There are all kinds of violent influences in the present day entertainment sector, such as television shows, movies, books, and the most targeted form of entertainment for ridicule, video games. These are all forms of entertainment used by people on a regular basis and there are influences of violence in all of them, for example: in television, there are shows like "Game of Thrones", movies such as "Rambo" or "Batman", video games like "Call of Duty", stories such as "The Odyssey" and "The Outsiders" and many more. One form of entertainment that gets singled out the most when it comes to whether violent entertainment can cause the user to be more aggressive is video games. Although some argue that these different forms of entertainment don't cause the user to be more aggressive, one should realize that video games get unfair and unjustified ridicule when being discussed in the debate about which one of these forms of entertainment influences the most violence. Other forms of entertainment expose and show as much if not more violence as video games depending on what one chooses. Video games have studies and research done that show no connection between violence and video games, and video games offer as many if not more benefits than those associated with the other forms of entertainment, which can also outweigh the negative violence aspects within them.

Although they have developed a bad reputation in today's society, video games were not always the center of ridicule for violent influences. Since they were first introduced to the world in 1958 they were not targeted nearly as susceptible as they are today, partly because nothing significant enough had happened yet which would cause one to view video games as a negative influence. This positive perception of video games didn't last long due to an influential significant event that happened, something from the media quite prolific that most Americans can recall or know about: the shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. This historical event in America's history was the beginning of the common mentality that video games can cause the user to be more prone to violent activity. This mentality was developed because the two shooters of Columbine were fans of the video game "Doom". Although there was no official link between the game and the shooting whatsoever, part of the blame was associated with the video game because the shooters were fanatic players during the same time as the shooting. Those affected by the tragedy looked for something to blame and saw the video game as a convenient and easy target, which caused multiple families of the deceased to file a lawsuit against some entertainment companies. This event was the start of people linking video games to real life violence.

Although there are many theories, the most accurate and unbiased views on video game violence comes directly from the user. If someone were to search "do video games cause violence?" on the internet, a wide array of articles with many different viewpoints would be presented. One article discusses how video games do cause violence in the user, while the next one could oppose that and state that there is no link in real life violence and argue that the benefits can outweigh any violent measures. The inconsistency in responses sparks the question: who is to trust when it comes to these 'facts' on violence in videogames? The best answers aren't from an article one can find on the internet. The most realistic and simplistic answers come from people who actually play video games themselves and know and have experienced first-hand the effects these games have on them. I personally play video games of which some are violent, and know from experience that I am not more aggressive from playing them nor have I ever thought about becoming aggressive, shooting someone, etc., just because I played a game such as "Gears of War" or other similar violent games. I realize that as the author of this paper I am not a credible source, as it could come off as bias. To expand my perspective so that the conclusion can remain unbiased, an interview with a different subject was a necessary source for coming up with perspective from someone who actually plays video games first-hand and not a random or unreliable article one can find on the internet. The interview was conducted with a college-aged male who had previous experience with playing video games and enjoyed the time spent while doing so. The subject answered the following question: "Do you think violent video games cause the user to be more violent in real life, or have little to no impact on their temperament?" and replied "No they do not, they do not influence violence." Subject also answered: "Do you think video games get unfairly selected for criticism on their violence/influence on the user rather than movies, television, books, etc.?" and replied with "Yes, they do get more unfairly selected." There it is straight from a primary source, with personal experience in the topic involved, helping to provide for a little more credibility than what you can just search in a second on the internet.

That is not to say that there aren't some negatives involved with playing video games. Of course one is going to suffer in some way by sitting inactive for a long period of time where the only active parts of your body are your hands and your mind. There are negatives that are not as extreme as causing people to be more violent who play games, but things that are actually true such as decreased physical health, poor focus on other areas of the user's life, and more. There are those out there who say that playing video games can cause the player to be more aggressive or have more aggressive thoughts, and make the user desensitized to the violent behavior (Richard Gallagher). But the fact of the matter is that, according to the US Secret Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, there is still no actual evidence of a direct link between video game violence and real life violence. To put things into perspective you don't see someone making the claim that they are going to have an awesome time once they drink their soda because they saw a commercial for the item and the ad company makes it seem as if your life will be perfect and happy once you drink that soda, as hard as they try to make it seem realistic. It's just a part of the pattern of people looking for something indirect to blame to make up for some other issue at hand, for example the families trying to sue the entertainment companies after the Columbine shooting, just because the two kids enjoyed their computer games in their free time, when really those kids were at more of a chance of doing this because of psychological issues. Fareed Zakaria from The Washington Post has chimed in on the debate before, stating that even though the Japanese are avid video game fans, Japan has one of the lowest homicide rates at close to zero percent. In conjunction to this it described that many of the top selling video games, in the United States and abroad, are non-violent games. Aside from this highly debated negative association with playing video games, there are factual negatives associated that one should know about before making any other assumptions about video games. For example someone who might play video games may spend a little too much time on said game, which can be viewed as a negative because it preoccupies the user from performing anything else they might have to do with their time that may or may not be more important that playing the game right then. This is seen in situations such as a middle school child playing a video game a little too much and forgetting to do a homework assignment, or a college student might not study as much time as needed for an exam because of playing a video game, and could even go as far as an adult screwing up something relating to their job. Video games can also put the user's health at risk if they allow it to, in ways such as irregular eating patterns/skipping meals, long periods of no movement can cause loss of muscle and make fat gain easier, and carpal tunnel syndrome (Drea Christopher). It may sound all bad now and one might be thinking that video games are terrible and detrimental to one's growth because of the health issues, but anything is bad in excess, if you actually put it into perspective it's not as terrible, and the benefits haven't even been mentioned yet. Take eyestrain for example, which is a highly speculated negative associated with video games but it isn't just an exclusive negative of playing video games, a user will get that same eyestrain from watching television, reading a kindle, doing work on a laptop, etc. Long periods of no movement are not just something gamers do, for example sitting at a desk for eight hours a day doing one's job? Or even students who sit through grade school for seven to eight hours a day get that same experience of long periods of no movement. Putting it simply, video games aren't the only culprit of these negatives thus they should not be as ridiculed as much as they are, but these are the real negatives associated with playing video games that are actually backed up by evidence, unlike violence being induced from someone playing one.

