Do Video Games Make People Violent?

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Okay, so I touched on this topic before in other thread, but thought I'd create one to properly ask this question:

Do video games make people violent?

My response is a resounding no. Fact of the matter being anyone has the chance to act on violence. It's not a missing link that as a human species that we're known for causing mayhem and destruction for lesser things. However, to blame video games for the increase of that is just plain wrong. History has shown us that we've taken to acts of violence before video games were made. If you were a person of a different race, you were fought/killed or enslaved for being who you are. If you were just a prisoner of war, you were killed or placed in camps. If you were a different religion, you either submitted to a new one that you didn't agree with or you died. So, it seems to be a rather bold state to say: "Videos games make someone violent."

This, of course, is only my way of thinking and opinion. I'm more than open to hearing your thoughts on this everyone! :D
 
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No offense to you or this post specifically or anything but I get so sick of this question. I feel like this debate might never entirely go away, you know?

I don't think that video games or other media make people violent, by any means. If there's any correlation at all, I think it's the other way around. Already violent people may gravitate to and enjoy violent media in ways that the rest of us can't relate to. But for most people it's just a way to blow off steam or just enjoy the game for other reasons.
 
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No. The media (I'm looking at you CNN, Fox and other news stations) has been grossly exaggerating these situations. Video games in no way encourage violent behavior. In fact, it is the complete opposite for me as I play video games for stress-relief and fun. I like to make the analogy that people play video games to release their violence instead of in real life. People who agree that video games makes people violent are ignorant, and looks for a scapegoat for his/her son's/daughter's behavior.
 
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The media has always had a issue with videogames. I mean there were so many debaters like Jack Thompson who had debated about the game called "Bully". I could remember when he and Adam Sessler had duked it out when the G4TV channel was still there. Jack Thompson looked like an idiot when he debated against Adam Sessler. I could recall the game "Bully" was really good and it was something that was made from Rockstar Games. Going back on point videogames are created to allow people to escape life's horrible situations. You do not need to play the videogames to be a violent person. Look at Jack the Ripper he did not play any videogames to prove he was a violent person. He was already violent to begin with but there were no videogames back in Jack the Ripper's day either. If you chose to go off on a killing spree it is on your own indulgence. The videogames are just virtual and do not have anything to do with how you behave. You make your own decision to stab a person with a knife. There is no absolute way that a virtual simulator of any kind would persuade you to make that move. People act violently on his or her own volition so it is not like you use videogames as a scapegote. So I would just stick to using videogames for entertainment purposes.
 
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Its the mainstream media way of getting rid of gamers or something. And the parents listen to the mainstream media like a bunch of sheep resulting in fucking up situations between gamers and their parents. I think the only people that are aggressive in games are little kids (around the 10 years old) They seem too young to handle fucked up situations in games and tend to rage and get aggressive about it.
 
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@JessiFox - No, I totally understand. No offense taken. I get sick of people blaming it on whatever is the most popular things among the community. I just wished to talk about because I rather enlighten and ask questions, rather than have it stashed away and completely misconstrued.

@ozadin - My thoughts exactly. There have been more than one account of people in the media's light saying false allegations against a company or game. It's a shock that they haven't gotten sued for slander, yet. I guess simply saying: "I'm sorry, I haven't played the game" negates that chance to do so.

@Profit5500 - The media has been doing this type of thing since we've been convienced. People don't take the time to research things and go with wild allegations to stir up some attention. Before video games, you know it had to have been movies that were deemed evil. Or was it that "dang rap music", I forget which. :)

@Robbinho14 - It's like you said, it's the scapegoat that's currently popular in today's society. If you so much as do some research on the types of age appropriate games, parents, I don't think you need to worry. Also, putting in effort to watch what they play and explain things to them would help too. Just a thought.
 
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No, not at all. My thoughts have always been that people have always been violent. People who are inherently violent will be violent whether they play video games or not. If anything, video games will serve as a cathartic outlet for them to express frustration or anger, as for many people. The media just needs to blame their failures as a society on something when a teenaged kid gets a gun from our lack of gun control and shoots people with it -- so they pick video games as the culprit, and it's ridiculous.
 
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@majessticah - You mirror my thoughts exactly.
"Quick! Someone just shot up a school!"
"Were they anti-social?"
"He was a loner that didn't speak much."
"Then he must be a gamer. Come up with a bs report by the end of the day."
Ridiculous.
 
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@JessiFox - No, I totally understand. No offense taken. I get sick of people blaming it on whatever is the most popular things among the community. I just wished to talk about because I rather enlighten and ask questions, rather than have it stashed away and completely misconstrued.

Oh I totally agree that discussion is good, it just seems like too often the discussion isn't really enlightening people because the people who are already being reasonable about it are already going to understand and agree, and the people (and/or media outlets) that aren't being reasonable aren't likely to listen. But perhaps I'm being a bit too jaded on it. A little discussion never hurt :)
 
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@JessiFox - This is ,also, sadly true. While individuals that try to state a point try to be rational, the people in charge try to tune them out by talking over them and just trying to pass off a further stigma. The reasoning is still: "If it bleeds, it leads" to them. If they lose one of their main hot topics, they need to try to do, Heave forbid, ACTUAL work for something that's more legit.

*Sighs*

I saw one of these types when a guy was demonstrating a video game and the news person purposely kept bombarding him with inane questions.

"How do we go from hitting prostitutes to playing a lego game? Why is there violence in this game? Are you trying to promote violence to small children?"

The guy straight up told him that he's focusing on the violent aspect of the game rather than the game itself. He tried to sway people to "think of the children" mindset because all he saw was something that he didn't understand, even though the gamer tried to explain it to him only for it to fall on death ears because he hit him with one stupid question after the other.
 
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