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Examining The Causal Relation of Violence and Gaming |
Listed in: PS3, Wii, PSP, Xbox 360, MMORPG, Nintendo DS Tags: NFL
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Just several days ago, we posted a news here at QJ about a guy killing his 17-month old baby for pulling on the cords of his game console in the middle of a game and causing the console to fall. And then there's this story about a 25-year-old man going on a shooting spree over at Dawson College in Montreal, taking at least 1 life and leaving 19 others wounded just last September 13th. The media was quick to point out that the gunman enjoyed violent video games and once again, we see how video games, the violent ones at that, are conveniently pointed to as the necessary cause of violence in real life. A scapegoat? Maybe.This led Nelson Rodriguez over at Planet Xbox360 to examine exactly if there is a causal relation between violence and video games. More particularly, which came first? In his article, he points out that if video games do influence gamers' behaviour, especially the young, impressionable ones, then shouldn't it be the case that there would be more people attracted to, say, sports?
He surmises that if, for example, researchers would pool in a group of kids who have never played sports and introduced them to Madden NFL, ten years later, when they track down how these kids turned out, they should take into account how many of these kids actually pursued football. After all, "being a pro athlete is much more appealing and socially acceptable than committing murder and spending your life in prison." Therefore, following through this logical syllogism, "if games truly lead to widespread copycat actions, sport-hating nerds will line up at the Jets tryout camp every year." But the reality is that it does not really result to that.
The only probable reason then is that gamers get into the kind of video games that give them what they are naturally inclined to or interested in to begin with. To say that the violence-simulating games like Saints Row are to be blamed for the violent tendencies of people is assumptive at best. Afterall, crime has been in existence for as long as mankind has been around. And no, we didn't need video games for it to happen. Thus, he sees no reason why gaming has to be tagged as the culprit for murder-inclined dispositions of people, with most parties making it sound as if a game directly transformed an innocent person into a raving killer.
Yes, the sweeping generalizations and accusations can be really unforgiving and unfair, especially since there are a large number of gamers who could very well prove this hypothesis wrong. But it is no wonder how media can so easily pre-judge the character of a person based on his everyday activities. It just so happened that more often than not, the culprits had the common trait of being gamers, then put in the factor of easily putting the blame on something which you don't understand, and voila! You now have an excuse to give to the concerned citizens.
It would seem that gaming is the most convenient scapegoat for media and the authorities when it comes to pinning the blame on some gruesome act committed by a person. But the point is, as eloquently elaborated in the article, it does not necessarily follow. The sad truth is that, in spite of the wide reception and the fact that gaming is enjoyed as a budding culture, it still remains to be one unfathomable cryptic phenomenon for others, which causes them to repel it. As they say, "You fear what you cannot understand."
Via Planet Xbox 360
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Comments
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and no-one particuarlly cares you are first and why should we suck on that
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The majority gamers are sane people who would never perpetrate such acts.
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I like to kick asses in those games, but no in real life...I think they have to find another excuse for their no skills at work, admit that they dont know why it happens and leave us gamers alone.
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when someone plays a violent game it puts them in a situation they normally would not experience, that is they're ALLOWED to commit violent acts and can get away with it... they feel no remorse for killing in game characters, and this is a dangerous situation.
people who play sports games are not necessarily going to 'go out and play sports' because the experience is a different one, you don't have that 'forbidden' aspect. anyone is allowed to play sports at any time in the real world; they are not allowed to shoot and kill people in the real world.
the problem with this debate is that it hinges on someone having a slight psychotic tendency, normal people playing violent games are not affected by them but a psychotic person (and it doesn't have to be severe) may find the lines between reality and videogame a lot more blurred and less well defined. That's why they end up doing these terrible things, they're not quite right in the head.
i don't believe there is 'blame' to be placed on the head of videogames because the kind of person who is impressionable like that could also take their cues from the movies or television. Games do give them something movies/tv doesn't, and that's a certain amount of validation to their violent tendencies. this might make it easier for them to justify their actions in their mind but it's still the fact that they're psychotic which is the real danger.
unfortunately people kill people, and it happens all the time... a 'normal' person can just go crazy and start killing, it doesn't have to be videogames.
in fact, in today's society there is a lot of pressure on teenagers and others to conform and fit in and being inexperienced in life and not having the kind of self confidence that comes with age they find they can't take it. more and more kids seem to be losing their childhoods too early, there are too many burdens on them from an early age.
don't blame the games, i agree. but the reasons this guy gave are bunk. it's more complicated than that, what we really need is some way to tell people who find that the pressure is too great or that they are considering going postal that there is a way to get help and that they are not alone.
