Death is so commonplace in today’s society that the common public has become desensitized to its influence. The loss of life is something that everyone should be sad of, but we seem to have lost the ability to empathize with others who experience that loss. On every phone, computer, and T.V. there are thousands upon thousands of news articles and interviews that inform the public of horrific killings around the world. Titles such as “20 people died in a massacre” or “four killed in an unfortunate school shooting” flood the collective consciousness of the public, but we sit here, unmoving, because of the meaningless numbers presented to us. No one cares if four people died in an accident; they’ll only care if the people who died in the accident were actually known to them. A number means nothing; a personality means everything.
And now, in totally related and not at all over dramatized and fictional news, video games are the root of everything that is wrong with the upcoming generation and is causing a majority of all gun related deaths. That seems like a big jump, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, that is the jump that an incredibly large amount of people make every time they hear anything negative about young people. I am not going to sit here and say that video games have nothing to do with these problems. It is incredibly likely, if not guaranteed, that they do cause some bad things. However, this is not to the extent that the mainstream media is trying to portray. But to what extent do video games actually influence negative actions?
Before we begin by talking about the studies and numbers, it is important to the aspects of games that cannot be defined by studies. Often, media outlets attack video games by saying that they glorify the act of killing. It is impossible to put a number on this idea, but even so, President Trump, on a panel after the Parkland School Shooting, announced that video games contribute to the glorification of violence in society. This is only a fallacy, because no actual proof is given to justify that accusation. Even if it were true, what stops other forms of media from having the same effect? Books, movies , and T.V. shows all have similar glorified themes that video games have, so if this argument is brought up against video games, it must be brought up against all media.
There are themes in video games that do glorify death and the act of killing, but there are also themes that protect against those. This is a quote from one such game. “As proof of one’s life, there exists the danger of death. This proof exists as a flame, painfully burning one’s life away.” This comes from Persona 3 FES. This game has incredible themes of mourning and eventually moving on after the loss of a loved one and finding meaning in life before it ends. Unfortunately, when the debate of whether or not video games cause violence comes up, the accusers cherry pick games, and never provide a full story. Games like Doom do have obscene amounts of gore, but for every Doom, there is a Persona 3 FES. Only certain games should be considered in a bad light; a vast majority are harmless fun, or actually dissuade people from participating in violence.
With the opinionated topics out of the way, we can now begin looking into the facts. Because this idea that video games cause violence is so ingrained in mainstream culture, one could be forgiven for believing it. However, there has not been a single study, out of the thousands completed, that links video games with an increase in violent behavior. The major links are upbringing, gender, and previous disposition. There have been successful studies linking video games and a rise in aggression, but that same aggression comes when a person’s favorite football team loses, or when they don’t understand their math homework. It is not indicative of games, but of passion. One may argue that these studies are biased; that they are conducted by gamers to persuade the government that video games have no correlation with violence whatsoever. That would be false. Many credible institutions have commented on and researched this issue. one such article comes from Harvard Medical School, in which the researchers debunk many accusations slated towards video games. They stated that “Federal crime statistics suggest that serious violent crimes among youths have decreased since 1996, even as video game sales have soared.” This flies in the face of many people’s ideas when it comes to video games. This study, however, does not give any conformation that extremely violent video games are productive either. It seems that these games are incredibly neutral.
Personally, I don’t play incredibly violent video games. I don’t find them as interesting as other more nuanced games. However, I still see them as important, and certainly nothing that should be banned or limited. Video games are a form of free speech, and no matter how violent the game is, it still is to be protected. And without cold hard facts linking violent games to murders and shootings, politicians need to stop talking about them. They use games as a distraction to avoid the real problems, like the questions surrounding gun control. Instead of figuring that out, why don’t we go play a video game and then blame that.
Cheesecakeify My Opinion 