Although the negatives include side effects that can be detrimental to one's health, the benefits seem to offset them.  These benefits offer just enough positive outcome to outweigh the negatives associated with playing video games, which can make it a viable option in smaller doses. It's known that most forms of binging aren't going to bring many benefits. According to the APA, or the American Psychological Association, "playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children's learning, health and social skills." The same press release from the APA later on states that playing video games "actually may strengthen a range of cognitive skills such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception." This shows that there are certain sets of skills and or knowledge to be obtained from playing video games from time to time. There are many benefits to be obtained from video games, and many people may not look close enough at the details of this. For example, there are people who have bias towards video games thinking that it only includes systems such as an Xbox and a PlayStation, but those sum of people most likely have or at one point have had an app on their phones such as "Angry Birds", or "Candy Crush", etc., and won't account for these also being video games as well. They do not realize that from sitting down and playing a game of Angry Birds after a day of work, they get the benefit of being happy and relaxed from being able to enjoy their game, and also working their brain in trying to figure out the complex matter of where the best spot to shoot their limited bird ammo is. Most of the time the benefits of playing a video game are little details that people look past when searching for a bigger picture to argue. These same people can't see passed their own biases towards the subject to see the bigger picture of playing video games. In Daphne Bavalier's TED Talk from 2012, she explores the brain functionality while on (playing) video games, and found that video games can help us learn, focus and, fascinatingly, multitask. Bavalier, a cognitive scientist, led a group of researchers at Rochester University on a task to find possible benefits from playing video games. They found that "games simulating stressful events such as those found in battle or action games could be a training tool for real-world situations. The study suggests that playing action video games primes the brain to make quick decisions." Some of these skillsets that come from video games are not even things that children and young adults can learn from their schooling. Yet these are still overlooked by the people against video games because they believe that the only thing to come out of playing a game is to become more violent in real life. From personal experience, playing a video game is a time to relax and enjoy oneself from the other stressors of everyday life. It offers the user an enlightened mood, and there is nothing wrong with unwinding and enjoying yourself. It's not much different from someone coming home and enjoying their highly anticipated glass of wine or bottle of beer that one needs to unwind, or someone who comes home and throws in headphones and turns everything else off in the world beside the music. Playing video games offers a little haven for those who play them, and gives them certain skill training such as spatial skills or memory strengthening, but one of the things it does not do is turn the user into a violent, anger-filled rage where they would want to go fight someone or shoot up a school, so the blaming of video games for anger-induced crimes is irrelevant.

When you look at all the facts, it can be seen that there really is no connection associated with violent behavior and video games being the perpetrator. There are too many studies done that prove this thesis, and no real evidence of any connection other than people playing the blame game. In the end you have to decide what you believe, fact or fiction? Not only this but hopefully the examples from earlier can help you see that there are so many other factors out there that are possible influences of violence, so it is unfair to just be blaming video games when there are violent movies released every year, violent television series which continue to air for seasons on end, novels that are common core reading for the children and young adults in schooling, and even some sports promote violence such as wrestling, football, hockey, etc! So it is still a mystery why video games are such a big target for certain groups of people who say that playing video games is the main reason why people are influenced to get into fights a lot or why this certain person shooting up an area happened? These people need to take a step back and look and the other facts, the other fine details of life. Stop blaming the bully in school for playing Call of Duty in his free time while he's also going to football practice 2 hours a day and no one bats an eye. Also think about the certain benefits to be had from playing certain video games. Your child playing Angry Birds on a cell phone is actually improving brain strength by challenging him to solve the puzzle of where to accurately shoot the bird ammo to take down all the enemies with the allotted amount of ammo; and playing Halo is actually increasing your reflexes and hand-eye coordination at the same time due to the mental focus and fast reactions needed to successfully play the game. Though not to influence you to go and play video games for 8 hours, any form of binging will negatively impact you, so take it in modesty. Playing a video game won't hurt you, won't cause you to hurt anyone else afterwards, and brings some positive benefits, you can't argue with that!


