psychological study can ever answer that question definitively,” said Michael R. Ward, an economist at the University of Texas, Arlington””(New York Times). Greg, a detective in the Cincinnati area, had his own thoughts to add: “I don’t like when people blame inanimate objects for the actions of others. We should be talking about mental illness, not video games. In all my years as an officer, I’ve never once been able to look at a person and say that violent video games got them locked up in jail. Criminals more often than not come from broken homes and/or have addictions”(Greg Jenkins).The question as to whether there’s a link between video games and real world violence is one that may not become readily apparent any time soon. Until then, the debate will just have to go on.
While there is nothing conclusive yet between the link between violence and video games, games are used often in training scenarios for the military. Brad, who plays video games in his free time, told me that his training often involves stepping into a simulation where soldiers are placed in virtual replicas that depict possible scenarios. This machine is apparently large enough that you have a near 360 degree view and you hold a gun in your hand as you shoot at the screen. This is a very high-tech video game, but the one thing that Brad emphasized was that no video game was even close to replicating the real thing. In battle, he said, you have tunnel vision and the adrenaline is pumping like crazy and you just don’t know what is going to happen. No video game can get you to that point he said. My father, a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, said nearly the same thing. “Video games can show what soldiers have to do, but they miss out on the emotions of battle. War is with you forever in real life. It doesn’t just end when the battle does”(Creighton Perry).
There’s more to just violence and negativity though when it comes to the influence that games have on us. When interviewing Trinity(a 5 year old girl), her main reason for playing games was for learning. She loved playing games that involved math and spelling, and I got similar results from Matt and Kris, who are 10 and 12 respectively. Educational games are an exploding market, especially on mobile phones and tablets where children can learn while playing a fun game. In general however, the consensus among the people I interviewed was that video games were strictly another means to have fun. Some enjoy the competition, others enjoy the escape, but none played games because they were violent. They play games because that’s what they love to do.
While there is nothing conclusive yet between the link between violence and video games, games are used often in training scenarios for the military. Brad, who plays video games in his free time, told me that his training often involves stepping into a simulation where soldiers are placed in virtual replicas that depict possible scenarios. This machine is apparently large enough that you have a near 360 degree view and you hold a gun in your hand as you shoot at the screen. This is a very high-tech video game, but the one thing that Brad emphasized was that no video game was even close to replicating the real thing. In battle, he said, you have tunnel vision and the adrenaline is pumping like crazy and you just don’t know what is going to happen. No video game can get you to that point he said. My father, a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, said nearly the same thing. “Video games can show what soldiers have to do, but they miss out on the emotions of battle. War is with you forever in real life. It doesn’t just end when the battle does”(Creighton Perry).
There’s more to just violence and negativity though when it comes to the influence that games have on us. When interviewing Trinity(a 5 year old girl), her main reason for playing games was for learning. She loved playing games that involved math and spelling, and I got similar results from Matt and Kris, who are 10 and 12 respectively. Educational games are an exploding market, especially on mobile phones and tablets where children can learn while playing a fun game. In general however, the consensus among the people I interviewed was that video games were strictly another means to have fun. Some enjoy the competition, others enjoy the escape, but none played games because they were violent. They play games because that’s what they love to do.