Essay

Daniel Wise

Composition II

Deanna Hueners

4/11/07

Exploring the Effects of Violent Video Games on Society

Video games are more advanced now than they have ever been now since the latest generation of video game consoles have rolled into retailers. With stunning graphics and room shaking sound, awareness of violence in video games has risen drastically. Games are drastically different now than they were five to ten years ago. Video games were once regarded as toys for kids and there was little concern for them to cause harm. Back then, parents believed that video games caused children to become over-weight and inactive in the world around them. There was little thought taken to the possibility that these games could turn normal people into violent deviants. With cartoon like graphics, there was no concern.

Now, games are capable of pushing hardware to its absolute limits in terms of technical prowess and developers have taken full advantage of this. Games like Grand Theft Auto, constantly push the boundaries of what is inappropriate to society's standards. Players are given free will to roam around the game's world doing whatever they please. Essentially they are an underling for major crime families, but players can detract from the main story line to cause whatever mayhem they want in fictional cites. They can steal cars, buy weapons, kill people (including cops) and disobey all laws and regulations.

Video game publisher Ubisoft has been in partnership with Tom Clancy since 1996 when they created Rainbow Six, a tactical shooting game based off a Clancy novel of the same name. The series has been very popular among the gaming community for many years, and the latest iteration Rainbow Six: Vegas has stirred up controversy in the city of Las Vegas, which is the setting of the game. In this game, the player takes the role of a leader of an international anti-terrorism strike force. A handful of terrorists have taken over Las Vegas and it is the job of the player to take them out. As the player progresses through the game, they will find themselves in fire fights in the streets and in the casinos. The layout of Las Vegas is accurate but stays within legal boundaries. These legal boundaries require that permission be granted to use hotel names, otherwise, the names of the land marks must be made up. An article by Doug Elfman, an award winning critic, who writes for the Chicago Sun-Times, writes that Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas, said that the game could “economically Hurt Vegas” and “it may be something that is not entitled to free speech.” Elfman describes Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman's reaction to the game as ludicrous saying, “Goodman acted in Casino, which depicted murdering mobsters in Vegas.” Due to this fact, it's hard to imagine why Goodman would think that this video game could damage the city of Las Vegas.

There has been a significant debate on whether, violent video games evoke aggressive behavior in children. The events of the Columbine High School shooting and several shootings that have occurred across the country have opened peoples eyes the the reality that there could be a possibility that violent video games evoke violent behavior. Reports have confirmed that the shooters involved in the Columbine shooting were avid fans of the PC game Doom.

Craig A. Anderson, head of the psychology department at Iowa State University states, “Violent video games are successfully marketed to, and easily obtained by, children and adolescents.” There has been much concern of this since the school shootings that took place in the late 1990's and early 2000's. In his book, Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy, Anderson portrays most gamers as shut-ins and mostly interested in violent images and topics. They are mostly researching violent subject matter on the internet and play games for the violence and tend to be “more interested in the violent images than in the game itself.” (Anderson)

Anderson also goes on to state that these students spend “Inordinate amounts of time playing video games” However it is unclear about how much an inordinate amount of time is. The authors of the book make a reference to a study that was conducted in 1996 in which fourth grade girls played 4.5 hours a week on average, while boys played video games 7.1 hours a week. One must wonder what an inordinate amount of time playing video games really means. The book also reports on a more recent study amongst eighth and ninth graders and this has shown that the amount of playing video games on average has grown amongst the students. Boys mostly averaged thirteen hours a week, which may seem high, but in reality, that is a little under two hours a day. One must also deduce from the weekly average that most of that time is unevenly dispersed between weekdays and weekends. Girls stayed mostly around five hours of play time per week.

The authors of Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy are very quick to explain that the research does not directly correlate the link between violent video games and violent crimes. They explain that “Frequent associations with violent crimes do not, in themselves, constitute strong scientific evidence that exposure to violent video games is a contributing causal factor in violent behavior.” However, they also believe that the debate on if all media induce aggressive behavior “is over ... and should have been over 30 years ago.”

There may be a relation between violent video games and violent behavior, but the evidence does not seem strong enough to support such a claim. One must take into account the background in which the child has grown up in. Each child's life differs greatly from one to the other. Some grow up in broken homes while others have great family support. At school, some may be ostracized by their peers and some might have a mental disorder that prevents them from discerning the difference between reality and video games. Violence has always been present in the world and children have been exposed to other violent media such as television, movies and music.

Craig Anderson made an earlier report in 2003 attempting to debunk some myths about the influence of violence in video games on children. He states that video games have a very direct relation to aggressive behavior through “increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal” (Anderson) He also says that exposure to violent video games have raised actions such as: “delinquency, fighting at school and during free play periods, and violent criminal behavior.” He believes another myth that violent video games affect small fractions of people in society is false. While there isn't enough proof to state which demographics are affected by violent video games, he states that people who are consistently aggressive are more susceptible to the effects of violent video games that people who are normally nonviolent.

