Violent Video Games: Grand Theft Auto, Call Of Duty

Video games have been around for decades. The first family friendly video game to be introduced to American homes was founded back to 1967, a developer at Sanders Associates Inc created a multiplayer platform that enabled teenagers to play simulted arcade games. Since 1967, video games have become an artifact in pop culture and everyday lives for men, women, children and teenagers. Numerous viewpoints on the idea and playing video games have surfaced, especially on the genres of video games. The most controversial being violent game play. Games such as Grand Theft Auto (1997), Call of Duty (2003) and many others have been widely criticized for their violent and negative themes in the games because of increased anti-social behaviors in teens

His study concludes that “Rather than leading players to become less moral, this research suggests that violent- video game play may actually lead to increased moral sensitivity. This may, as it does in real life, provoke players to engage in voluntary behavior that benefits others.”(Grizzard). Behaving viciously in video games such as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Call of Duty” can really reflect on individual choices that would never be made without the feeling of guilt in real life like stealing, murder, shoot outs and other dangerous behaviors, but only acted out in video games without punishment nor consequences. Grizzard also points out that “Several recent studies, including this one, have found that committing immoral behaviors in video game elicit feelings of guilt in players who commit them- We found that after a subject played a violent video game, they felt guilt and that guilt was associated with greater sensitivity toward the two particular domains they violated- those of care/harm and fairness/reciprocity”. This shows that individuals playing violent video games, do not get overly aggressive or accumulate bad

One adult, being George Drinka a psychiatrist for children and adults suggests that playing violent video games can cause desensitivity among players and increase aggression. Drinka supports this by “It is probable that mass murders- engaging in isolated, prolonged play-have used violent video games to train themselves to kill. Experts note that playing them improves eye-hand coordination for efficiently aiming and firing a gun.” A keyword here is ‘probable’ there is no definitive or conclusive argument that links mass murders with the act of playing violent video games. A study posted on The Washington Post by Bonnie Berkowitz and Chris Alcantara, looks at 152 mass murders who have killed numerous amounts of people, and of which “were known to have violent tendesciences or criminal pasts”. These 152 people were not related/ nor blamed for their actions due to ‘violent video games’. Colin Campbell publisher of “A brief history of blaming video games for mass murder” on Polygon.com states that, ‘ A total of seven attacks took place in the era before video games were apart of American life, leaving 33 school shootings between 1980 and 2018, in which more than one person was slain- In four of those 33 mass murders, the perpetrators have been definitely identified as being fans of video games.”