Technology. It has been a part of human development and science since we humans came into existence. It has spawned a plethora of useful tools and creations which we use to further our advancements as a species. Videogames were spawned from this strive to do greater and have been part of the lives of the past few generations. A simple game like Pong spawned a plethora of genres of games. These range from puzzle games to war games to even educational games. One can create anything with just a computer and some code. Videogame developers are the writers of the virtual world. While many people seem to not even bat an eye to the harmless creation and immersion into a virtual world. Others see it as a harming device that twists the minds of those who play. Especially violent games This is no new issue as in “In June 2006, there were seven bills in congress that addressed violence in videogames” (Ward). This discussion has been present since the 1990’s. Many people brought into question the content the younger generation was playing and what that does to their behavior and development. On one hand people argue they are harmless and are mediums for artistic creation on the other side they cause violent behavior and school shootings. Violent videogames, are they damaging or harmless? 

The first question people ask is why are people concerned games. Well, it is understandable with games like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Mortal Kombat. Grand Theft Auto or GTA rewards players and promotes counterproductive activities such as robbing banks, killing cops, and theft. The game Doom is set on Mars, the player takes on the role of an unnamed space marine that fights of an invasion of demons coming from a portal to hell. Around every corner in the game one finds blood and human entrails decorating the facilities on the Martian surface, and satanic symbols and statues are littered across your screen. The player utilizes weapons such as rocket launchers, chainsaws, and machine guns.  In the game players are rewarded for “glory-kills” in which players execute enemies with their bare hands. “Glory-kills” are not limited to decapitation, ripping of limbs, and ripping out hearts. All of this happens to the tune of Metal music playing while the player advances until he gets to Hell itself. Mortal Kombat is an excessively violent fighting game which started the need for a rating system to prevent young people from acquiring video games. Grand Theft Auto, as the title suggests, is a game that requires players to kill cops and steal to progress. The obvious common them is violence. The majority of well received and highly awarded games tend to be more violent. Many scholars and psychologists argue that games like these cause violence as “schemas are stored in memory” (Graziano). That is people learn their behaviors from what they see. This is a well-known fact that as humans grow the learn from what they see around their daily lives. In early development children must learn many complex emotions as they grow. Children learn from and emulate their parents as well as other mediums from which they learn including media which can also be in the form of videogames (Wilson 2). It is safe to assume that people, especially children and teenagers, learn from and emulate what they see and learn videogames. So, could violent videogames create children that are more likely to commit violent acts? Phycologists argue that prolonged exposure to violent games leads to more “antisocial, and fewer prosocial behaviors” (Graziano). People become more numbed to violence and more introverted. Prolonged exposure to the violent games brings out the worst habits in us. People become more like bystanders.  The opposite can be said for positive videogames that “prosocial videogame exposure significantly predicted prosocial behavior” (Greitemeyer).  A study was conducted where a group of players were instructed to play Lemmings a game where the player guides a group of “Lemmings” to safety. Obviously, it is not a violent game. The players were later observed in confrontational situations to see if their behavior changes. The results showed that the game led players to be more socially involved and more helpful to people. These studies proved that players who played positive games that reward good behavior emulated that behavior in real life. In other words, they were nicer to people and choose to help others more often than before. However, they failed to produce evidence that these games make violent psychopaths like many people believe. Even if the government were to limit or outright ban videogames they would still float around and en up in people’s homes. Just as people still acquire drugs despite them being illegal.

Videogames have had an influence in school shootings like Columbine. One of the shooters Eric Harris stated in a video that, “it would be just like Doom”.  Both shooters were avid players of the game which may look pixelated and cheesy now, but then it was violent and even banned in Germany. Parents from that time would faint at the sight of the revamped Doom with its enhanced graphics and realistic figures. After the Columbine shooting many studies began and pointed the cause of the shooting at violent videogames. It was also suggested that their taste in music was also a major influencing factor in their decision to commit mas homicide. However, “scientists neglected to study long term affects, or even make a concise definition of aggression” (Bennett). Scientists and Psychologists in the early days of the discussion did not make proper arguments or concise studies. They simply rushed to the conclusion to appease concerned parents. They also neglected to review mental health problems that may have plagued the shooters. It is not wise to rush to the decision that the motives of the shooters were prompted by purely external forces. That would draw attention away from the mental health problems plaguing many people who decide to commit horrible actions. It is also just plain stupid to blame everything else and not ourselves. People make decisions on their own and don’t decide “well I’m going start a school shooting because it will look like a videogame”. There must be both internal and external forces that prompts people to make the choices that they make.

One of the many issues in regards to surveying and researching behavioral reactions to violent videogames is that they clump violent videogames and normal videogames together when making surveys and studies. They were essentially studies of general prolonged media exposure. In other words, many videogame studies just project normal behavior ratios among people. One would get the same results if they were to survey children of the streets regardless of how much videogames they play. To get real evidence of enhanced aggression one would have to ask questions regarding the content of the games the population plays when researching the behavioral effects of violent videogames. There was a similar problem when gathering data on the effects of violence on television. Scientists were concerned that the problem was that the studies were on “hours of TV viewing, rather than hours of viewing violent TV” (Bushman 1). Both surveys neglected to distinguish between violent content and non-violent content. They simply showed that aggression was increased among people who were exposed to immense amounts of media. The Scientists who research this topic need to develop better methods in order to get more finite evidence that links violence in videogames to violence in real life. The only solid evidence that videogames have an effect on people would be the previously stated study on the effect of positive videogames. Even so that only proved an improvement in people’s words and thoughts and not their actions. 

Of course, the issue with limiting the content people can see is the legality of those actions. Many people challenged the rating system and the access of violent videogames to children in the court system. The supreme court ruled that “obscenity made be regulated in part because it is harmful” (Stone). Because the studies found no solid evidence and were not thorough enough in their research. There was no real reason to ban any games. Limiting videogames also violates freedom of speech. Videogames can be much like a movie or book. They can have just as much meaning and can bring about issues in today’s society. It would be ethically wrong to stifle one’s ability to communicate their thoughts and ideas to an audience. The argument of obscenity is also invalid as other obscene material such as pornography is age restricted and is just as easily accessed as videogames.  Pornography is arguably more problematic in the hands of young children yet it is just as easily accessible with the internet around. If anything, videogames are harder to get if you are under age as one’s parents must be the ones buying the game if the rating is high enough. 

Videogames are here to stay and the only question is whether to limit them or note. The answer is no. There just is not enough accurate information that shows a correlation between aggressive behavior and violent videogames. While shooters like Eric Harrison compared his acts to Doom it was not the sole cause of those horrific events that occurred. Accurate studies showed that people who played positive games showed more positive attitudes and thoughts. This suggests that the opposite is true for violent games. That still provides no evidence that violent games make murderers out of players. Rather they are simply numbed and more acceptive to violence than if they were not playing violent videogames. Too much of anything is bad so it is good to regulate how much violent content one’s child is exposed to. One should always be skeptical of the ways people measure behaviors, as they could be biased or lack accurate measuring methods.