While early video games featured 2D animated graphics and cartoon like violence, Anderson believes that children are still affected by this seemingly harmless form of violence. He states that studies conducted by college students show “increased aggression” after the children witnessed unrealistic violence. Anderson Theorizes that exposure to violence in video games create a sort of reward system for violent acts. He believes that these games give a positive feeling to “aggressive solutions” which also makes being violent more “cognitively accessible.” He also believes that exposure to violent video games decrease the negative feelings one should feel towards violent situations.

The United States Army has been relying on this aggressive behavior for their recruiting efforts. William Lugo, assistant professor of sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic , explains that the United States Army has been freely distributing a game known as America's Army. The army has set 4 million dollars aside for the development of this game. The game uses the best technology available right now and puts the player in the boots of a newly enlisted soldier and puts them through a simple boot camp and instruction, then sets them out to defend the country against terrorists. (Lugo) It is believed that this type of exposure to battlefield conditions will desensitize new recruits to the realities of war.

There are many video games made with many age ranges in mind. In 1994 the ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board) was established to create a rating system for video games. The ESRB rates games based on content and the ratings range from Early Childhood, Everyone, Teen (13+), Mature (17+) and Adult. (ESRB) Publishers send their completed games to the ESRB to be rated and once this is done, the games are shipped off to retailers. Patricia Vance, President of the ESRB says “ESRB tends to primarily focus on reaching out to parents about the importance of ratings.” (ESRB)

In June 2006, the ESRB teamed up with Penny Arcade, an on-line web comic written by Jerry Holkins and illustrated by Mike Krahulik, to create a PSA campaign that was geared towards the older generation of gamers. Vance says, “This campaign is focused on gamers under the age of 21 who may not yet fully appreciate the benefits of the rating system.” Gaming magazines have been working with the ESRB for several year but felt the ads were “disconnected from their readers” due to the ads being geared more towards parents. Vance then goes on to state that while gamers may not consider the ESRB as something that is cool, “At the very least we want gamers to understand the purpose that we serve.”

With the Video Game industry reaching 10 billion dollars annually, there are plenty of alternatives to consider to violent video games. Nintendo has been lauded by the public as consistently producing nonviolent, family-friendly video games ever since Shigeru Miyamoto created the iconic video game figure, Mario. For over twenty years, Nintendo has gone against what is considered popular in video games. They have chosen accessibility over what is considered the norm these days with video games.

Another alternative to violent video games are computer games that have been created by the likes of Sid Meier. Victorino Matus, an assistant managing Editor at the Weekly Standard, had an opportunity to sit with Sid Meier and talk about the development of games like Civilization and what sets Sid's games apart from all the others. Sid Meier is the creator of the highly popular Civilization series which makes the player the ruler of a civilization. The game begins at the start of time and it is up to the player to reach world domination through diplomacy, scientific prowess or through warfare. While violence is implied, it is not graphic nor intense.

Sid Meier got his inspiration for Civilization not through playing computer games, but through playing the board game Risk. "Conquer the world. All those cool pieces. You felt like you were king. It gave you a lot of power." (Matus) Religion has also been a big factor in the development of Civilization. Meier is a Lutheran and the integration of religion into his game creates one of the many strategies in playing Civilizaton. “Competing civilizations can send out missionaries, found a religion, create temples, cathedrals, and even launch crusades.” (Matus)

Meier is adamant about keeping the blood and gore out of his video games because he too is a parent and is concerned about the messages that his children receive from playing video games. He believes that as a game designer, he's responsible for what is put out onto the market place and he is concerned about the content that is put into all his games. (Matus) Meier says, “I've raised a son and I know all the messages, all the influences, all the things that come into a young person's life”

It is Meier's goal to have everyone who plays his games, to learn something from them. Whether it is becoming more aware of the civilizations that came before, or to go deeper into the game and learn about the individual civilizations and how they came to be in reality. The rulers in the game take after the rulers of their respective countries such as Ghengis Kahn and the Mongols, or Abraham Lincoln and the Americans. (Matus)

There's no denying the fact that video games have an impression on the youth of the world. While violent video games can cause children to become more aggressive, it is up to the parents to make sure that the children know what the difference is between real violence and violence in the world around them. Video game consoles now have parental control settings that allow the parents to make sure their kids are playing appropriate video games. The ESRB is also hard at work at making sure game publishers provide the right content to the masses. The video game industry has established itself as a major medium in the world today and while it is still a young industry and still has plenty to learn, it is on it's way to becoming more responsible to making sure the right content reaches the right people.

Works Cited

Anderson, Craig A. Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts,. Psychological Science Agenda. Oct. 2003. American Psychological Association. 26 Mar. 2007 .

Anderson, Craig A., Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E. Buckley. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. 190.

Elfman, Doug. Vegas Mayor Wastes Time, Slams OK Shooting Game. Oregon Live. 8 Dec. 2006. The Oregonian. 26 Mar. 2007 .

ESRB and Penny Arcade Team Up to Create New Gamer PSA Campaign. ESRB.org. 6 Jan. 2006. Entertainment Software Rating Board. 13 Apr. 2007 .

Lugo, William. "Violent Video Games Recruit American Youth." Reclaiming Children and Youth 15 (2006): 11-15.

Matus, Victorino. 'Civilization' and Its Contents. The Weekly Standard 12 (2007): 19-24.