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Back in the real world, mentally unbalanced people will go on a killing spree whether they have violent games to play or not. In fact I'd suggest the outlet of playing games would stall how long it takes them to go on a killing spree.
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And it is obvious that the guy that went on a killing spree is a part of a generation in which EVERYONe plays.... As we all watch movies, listen to music, eat and whatnot!
Come on.....that's ridiculous......Blame his godamm parents for what he did.....I've played violent videogames all my life....but my parents always taught me to be a good kid...
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I don't think video games have anythign to do with there already deranged minds.
The other thing common between the school attackers is they were ridiculed there entire life from bullys... always the outcast... (so the news states)
Maybe violent video games were there escape from reality. But they had much bigger issues that are non-video game related to pull the stunts that they did.
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Anyhow, the whole 'violent people play video games' correlation is the same as venganza.org and pirates/global warming. Yes, there is 'statistical evidence' to link the 2. It doesn't mean it's even remotely true.
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I CAN SEE WHY VIDEO GAMES MAKE PEOPLE VIOLENT. THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO ARE OBSESSED WITH VIDEO GAMES. I MEAN, LOOK AT ALL THE HALO LOVERS ON THIS WEBSITE THAT DRESS UP IN HALO OUTFITS AND STUFF!!!! THAT'S WIERD. OR HOW ABOUT THE DEAD RISING PARTY IN ENGLAND WHERE PEOPLE WERE PRETENDING TO BE ZOMBIES. IF PEOPLE ARE THAT QUEER THAT THEY ACTUALLY BRING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE REAL WORLD, THEN BAD STUFF STARTS HAPPENING.
I THINK THEY SHOULD STOP HARDCORE GAMING NERDS FROM PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, TELL THEM TO GO OUT AND GET DRUNK AND LAID, AND QUIT BEING SUCK TOOLS!!!!!
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1) As a group, men kill/abuse women and other men. This is an expression of the now accepted idea of unequality between men and women.
2) Problemsolving is taught in school, in homes and everywhere in between but the TYPE of "lessions" differ vastly depending on socioeconomic factors, family, country, age and so on. As a group, males use violence more often than women.
3) As a western country, most US of A citizens (certain states?) has little or no trouble getting a gun it's not a US-only problem but having EASY ACCESS to guns plays a part. Not just the laws but the widespread use of course.
4) Media, videogames and any other cultural aspect IS IN FACT influencing the ones that "do it" to a certain degree so you cannot say that it's a rediculous reasoning. Getting exposed to a lot of graphical violence during ones' 10-20 years period should (with all sociological and psychological reasearch) have an effect.
Sorry for crappy english, not my mothers tounge. Sorry for the somewhat antiUS post but please realize I do understand every country has a few murderers, rapeists and rotten eggs, still, it seems the US has relatively more of them.. But I'm not sorry for the anti male parts :) We're sadly setting the norm and always takes advantage of it..!
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If people watched less news they wouldn't have such bad impressions of things. It's funny how people see something on the news like violence in a supposed bad part of town then think that's all that goes on in the area shown. Like if you go to So. Central or Bronx, you're going to run into violence everywhere. It's funny how many people think they need a gun for protection.
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Another problem is a lot of criminals are repeats because they have little to fear about our punishment system.
Actually I don't agree with you on the guns statement, its our right to own arms, our freedom. The other problems are more dire, I mean probably .1% - 1% of all firearms in the US are used in crime(I'm just guessing based on the knowledge of how many crimes can be committed vs. how many guns my dad and uncle have and we only target shoot, we don't even hunt). Oh yeah guns are a great investment because they don't depreciate in value.
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@12
1. To much Caps, theres a little button below tab that will help ya on that.
2. Those people in the dead rising video were paid promoters.
3. What are you 12, most gamers are regular people, with regular jobs. Im a profesional, with a girl firend. But oh look, i also used to run 3 gaming servers and headed up a clan. Its called a hobby, and really has nothing to do with how said "Geeky" someone is. And if your in highschool. Well those so called geeks, will be your boss someday.
