Violent Video Game Controversy

It is an undeniable fact that the video game industry is growing rapidly and becoming a very popular form of entertainment. In fact, many people believe that it might even replace movies as the dominant industry in entertainment. Like movies and other mediums before it, video games have become the subject of many controversies. With the increasing realism of violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto and the news about mass shootings, many people have begun to link the two and are claiming that video games have the ability to cause violence in youths. This has led to people advocating for restrictions, regulations, and even bans on the sale of violent video games to children and teens. The controversy about violent video games is significant,

However, that cannot happen; in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011), the United States Supreme Court ruled that states could not ban the sale of violent video games to minors because video games are protected under the First Amendment, since it is a form of entertainment, and the research that supposedly shows that violent video games harm children does not actually prove that violent video games directly cause children to act aggressively (Paulson, “Court’s video-game ruling shields emerging media”). In addition to facts and statistics, common sense and reasoning can also show that violent video games do not contribute to youth

They are unique in that they are interactive and require the player to make choices. As a result, the experience of the playing the game is different for every individual person, whereas books and movies have a rigid narrative structure and are the same for everyone. This relates to violent video games, as everyone makes different choices. For example, many people have criticized Grand Theft Auto V for having drugs, prostitution, and crime in the game. What people forget to mention is all of the other options, such as playing sports, doing yoga, watching a movie, investing in the stock market, going sightseeing, going skydiving, going scuba diving, and many other activities; I know this for a fact because I have actually played the game myself. It is possible that the inclusion of the mundane and ordinary activities were intentional, as they show us how we think and act in a video game. Most players choose to do the violent activities instead of the nonviolent ones, but not because they are psychopaths. They act violently in video games because most of them are rational human beings and understand that there is a difference between fantasy and reality. They know that what they do in the game has no real consequences, so they act carelessly. In a way, video games could be a way to relieve stress, release their anger, or temporarily escape from reality and have fun.