Do violent video games make people violent? Options

[Faith]

No they don't. I'm very adamant on this subject. Video games, or any other form of entertainment out there for that matter, do NOT make people violent. They can be the final spark that sets off an already unstable person, but they do not, by themselves, make a person violent.

Amen. I hate hearing all that crap that idiot Florida lawyer Jack Thompson spouts about violence in video games. Hello, movies, certain songs, and tv are just as violent, if not more so. There's no reason to single video games out. Blaming video games is just an excuse to keep people from taking responsibility for their own actions.

And I know there have been studies that have found nothing to support the idea. I'm just too tired right now to go digging for an example.

[Patsie]

Lag is violent enough xD

no lol um it depends on the person IMO

[Asuka]

Just keep impressionable kids away from violent games

[Honoo no Tobira]

Hmm, violence in games. I don't think they make anyone violent. Perhaps they might make the person experience certain things that won't happen in real life but it won't affect a person's 'degree of violence'(??).

The person might try to imitate certain stuff in the games but it'll wear off sooner or later... right? And besides, whether the person wants to imitate the game/characters is all up to him/her.

[.Em]

Games do so tell you to kill people, that's the point of most of them. They just happen to be virtual.

I've never played a game that told me to kill myself or others.

Like the boy in the UK, went out to the woods and killed a boy using a killing technique off Manhunt.

Also a UK guy who travelled abroad started jumping on turtles killing them then when he got took away he tried breaking free and stated "Let go of me, they are trying to kidnap the princess"

any game can be considered to learn people to murder. It's just whther they have a sense to know that it is all fiction, you have to be seriously weak minded to go out and kill somebody with a key, declaring that they are the heartless... or nobodies...

or Retarded.

[Hypnotiq]

or be a serial killer looking for innovative ideas on how to be remembered infamously.

when i hear about kids in America going for a joy ride in thier parents cars and then say "i learnt that from Gta".

Whose fault is it, the parent for letting a minor child play such a game?, or the kid for taking up the idea and thinkin it's okay to jack cars?

[Guest_Sephiroth_*]

or be a serial killer looking for innovative ideas on how to be remembered infamously.

when i hear about kids in America going for a joy ride in thier parents cars and then say "i learnt that from Gta".

Whose fault is it, the parent for letting a minor child play such a game?, or the kid for taking up the idea and thinkin it's okay to jack cars?

Both are to blame, I mean even in GTA there are concequences, They may not be life like, but there is still concequences and everybody is smart enough to know that concequences can not be avoided.

The kid obviously let the game go to his head, and the parents wasn't secure about their car, therefor it looks easy and vulnrable, That is why he did it, even if he didn't play GTA he most probably would have done it, and just blamed it on something else "oh I learned that off XXX" anything can be blamed for it

[EbeneezerAl]

People have been blaming entertainment for as long as entertainment has existed. I have heard people complain that Loony tunes was making people violent, and in fact I remember a time when It was hard to find it on TV, due to it's violent nature. They replaced it with shows that had moral lessons taught tat he end of them. No punches were thrown and everyone learned how to shareand do unto others and all that jazz.

And what happened? People continued to become more violent. And people continue to blame entertainment. You tried to fix it that way and it didn't work. Take a hint.

What annoys me even more. Prople getting out of prison setences with excuses like that. Video games made me do it. Oh you poor dear. He just neds some time in a mental institution, not jail. So you spend a little time in a loony bin, get out, and return to your violent ways. This is crap. If your brand of craz makes you savagely murder and mutilate innocent people for you own sick pleasure, then you deserve to spend you life in jail. If it makes someone feel better to make it a little white padded jail cell and put the psycho in a strai jacket, so be it. But these people do not deserve to walk free because "they didn't know any better". That just makes them more dangerous.

[Honoo no Tobira]

Upbringing also is an important point. If there is no proper guidence, the child can do whatever he wants. If that guidence is there, do you think the child would mimic the game??

[Whiplash]

I've never played a game that told me to kill myself or others.
or Retarded.

