Video Games and Aggressive Behavior

[bradfordkay]

You are now attacking one popular form of media (television) and discounting the effects from another popular form of media (video gaming). I feel that we can't discount any one influence on our youth if we are concerned about their developing minds.

I have defended video games for years, but this new study does merit some further review - to see of it does indeed have some merit. I would never be in favor of banning any type of game - violent, sexual, or whatever. I do, however, deplore the lack of supervision and/or input into their children's lives that most parents these days seem to exert.

Television does glorify violence. Look at WWF/WWE (or whatever they're calling themselves these days), Ultimate Fighting, and the like. And, yes, kids are emulating these "heroes", to the point that some have been seriously injured in "backyard wrestling matches".

One reason that hollywood has brought the gay/lesbiasn scene to the forefront is the extremely high rate of suicide among teen gays. If the popular media can show these kids that they are not an abomination, then maybe a few lives will be saved. You may not agree with this attitude, but it is less dangerous than the old method of telling them that they are sick and do not belong in society.

[Veldor]

ORIGINAL: bradfordkay

You are now attacking one popular form of media (television) and discounting the effects from another popular form of media (video gaming). I feel that we can't discount any one influence on our youth if we are concerned about their developing minds.

The difference, though perhaps small, is that television is more of a story told and kids iconize the characters more easily and see them as role models more easily. Most kids, on the otherhand, get that games aren't real. They don't idolize characters in them as much or too the same levels, and certainly don't often choose them as their role models.

I have defended video games for years, but this new study does merit some further review - to see of it does indeed have some merit. I would never be in favor of banning any type of game - violent, sexual, or whatever. I do, however, deplore the lack of supervision and/or input into their children's lives that most parents these days seem to exert.

There is no problem or issue that good parenting can't solve. But there are definitely a lot of things that make the job much more difficult.

Television does glorify violence. Look at WWF/WWE (or whatever they're calling themselves these days), Ultimate Fighting, and the like. And, yes, kids are emulating these "heroes", to the point that some have been seriously injured in "backyard wrestling matches".

Again, its more likely this emulation comes from watching TV and not from a similar video game.

One reason that hollywood has brought the gay/lesbiasn scene to the forefront is the extremely high rate of suicide among teen gays. If the popular media can show these kids that they are not an abomination, then maybe a few lives will be saved. You may not agree with this attitude, but it is less dangerous than the old method of telling them that they are sick and do not belong in society.

Tell that to the parents of the little girl who ran around gym class kissing all the girls while yelling "I'm Marrisa, I'm Marrisa". Well either way your info is dated by as much as a decade now. Up north anyway its now "trendy" to be gay. "All the cool kids are doing it". The idea of a "threesome" has also be highly pushed by media as something "cool people do". Now even talk about group activities are showing up in teen shows. Is this suppose to also keep those hopefully few kids involved in that from feeling bad about themselves and committing suicide? At the cost of falsely presenting said activities as way more common than they really are..?

Of course everything I say should be ignored as I did not belong to society as a teen either since I played D&D. The utterly bad influence that was has turned me into the devil-worshipping homicidal maniac that I am today...

[martxyz]

Hi KG (Gunny, isn't it?)

Well - first thing is that as far as I'm concerned, some of the posts you've started recently have been great, and thought-provoking. Of course, some people don't like having their thought provoked, and there have been a few heated exchanges. There is a wargaming forum, not far from these shores, where people would probably have offered to neuter you with their latest semi-autiomatic toy. Fortunately, on the Matrix forum, I've found that people generally realize that it's hard to keep a good thought in your head at the same time as your trying to cling to your prejudices. They also realize that it's very heard to type while you're swaggereing about with your new piece of light artllery. Also this forum always seems to remember that we like games, but not war. So, I do enjoy your posts and I enjoy reading most of the replies.

I'd like to say  "Can we please stop going on about gay sex". If people want to bring in sex as an issue, in relation to the discussion computer games and violence issue, whether or not people are (or become) gay or straight is irrelevant, and so is the notion that one is a pervertion of the other, and, consequently, the issue of how people learn or experiment with and about sex should be agenda-free, unless of course that person wishes to state what their agenda is.
As regards violence, is that I see no evidence (in the US context) that the people who are the most worried about violent videogames, are similarly concerened to tighten gun control. Often the people that want to tighten up on games don't want to tighten up on guns. To me, that's weird.

The third is a very general point. My son is a medical student. As parents, I'm sure that we did pretty well everything wrong from some people's perspective. My guess is that he also did pretty well most things that some parents think would have shrunk his brain, and inflated his testicles. I don't quite know how he survived at all! But, he's an intelligent, socially conscious, politically conscious, well-balanced lad. He thinks for himself, but is thoughtful, and is capable of discussing everything from under-agmore than he should, goes to gigs of all kinds and works hard and gets good grades, and has the energy of a nuclear power plant. We, as his parents, didn't "design" his childhood. By some peoples standards we we would have been lousy (mmm - make the seriously lousy). But it was a house where, when he'd finished blasting away on his nintento, he could also discuss important things, was loved, could have a laugh, and had good friends.

I don't worry about videogames half as much as I worry about other problems in society that children have to deal with, or make decsisions about. Today's world is definitely in trouble, but I would see violent videogames more as a side-effect than a cause. PCompanies produce these games because they they want to make money, and the culture and politics of money-making is usually sacred to those who do it, and has very few limits.

I think I probably do have some worries about the mental health of some of the videogame programmers, but I guess they have good insurance. 

[:'(]  

Please keep putting up interesting posts. Thanks, Martin

[Jevhaddah_Slitherine]

Another point I feel that should be mentioned re Video Games is that the Press, Scientists, Goody two shoes etc seem to think that ALL games are meant to be played by kids.

