Violent Video Games And Other Media Violence Analysis

Taking Back Video Games

The hot topic of video games is under scrutiny again. With ever growing popularity, society continues to question whether the violence in games is creating violence in the real world. Avid gamers insist their hobby is all in good fun and doesn’t blur the line between the fantasy worlds in which they play and the world society has created. Does video game play cause violence in children, lack of morals and values, and loss of social interaction? The answer is assuredly “no”: video games are a source of amusement that can help encourage perseverance and goal orientation, and can create a sense of community amongst gamers.

In the article “Violent Video Games and Other Media Violence,” Craig Anderson argued that “exposing

He cites “The Sims” creator Will Wright as saying that games may be the only medium to allow us to experience guilt through a fictitious character. Anderson, however, states that the short term and long term effects of exposure to violent media are the same: increased aggression. It seems unlikely. In fact, during the Supreme Court case hearing in 2010, the justices pointed out that Anderson’s evidence equated the same type of aggressive behaviors stemmed from exposure to violent videos and Bugs Bunny. The question arose whether it was the State’s responsibility to ban video games, movies, TV shows, and Grimm’s Fairy Tales in order to prevent aggression. Putting it that way, Anderson’s arguments against video games

Game developer Jane McGonigal maintains that the sense of “heroic purpose” that gamers feel when playing creates positive experiences missing in the real world. For example, “we become remarkably resilient in the face of failure,” she says. Gamers spend 80% of their time failing at the game, but persist in trying until they win. Perseverance is a virtue that can be carried over from the fantasy world of gaming into real life. McGonigal goes on to say that gaming with friends and family strengthens our bonds, makes us more likely to help a person in real life whom we’ve helped in a game, and that gaming can actually inspire people to “set ambitious real-life goals. Once recent study found, for example, that players of ‘Guitar Hero’ are more likely to pick up a real guitar and learn how to play it.” So it appears that the community building aspects of gaming together as well as inspirational qualities of learning skills in games are easily carried over into the real lives of