Do Violent Video Games Cause Violence In America?

Within the year 2008, the staggering amount of 298.2 million video games were sold creating a booming video game industry worth 11.7 billion dollars! In a video game, the plastic controller dictates every move and shot of the player. Out of the 298.2 million video games sold, 15.5% was rated mature, indicating violence. However, within such a minor percentage, people find controversy with the violence in video games. People of all ages love video games, creating a high entertainment value. Video games, including ones attaining violence, provide valuable experiences for the players. While competing in the games, the players are able to learn as they play, including learning about professions and science and greatly influencing society. During

In the world, 97% of children play video games. Players highly enjoy the thrill extracted out of the games. For example, the violent game, “killer”, became an end of the year ritual for many years enjoyed by numerous New York public and private schools. Today, some argue that violent video games add to the danger in America. The opposers present the idea that the 2013 Washington, DC shooter was addicted to video games. However, the number of youth offenders fell by more than half between 1994 and 2010, while game sales doubled. The connection between the sales of video games to gun-related murders supports the reasoning of video games being harmless. According to “Forbes: Do Games Like ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real World Violence (2013)”, the Netherlands sold the most amount of video games in 2011, around 117 per capita. South Korea followed close behind with around 103 video games per capita. South Korea has minimal murders by gun each year and the Netherlands has less than 46,000 murders by guns. The United States falls behind in video game consuming with 42 per capita. Even though the United States does not sell the most video games in accordance to its size, it has the highest number of murders by gun, around 1,030,000. However, despite the fact the United States has the most murders by gun as video games, including violent ones, became more popular, the violent crime became around twelve percent lower. The crime rate in the United States has sharply decreased as video games have continually upped the violence factor. Ironically, the book, “The Better Angels of our Nature (2011)” by Steven Pinker, states that today Americans are living in the “safest period in the history of history”. It has been thought the criminals are too busy playing the games that allow them to release their violent urges to have time to commit crimes. The video games played have rules