What I mean is that games nowadays come with some form of rating which gives a pointer as to who and what age group it is aimed at.

In some countries Its illeagal to sell games to people that are Under the minimal age on the box. I know there will always be ways around this, but if a parent buys their 14 year old child a game rated for over 18's than that parent is not being very responsible.

If the child then goes out on a killing spree well...... I am more of a mind to put it down to bad parenting over the childs life to date rather than pin it on a single video game.

I was in a shop in Edinburgh where a sales person refused to sell a game to a lad who was clearly under age. The child went outside, his dad came in to buy the game for him and the sales person still refused to sell it. The dad went berserk and grabbed the sales person by the collar, fortunatley things calmed down when the manager appeard and the dad left WITHOUT the game.

As for the sex issue, thats a personal issue between consenting adults. Here in Scotland you are a leagal Adult at 16, you can get married, have babies and smoke, but you can't go into a pub, an 18+ film or play an 18+ game [8|]


Its a funny old life [;)]

Cheers Jev

[shunwick]

Personally, I am more inclined to think that a love of cooking rather than video games encourages aggressive behaviour. I came to this conclusion when I suddenly noticed that my 10" kitchen knife started going by the name of Mr Slicey.

And then there are the voices ...

Best wishes,

[martxyz]

ORIGINAL: shunwick

And then there are the voices ...

You as well? Phew. I thought it was just me!

[:)]

[Tankerace]

ORIGINAL: Terminus

People who are otherwise mentally healthy and possessed of a good social network and family structure do not develop pathologies because of violent video games. It does not happen.

I got into an argument with my grandmother about this very subject, ironically enough.

She contended that very point, that Grand Theft Auto (I doubt she honestly knew what it was) and other video games cause this behavior and should be banned.

Here is how the conversation then went.

Me: "So playing video games makes people want to reenact what they see and hear?"

Grandmother: "Yes it does. They are bad influences."

Me: "I can prove that is wrong."

Grandmother: "How?"

Me: "Easy. I play violent games about World War II all the time. When was the last time you saw me mow down a platoon of Germans?"*

At which point I was confronted with racist remarks about "those people predisposed to blah blah."

But I fear her original point may be right. I'm a history major, I design history games, and I play history games. Suddenly now I have a repro '61 Springfield musket and I'm planning on buying a Civil War uniform. But then again its not like I'm going to be running around bayonetting people.

I'll save that for when I get the Napoleon uniform and go around yelling "Give them a whiff of grapeshot!" [:D] Vive Le' Emperer!



*Note: I have nothing against Germans. This was simply to keep in with the game makes people reenact what they see mantra.

[Goblin]

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]
 
[:'(]

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

Uhhh, if the FBI reads that ... [;)]

[martxyz]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

Uhhh, if the FBI reads that ... [;)]

If the FBI reads it, they'll probably offer him a job!

[Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

[SemperAugustus]

Violent crime has fallen in the US with the an increase in sales of violent computer games. It's only a correlation, but it is something any argument of computer games increasing aggressiveness would need to explain.

The brain is poorly understood so I wouldn't pay this kind of studies much attention, until they explain a real problem. If teenagers were committing more violent crime then there might be something to it, but they are not so...

[Goblin]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

[:D][:D][:D]

[Goblin]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

Uhhh, if the FBI reads that ... [;)]

What do you mean, "If"?[:)]

Besides, I am too busy practicing my bloodlust on my FPS games to care.[:@]

[:'(]




Goblin

[DuckofTindalos]

ORIGINAL: Goblin

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

ORIGINAL: Goblin

If this discussion continues, I will kill all of you. Mebbe grind you under some tank treads, or save up and get an MG42, and alot of ammo. You will hear from me.[:@]

[:'(]

Uhhh, if the FBI reads that ... [;)]

What do you mean, "If"?[:)]

Besides, I am too busy practicing my bloodlust on my FPS games to care.[:@]

[:'(]




Goblin

Yes, yes... Be a good little goblin, now... Don't listen to all the voices in your head; they're not your friends...

[Goblin]

[&:] They promised to hand me ammunition....

[DuckofTindalos]

Like I said, they're not your friends...

[Tankerace]

ORIGINAL: Goblin

[&:] They promised to hand me ammunition....

To paraphrase a British General,

What do you mean you are low on ammunition? You've still got your bayonets haven't you?

[FlashfyreSP]

Just to throw some more chum in the waters here...

How many think that games like Grand Theft Auto, Hitman, Mafia and Gangster 2 are bad influences on teens and young adults because they glorify criminal and anti-social behaviour?

Aggressive behaviour is necessary in some ways for survival and protection; games that put you in the character of police officers or FBI agents, soldiers, or others whose job is to protect the public from harm are just as violent and aggressive as those that put you in the role of criminals. But I am concerned that the 'criminal games' are having an adverse affect on the behaviour patterns of young adults, whose development of social skills is still in progress.

Thoughts?

[robpost3]

I'll chime in...there is gonna be some groans fro some males butt...I think these themes are degrading to woman in general and it must have some effect on those who play them especially at impressionable stages of developement....and boy Im gonna get now...just take anime, manga, etc...it actually places gratification through degradation/abuse of females as acceptable and it is really prolific and widespread (sailor moon is hot!?!--think about:it is it basically an acceptable form of child porn?)....I have not played these games because the have no appeal whatsoever but I have heard that you shoot ho's for extra points...and just the term ho....correct me if I am worng but the villan is becoming the hero in society...it might seem like a game but this stuff tends to get into the psych and become archetypal.....gangsta is cool?