Response Essay

Julian Miller

October 2, 2013

Mr. Dilbeck

Composition I

Response essay

            With the of  release GTA 5 as recent as last week, the topic of video game violence has come back in the media and is being discussed vigorously. In majority of video games, disturbing acts of violence such as unflinching, cold blooded murder, traumatic physical and mental abuse, and various other disturbing acts are constantly displayed. Though there are few exceptions most video games like shooters, action games, and role playing have violence, despite this almost every young man in America around the ages of 6 to 35 has played such a video game or still does including myself. The success of some these games are so phenomenal that they reach other branches of American culture like music or the super bowl and make hundreds of millions of dollars on a single day. So does video games violence truly affects young minds into committing acts of real violence or does the already violent individuals just express themselves through it?

            Video games violence has been around as long as video games themselves back in the arcade days when Mortal Kombat, Pac Man, and Donkey Kong were the reigning kings of the games. These games were violent as well especially Mortal Kombat which is almost solely credited for being the reason why the video game rating system was created. Many parents were upset about such violent games being able to reach their kids so easily so a company created the ESRB (Video Game Rating System) and it serves as the tool for parents to know when a game is violent and when a more child appropriate game is available though many parents ignore or simply don’t care about the system and buy a “Mature” game anyway. So even though they are ill advised, many violent games get into children’s hands and actually become some of their favorite games.

            This however is where the problem lies; there have been cases of violent crimes portrayed by children who were influenced by video game violence. There have been cases where children have committed murder and media has tired to link the cause of the crime to a Video game. Such was the case with the 8 year old Louisiana boy who shot and killed his 87 year old grandmother after playing the violent video game Grand theft Auto IV, the article states. “Although a motive for the shooting is unknown at this time investigators have learned that the juvenile suspect was playing a video game on the Play Station III 'Grand Theft Auto IV,' a realistic game that has been associated with encouraging violence and awards points to players for killing people, just minutes before the homicide occurred.”(Russell, CNN 2013).  Each case is different but the question that always seems to come up is if violence from video games is influencing kids or is the child themselves just expressing their violent nature within a simulated experience until they take into the real world?

            Many question whether the grotesque crimes committed by the youth have direct correlation with the crimes committed on a game. Millions of people play these games everyday yet these cases are few and far between, but there are no doubt constant. The side that supports censorship of violence maintains that if censorship isn’t achieved the effect of constant graphic violence will numb a new generation and cause a class of sociopaths. those who say censorship is unneeded; Often gamers or people in the gaming industry downplay or disregard the effect on video game violence and argue that generally most of the time, video game violence is used as a scapegoat for young offenders to point there fingers at. Both viewpoints have valid points and example cases that support either argument, the spectrum seems to be wide as each case is different and specific.

There have numerous studies and findings on the correlation between real life crime and murder and video game violence and crime but these studies seems to clash just as the opposing sides do. There have been several studies supporting that video games violence does affect the mind but studies done by The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and The British Medical Journal point out that there is no correlation at all between the two subjects. With such conflicting and ultimately inconclusive studies being done the debate turns more into an opinionated slugfest between parents, politicians and gamers. Thus a debate that has been going on for 20 years continues, unflinching and unrelenting. Censorship and correlation or free speech and coincidence, the debate that affects thousands of mind goes on.