AH-Avatars Founder Group: Members
Joined: Jul 21, 2012
The violence in video games, in my opinion, only affects as small amount of people, not every single person who decides to kill someone in GTA. It's not like you squash a turtle in Mario then go to every zoo you can find jumping on turtles, is it?
My behaviour is not influenced by GTA - I always shoot people and pick up the floating glowing wads of cash.
Basicly violence in video games, and other media like movies, is blamed too much, it affects nobody, ever! If you were to grab a gun and shoot someone, your motive is NOT video game violence in any way, it is because you are psychotic and/or you have some actual motive. I have never seen any legitimate investigator use VG or TV violence as the motivation for a murder or an assault, and I never will. The only way it is relevent is perhaps the method in which it was carried out, like some guy copy-cated Dexter's murder technique. But these kind of people will kill others anyway, they don't need a TV show or a game to make them do that, the fact they can do that is because of a psychological issue, and they would have done the deed eventually.
It is mostly parents who are either in denial that their child is just a 'bad person', they think it reflects poorly on them, when that is not necessarilly the case, as if someone is psychotic they are psychotic, just born that way. Consequently they will look for someone or something to blame. Also if parents have lost their child they will look for someone or something to blame, people do this in times of grief, and media violence is a scapegoat.
At the risk of sounding like LW: These parents make it a scapegoat by getting some politician on board who wants to make a name for him/herself get on the front pages be seen as a 'crusader against violence' and climb the political ladder
I'm sorry but I do not agree with that part. I heard about somebody killing another person in the real world because of a conflict in World of Warecraft. Although I didn't find this exact story, I did find some others. They can be found here.
The people who blame their violence on violent video game, such as the GTA series, are f*ckheads! They are just not mature enough to play the game. I played GTA 1 and Half Life at the age of 7, I have no problems with violence. I knew that it was only a game, and that's it.
Wilderness of Mirrors Group: The Connection
Joined: Feb 14, 2011
QUOTE (KaRzY6 @ Thursday, Jul 26 2012, 11:23)
The people who blame their violence on violent video game, such as the GTA series, are f*ckheads! They are just not mature enough to play the game. I played GTA 1 and Half Life at the age of 7, I have no problems with violence. I knew that it was only a game, and that's it.
Wasn't Half-life 2 released by the time you were actually 7? Judging by the birth-date on your profile, it was. Personally, I'm of the view that in small numbers of people, and in small numbers of cases, violence in video games, in music or in other media forms does have an impact on their mental state and thus their actions- but these cases are few, far between, and the exact relationship between these influences and their actions is not clear-cut. So put simply, someone who is sound of mind should not be influenced by them.
Logically Horizontal Group: City Link
Joined: Sep 26, 2002
QUOTE (sivispacem @ Thursday, Jul 26 2012, 11:08)
QUOTE (KaRzY6 @ Thursday, Jul 26 2012, 11:23)
The people who blame their violence on violent video game, such as the GTA series, are f*ckheads! They are just not mature enough to play the game. I played GTA 1 and Half Life at the age of 7, I have no problems with violence. I knew that it was only a game, and that's it.
Wasn't Half-life 2 released by the time you were actually 7? Judging by the birth-date on your profile, it was. Personally, I'm of the view that in small numbers of people, and in small numbers of cases, violence in video games, in music or in other media forms does have an impact on their mental state and thus their actions- but these cases are few, far between, and the exact relationship between these influences and their actions is not clear-cut. So put simply, someone who is sound of mind should not be influenced by them.
Excuse the short answer, but I disagree.
I think its more likely these few cases already have a unstable mental state, and the violence in media/games probably justs tips them over the edge.
I find it hard to believe that one can go from being 'stable' to 'unstable' purely by playing/watching/listening to violence. They must be ill minded in the first place, no?
sea dwelling madman Group: Members
Joined: Jan 30, 2003
Ah, but we must remember that children are incredibly mentally unstable. They're thrust into this world and burdened with expectation before, in many cases, they can even talk.
So, yeah, I think if a very young child has no social community to speak of beyond playing violent videogames and being rewarded for developing his or her psychopathic tendencies, it's going to lead to a screwed up adolescent. But the key fact here isn't the access to violent media, it's the absence of community. That's the real abuse and it's happening more and more frequently these days - partly because of irrational fear, partly because both parents are more and more likely to be working professionals these days, and partly because people are having less children. Lonely kids locked up in their basement with a nanny who can't speak english and a copy of Grand Theft Auto.