You've never played an FPS? The point of most of those games is to kill your opponents, I did specify 'virtual'

[Raiace]

Upbringing also is an important point. If there is no proper guidence, the child can do whatever he wants. If that guidence is there, do you think the child would mimic the game??

Quite true, but what if the upbringers did not care much for the child?

[Jewell]

Anyone who thinks computer games make people violent, needs to have their head blown off with a rocket-launcher whilst being munched by hordes of flesh-eating zombies.

Seriously, though, some people (like Jack Thompson) aren't going to be happy until everyone is living like Flanders' family from The Simpsons.

[Whiplash]

And if the devil doesn't like it he can sit on a tac

[Guest_Kamille Frass_*]

Quite true, but what if the upbringers did not care much for the child?

That's the point.

The media is blamed because it's easy to do so. Hollywood and other media symbols are not our cesspool, they're our idealistic mirror, they're what we want to see. If they weren't, people would not be spending so much money to support it. Almost everybody has come into contact with images or depictions of violence. If these things made people violent, nearly everybody would be, and nearly everybody isn't. People have done violent things long before the media as we know it has existed. It's a pre-disposition of some people. Some believe it really is the best way to solve a problem. It's time people start taking responsibility for their own actions.

Sometimes I really feel that half of the reason media exists is so that there will always be a scapegoat for every perceived shortcoming people don't want to blame on themselves.

This post has been edited by Kamille Frass: Oct 21 2006, 08:49 AM

[Phoenix]

EbeneezerAl nailed it with his first post. As far as I'm concerned, he closed the argument right there.

Of course, you're never going to find many Jack Thompson types on a computer game forum are you? The outcome of this debate was never in doubt.

[Jinxer]

I agree with Al. I get really pissed off when people blame violence on video games. No, they do not cause violence, its just that a select few who play them are retards and become violent. There was something about a massacre a few years ago where three kids killed everyone in their school, pupils and students, with guns (I can't remember it all that clearly so I don't know where it was, what guns they had etc.) and before killing themselves they paid a tribute to their favourite video game, Doom.

Then the news find out and blame video games for this, the parents sue the company that makes Doom but they don't care where their kids got these guns. It really does piss me off when retards in the government think they can blame video games or anything else for violence as long as it suits them.

[Revolver Ocelot]

The always-evolving blob of human stupidity will continue to pump out more and more people who deserve a personalized Darwin Award along with a trip to the sun in a space rocket. Video games never make people violent, it's just a common fact. The only anger I have ever expressed while playing a game is frustration, and that never travels past a scream and a controller to the floor. People always think they can circumvent law by expressing ignorance and raw stupidity toward it by blaming a game...OF ALL THINGS. Individuals who blame video games as the root of all violence have either thought of this themselves on a fairly ignorant basis, or had some jackass like Jack Thompson spoon-feed them such B.S. to a point where they believe every word of it.

This post has been edited by Revolver Ocelot: Oct 23 2006, 07:57 PM

[Guest_Kevin_*]

Jack Thompson is a moron. He may go to jail soon, I hope he does.

[Guest_Black Mage_*]

i dont belive it because some of the games do almost impossible things. I mean how many times would you see a kid walking around the streets of LA or somewhere with a bozoka.

[GreytfullDad]

Do video games make people violent? The answer to the specific question is No.
The problem with violence in society is multi-lateral, starting with a demise of spiritual (note I did note say religous) upbringing and understanding, lack of parental supervision due to two working parent families ( not tp mention the demsie of the historical family unit), and a TOTAL lack of personal responsability for ones actions brought about by idiot lawyers who seek to defend their clients by blaming anyone or anything for the actions.

This creates a moral void, a disconnect of knowledge of good vs. evil and right vs. wrong. That void is filled by listening to music, watching TV or video, and playing video/computer game. This while not MAKING a person violent does desensitize a persons brain to violence, making the concept less rtepulsive and easier to accept in the real world.

The last piece of the puzzle is that all this virtual time keeps people sheltered from the real world and the do not know how to create a nurture healthy and productive interpersonal relationships, now add in a slight menatl instability and what do you have...

But just playing a violent game will not make you violent, no more than watching "Snow White" will make you romantic

JMHO, Old guy Out