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I'm not saying everybody who plays violent video games are psychopaths, i'm just saying IF there is a connection between violence in videogames and violence in life... that's the ONLY one right there!
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People who do this have something wrong in their brains, that's all, nothing to do with violent videogames, those stoopid discussions about videogames and violence just get me mad! LOL
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--mu
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Someone said the kids have guns and so do the games so the games caused the kids to fire their guns because children do what they see is being done.
That logic is flawed because it assumes kids are flat out stupid, have to be told when and how to do every little thing every single time, don't have an opinion nor are they intelligent enough to formulate one, and all of them are the same. (There are adults who truly belive this!)
The sad thing about it all is that this form of logic is used to describe the cause of these violent acts even when the "kid" committing it is a teenager or even an adult.
("People ask, Is it the movies? Is it the music?, Why can't they just be crazy?" -Chris Rock (Comedian)).
It is perfectly okay to break a reciever in half with the 'HIT STICK' in MADDEN, blow up a car in Twisted Metal, or shoot someone in Medal of Honor, Shoot down a plane in Ace Combat, but it is not okay to do these things in Grand Theft Auto.
These studies are illogical because they don't consider the fact that some see some of this stuff in real life on a daily basis. And on top of that you can turn to HBO and watch Tony Soprano blow some one's head off or one of the ladies from Sex in the City Having sex.
Yet they single out the one thing that they can link to the largest amount of people.
At the base of it all, there are just a bunch of people (politicians, lawyers, psychiatrists, etc) playing off this just so they can become popular with whichever groups of people they seek popularity in and of course, as always, money.
Before we had all these "game" problems, we had "radio" problems, "television" problems, and "movie" problems.
This will never end. People will try to blame whatever is popular from a particular sub category (My previous points were in the area of technology as a sub category in popular culture. Poke'man cards, South Park, The colored braclet game, or whatever else has caused this kind of backlash from the media, governments, medical community, etc.) and what they see as a cause of unintended reaction among "kids"
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What started out as a cool mp3 player is now a device that is destroying our youth's minds, brainwashing them, has the possibility of causing medical problems, and whatever lies anyone can add to the list just so they can get thier name on the list and be popular as I said before.
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First dancing was blamed for bad behavior
Then Music was blamed.
Then came the TV, and so violence on TV was blamed.
Now since the 90s they've been blaming video games, and more recently the Internet is now being blamed (re:recent Montreal rampage)
Nobody ever just wants to admit, that some people are just funked up peices of shiat!
Not to mention the first place to really look is in the persons living conditions (parent/siblings/peers/anyone else that has regular contact with the person). You usually need to look no further.
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What ever is popular and, in some society's opinon, causes "problems in youth" gets blamed for all of youth's proplems.
In the blog about the violence in videogame study, I jokingly concluded that good parenting is out of style.
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Trying to tolerate our differences often leads to violence. Among social issues are the factors that "could" inspire us to commit violent acts toward one another. These include but are not limited to: Religion, Class, Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, Nationality/Ethnic Background, Appearance, Personality, interests, viewpoints, Social Affiliations, etc. Media is merely a reflection of what humanity has already presented to itself throughout it's history. Of course some of these reflections are modified to the point where you could classify it as fantasy, but even that has the basic characteristics of how human beings interact with one another in real life. (Love, hate, depression, jealousy, violence, etc.)
Now, do these reflections harm an individual? It depends on who the person is. If that person didn't experience that kind of media, would it have prevented the individual from recieving inspiration to commit a violent act? I doubt it to some degree, but again it depends on the person and the environment he/she lives in.
All I'm really trying to say is that if video games weren't around as a scapegoat, something else will surely be there to take it's place. IMHO, if video games weren't around, there'd probably be more violence since more people will spend time outside socializing with others. Unfortunately we all come across people we just can't tolerate, or we come across people who can't tolerate us. That's where the violence begins.
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the files from the governments websites clearly show that murder rates in teens and 20's dramatically drops as video games get more and more popular.
....theft has increaed though, but no one mentions that.
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i think its easier to get a hold of a gun then join a pro-athelete team.
those killers had an issue before playing games. Something wasn't right. Im not just saying oh they had problems they're crazy.
Not everyone that plays games kill people.
Playing games is an output, but so can anything else.
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