Wilderness of Mirrors Group: The Connection
Joined: Feb 14, 2011
QUOTE (Viperman @ Thursday, Jul 26 2012, 16:35)
I find it hard to believe that one can go from being 'stable' to 'unstable' purely by playing/watching/listening to violence. They must be ill minded in the first place, no?
I think you have misunderstood me. I've not made the claim that video games are the trigger for transition from "stable" to "violent" mental states- I firmly believe that unless the individual concerned has, as Otter indicates, been indoctrinated with violence using these mediums over all else, they can only form a contributing factor. The psychological predisposition to violence, history of mental illness et cetera pre-exists. The violence in video games or other media just acts as a contributing factor in some cases.
I'm sorry but I do not agree with that part. I heard about somebody killing another person in the real world because of a conflict in World of Warecraft. Although I didn't find this exact story, I did find some others. They can be found here.
That's not violence inspired by video game violence; to which I was referring to and that is the issue here. This is about people taking a game too seriously. Completely different issue, people could do that over any game really.
The murder was not due to the game being violent, it was due to 2 main factors: 1 - The guy took WoW too seriously, can happen with any game, this has nothing to do with violent content of the game, could happen over WoW, GTA or Mario Kart 2 - As with any murders (as I see them) the perp has something off with him, to take another person's life you must have something off with you, thats how I feel about murder anyway.
Playamus Hatamus Group: Members
Joined: Nov 19, 2011
^agree with you Maybe, the guy who killed the other guy due to the WoW has some problems such as getting angry easily, bad tempered etc. We can't relate it to the violent contents in video gaming. Games do not make people's mind unstable. Parents use to say that to their kids who spend too much of time playing video games. It eventually became a huge issue over the recent years. It's a false statement.
I'm sorry but I do not agree with that part. I heard about somebody killing another person in the real world because of a conflict in World of Warecraft. Although I didn't find this exact story, I did find some others. They can be found here.
That's not violence inspired by video game violence; to which I was referring to and that is the issue here. This is about people taking a game too seriously. Completely different issue, people could do that over any game really.
The murder was not due to the game being violent, it was due to 2 main factors: 1 - The guy took WoW too seriously, can happen with any game, this has nothing to do with violent content of the game, could happen over WoW, GTA or Mario Kart 2 - As with any murders (as I see them) the perp has something off with him, to take another person's life you must have something off with you, thats how I feel about murder anyway.
As one of the things that brings you the most joy and comfort in life, as one of the only platforms where you have a large group of friends to talk to and have fun with, and as something you've invested many, many hours of your life in, as that man probably did with WoW, playing the old and, in my honest opinion, ignorant and idiotic "You take games too seriously" card, (That's not to say that the user is ignorant and/or idiotic, just that you haven't considered the issue before writing it as such, or not from the right light) is just meaningless.
Someone killing someone else simply because he's a messed up individual is crazy, NO MATTER THE REASON. The WoW thing that got he other guy killed is simply the EXCUSE for killing somebody, and the game itself had NOTHING to do with the decision making process. Sodas don't hurt people because, one time, two people fought over the last soda in the vending machine, which was free.
As for the actual topic, psychologists/psychiatrists/numerous studies haven't been able to link violence to playing video games in any credible way. For us, a bunch of average Joes with no proficiency in the matter, to talk about this topic in such a generalist fashion, and tell people whether it's certain or even probable that violent video games don't affect behaviors all that much is funny.
The best we can do is look at our experience, either share them here or just draw the conclusions from the INDIVIDUAL cases.
With some (Although quite basic) psychological knowledge, I'll try to give in my two cents.
The issue has been considered from several different perspectives, but most experts agree (And, to be honest, it makes the most sense to me personally, maybe to most of you) that the real possible issue with children playing video games is that, if they play it at an impressionable age where they can't distinguish between real and fictional, bad things will happen inside their head.
I was introduced to video games at a very early age. The first games I played were M Alien Paranoia, where you're an alien running around, collecting screws and killing enemies (With boomerangs, lasers and slapping them to death, which is so far off from reality it is, in my opinion, irrelevant, since those have been around since the 60s and they seem not to have affected anybody, or at least, a remotely relevant majority.) I then proceeded to play some games about Tarzan, Aladdin and so forth. A lot of fantasy games, where the violence was so distant from anything in reality that distinguishing between real and fictional was no a real issue.
