Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Video Game Violence


Visual Literacy
            In our society video games have become massively popular over the last two decades. With their growing popularity numerous people have become concerned with the digital violence the players can perform. Games such as Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and Call of Duty have been in the media spotlight before with their portrayal of violence and gore. With kids playing these types of violent video games up to several hours a day, people concluded that this interaction will cause them to act more aggressively and violent in behavior. However, there has been no scientific study that has found any concrete correlation that video games alone will cause anybody to act more aggressively or violent.
            The most infamous example of video game getting attributed to causing violence came from the Columbine High School massacre. The two gunmen had both played violent video games. In the ensuing investigation of the event, people pointed this fact out. The assumption was then made by some of the victim’s parents that violent video games had influenced the gunmen’s decision to bring weapons to school and cause this tragedy. The assumption is if violent video games caused these two to go on a killing spree then violent video games will cause this type behavior in more people. This assumption was made before getting scientifically supported.
         “Defending the Morality of Violent Video Games” written by Marcus Schulzke, a PhD student at the University at Albany. This essay was published in the Ethics and Information Technology journal. Schulzke writes about how violent videogames have been criticized for teaching players weapon skills and how they directly cause violent actions. He addresses these criticisms by saying they are misguided and flawed.
            Schlzke refutes several claims of that video game critics have made. The most common claim is that video games make the player more skilled at hurting others. The argument depends on the plausibility of the analogy between actions in a game and the real world. In order for this criticism to work, there must be a high degree of similarity. Schlzke says that the time spent playing video games trains the gamer to be close to the machine, to be quick and responsive, to understand interfaces, to be familiar with simulated worlds. There are very little similarities between the acts of violence in games and in the real world to maintain the mechanics are the same in each.
            Another claim is that the video games cause the player to become less empathetic. To test this, researchers used a MRI scans to take images of the brain while playing violent or non-violent video game. They also monitored heart rate and galvanic skin responses. Then after this they showed the test subjects “real-life violence”, which is just a video. Researchers concluded that violent video games do desensitize players because those exposed to violent games showed lower heart rates and galvanic skin responses. It assumes that desensitization can be measured by these two scales. This experiment only had 13 subjects to test on from the beginning, too few to make such a generalization.
            The amount of violent crime and crime in general in the United States has decreased dramatically from 1992 to 2008. In 1992 violent crimes were 757.5 per 100,000 went down to 454.5 in 2008. Crime statistics show that every year video games get more graphic and violent the amount of violent crime decreases significantly. It is doubtful that video games have any effect on crime rate, but does correlate violent gaming with a decrease in crime.
The image that I choose depicts the video game killing the player. The hand with the gun exiting the virtual world is at the center of the picture, but what draws attention to your eyes is the man with the exploded blood spatter spot behind his limp head. The room is all white and the bright red blood contrasts better against the background to provide better emphasis on the violence.   
            The possible consequences of thinking that video games cause people to act violently and hurt others, people will want to ban violent games from ever getting made and sold to the public.



Works Cited

Schulzke, M.. "Defending the morality of violent video games. " Ethics and Information          Technology  12.2 (2010): 127. ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web.  25 Oct. 2011.

HOGBAR, “Media Violence” Photograph.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/hogbard/316622682/  7 Dec. 2006
       

2 comments:

  1. VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE

    bungersblog.blogspot.com/

    you had a great start to your essay.

    I did not see a thesis statement.

    really good transitions between statements.

    where did you get the violence statistics at the end of your essay?

    I don't know if you have looked at this but it might give more ideas to your essay.

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2010/03/study_shows_violent_video_game.html

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  2. maybe explain the type of violence in games such as GTA (going around shooting random people and running them over with stolen cars)

    maybe when you talk about the decline in violent crimes compare that to the video game sales over the same years

    good points explaining the misconception

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