Technology has been a part of human development and science since 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 video games range from puzzle games to war games to even educational games. One can create anything with just a computer and some programming. While many people seem to not even bat an eye to the harmless creation and immersion into a virtual world. Others see videogames as a harming device that twists the minds of those who play. Especially violent videogames 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 questioned the content the younger generation was playing and what that content does to their behavior and development. On one hand people argue violent videogames are harmless and are mediums for artistic creation on the other side they cause violent behavior and school shootings. 

The most popular link to violent behavior from videogames is the Columbine shooting. This crusade was prompted by one of the shooters Eric Harris stated in a video that, “it would be just like Doom”(Bennett).  Both shooters were avid players of the game which may look pixelated compared to modern games, 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 the concerned public who insisted that these games were bad. The scientists also neglected to consider 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 thought process 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 many forces that push people to make the choices that they make.

People often wonder why such harmless and immature things such as videogames can cause people to do such heinous things. Well, it is understandable with games like Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Mortal Kombat. Grand Theft Auto or GTA rewards players and promotes activities that would be illegal in real life such as robbing banks, killing cops, and theft. The videogame 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 the player finds blood and human entrails decorating the facilities on the Martian surface. Even further into the game satanic symbols and statues are littered across your screen. Finally, the player must venture into Hell itself. The player utilizes weapons such as rocket launchers, chainsaws, and machine guns to combat the enemies.  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 loud Heavy-Metal music playing while the player advances further and further into the game. 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. This fact leads people to believe that young children will learn to be violent from exposure to violent videogames. Phycologists argue that prolonged exposure to violent games leads to more “antisocial, and fewer prosocial behaviors” (Graziano). Essentially people become more negative and less receptive of others. Prolonged exposure to the violent games changes people but not to an extreme. People become more like bystanders rather than altruists. The opposite can be said for positive videogames that “prosocial videogame exposure significantly predicted prosocial behavior” (Greitemeyer).  A study was conducted to test the impact of positive games where a group of players were instructed to play Lemmings a game where the player guides a group of “Lemmings” to safety. The players were later observed in confrontational situations to see if their behavior changed due to learned behavior from the game. The results showed that the experience led players to be more socially involved and more helpful to people. In other words, they became slightly more positive and were willing to do things like hold a door open. These studies proved that players who played positive games that reward good behavior emulated that behavior in real life. The same goes for violent videogames. They do affect your though from playing too much but they do not cause extreme changes in one’s behavior. 

One of the many issues in regards to surveying and researching behavioral reactions to violent videogames is that the researchers would not put violent videogames and normal videogames in separate categories. The categories researchers used were if one played videogames or not. Notice that it was just videogames and not violent videogames. 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 where there were no finite definitions of violence or proper categories. 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. In fact, in a similar study done on violent movies researchers found that violent movies “reduced violent crimes by1.3 percent” (Dahl). They went on further to find that other kinds of movies had no effect whatsoever. The Scientists who research violent videogames need to develop better methods in order to get more finite evidence that links violence in videogames to violence in real life if there is any. 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. 

Even if people wanted to ban games the issue they would encounter is the steep resistance and of course, the law. 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 express their thoughts and ideas to an audience through an electronic medium. The argument of obscenity is also invalid as other obscene material such as pornography is age restricted and is just as easily accessed if not more accessible than videogames (Stone).  Pornography is just one free click away since the conception of the internet, and people have to purchase videogames in order to acquire them. Pornography is arguably more problem in the hands of young children because it is just as obscene as games and more readily available. 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 they pose a threat to people’s behavior or not. The answer is no. There just is not enough accurate information that shows a correlation between violent behavior and violent videogames. And the data that does show positive correlation groups aggressiveness with excessive violence. While shooters like Eric Harrison compared his acts to Doom, it was not the sole cause of those horrific actions he took. It is inconceivable to think that a screen with shooting can cause so much mental damage to people. 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 or criminals 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, and it is sensible good to regulate how much violent content one’s child is exposed to. 