In the mean time, my father was rocking out to Doom, Quake, and later Half Life, Red Faction and many other shooters that were coming out. At the time. However, I don't know if this was his intention or not, but he didn't expose me to those games until I understood that video games were video games, and reality was reality. Only then, when I could make that distinction clear as day, because the computer was the thing with the aliens and monkeys, while real life was real life, did he introduce me to "realistical" or at least realistically looking shooters.
The concern seems to be that nowadays, parents are skipping the in between stage, and are ignorantly buying realistic, urban 1st person shooters to 5 year old children who don't really have it carved in their brain, as most of us have had, that interactive video games (yes, that's probably an oxymoron, but the interactive part is very very important in this context) have NO relation to real life.
As far as I've seen around myself and analyzing my own behavior, I can say that most children CAN actually distinguish between video games and real life, however I can't speak for everybody, especially considering these modern, uber realistic URBAN shooters. I do think that, even if children can emphasize with the story, main character and so on, they still won't go on a killing spree because they think it's ok OR they don't understand the problem with doing that. The only other thing that can be argued is strange kids who would grow up to be checked into a mental institute playing video games and going out and doing it. MAYBE that could be an issue, but I haven't heard any solid cases of that happening, however the Norway shooter one does seem at least plausible.
Thus, in my opinion, violent video games DO NOT provoke violence in real life. And, even if it can be argued that it could, if the "in between" step of really fantasy style games is thrown in, before the really realistical shooter ones, then it is my belief that in 90% of cases, the kids would be just fine.
As for video games desensitizing kids' views on death and such, it depends on the person and their involvement with video games, but I do tihnk that's real. However, even though I've been playing video games forever, and am used to fighting bosses and just conflict and such in every game, it was all so fictional and easy to separate from real life, that to this day I'm deathly scared of REAL LIFE confrontation. Fighting/arguing on the internet, going toe to toe with someone in a multiplayer game, all fine, talking to some guy knowing there's a risk of having to fight, even if he's not bigger than me, freaking horrifying.
I think it's the same as before. It's so different from real life taht the only thing video games could desensitize is the kid's ability to empathize with genocide victims, but attitude towards deaths of people close to him or deaths they can understand, that seem very real, will not be affected by video games, in my (rock solid) opinion.
In conclusion, if my train of thought was correct, the only real issue would be kids' ability to separate real from fiction, which I think, from my experience, is not at all uncommon.
violent video games do not cause violence. 99% of the violent crime in this world can be traced DIRECTLY to a poor childhood resulting from weak parenting or a complete lack of strong parental influence.
if you raise a normal, well-adjusted child in a relatively normal household then you can expose them to all the violent games and movies you want. he's not going to kill anybody. if he does, it won't be because of the games or movies.
children learn to separate fantasy from reality at an early age. being able to mow down crowds of human beings with headshots using your M16 in Call of Duty DOES NOT translate to the ability to effectively wield an M16 in real life. most kids are naturally afraid of or intimated by real firearms unless they were raised in a household where guns were a big deal and used all the time; like if their dad is a deer hunter or target shooter or something.
there's not a shred of viable evidence that can link violent media exposure to increased levels of violent behavior. sometimes it seems like there's more violence today than in the past but that's not true at all.
it seems this way because we have news on TV and the internet that runs 24-7 and covers the entire world (and they like to focus on sensational, violent news instead of happy, peaceful news); we're simply hearing about violence more often, it's not actually happening any more often. and then you have to consider the fact that video games have only existed for about as long as the 24-7 / 365 global news cycle. both of these things came along in just the last 25 years.
the Earth has a history of extreme violence and genocide that has been going on for THOUSANDS OF YEARS before games and movies ever existed. if anything, our total level of violence and suffering has gone DOWN drastically in the last couple of centuries.
also, watch this:
This post has been edited by El_Diablo on Wednesday, Aug 1 2012, 21:49
Livin' It Up At The Hotel California Group: Members
Joined: Apr 12, 2012
As said on radio stations in GTA, your children should already be asleep this late, you should have put them to bed hours ago etc.
Metaphorically meaning you should pay more attention to what your children play/buy. After all you are the parent the child needs to give them recongition to purchase and play the game. If you say your kids told you it wasn't violent you are still at fault being you didn't read the rating.
Sh$t some of you sound like Hilary Clinton
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