VIdeo games: Psychopath Spawning device? Or really just a game?

[Kamina]

This might not be a topic for this are but its something ive always wanted to ahve a discussion about.

What do you think about those people who claim video games desensitize children? Who do you think is to blame if they do? Etc. Etc.

My personal view is that its total bull crap, if parents are dumb enough to buy grand theft auto to pacify their 6 year old, they deserve to have their kid imitate it and get in trouble. Read the goddamn labels people theres a reason for the M in almost every case, and theres a reason you have to buy it FOR them.

 

[Mr Master]

I think there's likely to be a short-term desensitization, like when you just come off ten hours of Call of Duty and then the scientists show you pictures of people getting shot and you're like "so what, I popped a dude's melon from a thousand yards, like, eight times today." But that doesn't mean after a few hours sleep and some real food you won't be back to flinching at the famous Viet Nam gunshot execution photo. The studies take a quick knee-jerk thing and extrapolate it unnecessarily.

 

[Mitsu]

I think video games do desensitize the youth from images of violence. A child that grows up playing graphic, photo realistic, video games that depict violence to a certain degree of accuracy are bound to become more accustomed to even real pictures of violence (depending on the severity, of course). I do not believe blankets often fit too many people, so there are always exceptions. I do not think that such people are bound to be desensitized to violence in real life. Seeing blood on a screen is different than seeing blood on your shirt, shoes, or hands. Aversion to blood and violence aside, I think the average person would fear repercussion from the law to a degree great enough to dissuade them from partaking in any particularly violent acts. I'm sure most people don't have a problem with pounding someone's face in. Most people fight someone in their life, regardless of whether they are the aggressor or defender. However, giving someone a bloody nose or a split lip is far different than plunging a knife in their gut or placing a bullet in their head. I think the divide is lethal and non lethal violence.

From my own personal experience, I've seen all sorts of violence on television. I'm not talking in shows, but film and images from previous wars. Dead soldiers heaped up in piles, the charred remnants of holocaust victims, ect. However, I can honestly say those images never bothered me in a graphic sense. I felt more for the horrendous waste of life, than I felt queasy at the imagery. Would I have felt differently without video games? Maybe, I don't know. I used to think that no matter of violence would ever bother me. That I can see any sort of harm befall the human form and not flinch. That changed a few months back, upon stumbling upon a video of the Mexican cartel. They slit open the throat of a rival cartel member. They slid the blade across his neck, and then pulled his head back by his nose as if he were some mass of meat to be butchered. It disturbed me. I couldn't finish the entire video. The sounds he made, the way his body trembled and flinched, I couldn't finish it through. I've seen pictures of street shootings. I've seen images of brain on the sidewalk, and images of people bleeding from stab wounds. I've seen all of that, but I've never seen the process so up close and personal before. It seemed more real. I saw a man die, albeit on a screen, and I have no desire to see something like it again.

What this means is that while I may not be everyone, I think video games only desensitize to a point. Video games are a cold, unfeeling, unreal depiction of whatever is on the screen. They are pixels, and you know they are pixels. When that mass of pixels explodes into a red, gory mess, it isn't personal. You know it's a game. I think any sane, healthy minded person will have a natural aversion to extreme violence that is real. However, video games, just like anything else, can certainly influence the psyche of any person, but an unhinged person was bound to be unhinged regardless.

Caligula certainly did not have any video games.

 

[thedelaney]

Mitsu summed it up quite nicely.
Personally I think it depends on the person. There are people who simply can't separate fantasy and reality, so when said people play violent games for hours on end, of course they'll get desensitized, because they can't distinguish what's real and what isn't. There're cases where people commit violent crimes after they saw something similar in a game. Like when those two kids got arrested for killing that 7 year old while 'practicing Mortal Kombat moves'. Their inability to see that the game was, well, a GAME, made them desensitized to content in said game. Which only grew into them thinking they could transfer the game into reality, and look how that turned out.

But this doesn't happen to everyone that plays MK, or GTA, or Postal, or whatever. Video games aren't to blame, and I don't know if any one thing is. There's so many factors to consider, what's life like for these 'desensitized kids' outside of their consoles, what are they seeing in movies, what're they reading in books, etc. etc. You can't just point blame at games, that's a easy excuse. You have to look at the whole picture.

Personally, I've played a ton of violent games, and seen a ton of violent films. There were times when I might've been shocked, simply due to the act being unexpected, but I've never felt any sort of emotional or physical response. Maybe it's because I know it's fictitious, maybe it's something else. But when I watched the video of JFK being assassinated, I literally felt sick to my stomach the moment that shot rang out. That was the first (and I believe only) time I had actually seen someone die. And not just die, but die in an extremely gruesome way. This was a real person, not some character on a screen. That was real blood and brain matter, not some realistic prop. I didn't think that watching the video would effect me in the way it did, I simply wanted to view a moment in history. Needless to say, I got more than I bargained for.

Anyways, I think the answer will vary across the masses. It all depends on the mindset of the person viewing the content.

 

[Enos]

I've never really been one to stomach excessive violence, generally I steer away from really violently graphic films and video games and no amount of exposure to violence (real or dramatized) has gotten me to a point of being comfortable with it. The more accurate the depiction the harder it is for me to watch, I can't stand the sight of people in agony. I don't think violent cartoons and video games cause people to grow up to be psychopaths, if it did then there would be a lot more murderers and serial killers out there.

to the best of my knowledge it takes multiple factors to create a killer so the argument that video games are to blame is largely exaggerated. Does this mean I'd let a five year old play an M rated game? No, there is a rating system for a reason and I believe parents should be careful what they buy their children. Even so it's not likely that these kids will grow up to be cold blooded killers young children can't always separate fantasy from reality, and they may inadvertently hurt themselves or someone else acting out something from a film or game.

 

[Zandar]

Without trying to be redundant, I agree with a mix of the above.

Nobody hears about all the children who don't turn into stark-raving serial killers, though. You can't make news out of that. We only hear about the ones who do. The people who are "inspired" by violence in video games, movies, or any sense of the word "media," were already off their rocker to begin with. They were a loose cannon practically waiting for a reason to go off.

 

[MasterOfWhispers]

I think it all ties to the nature vs nurture debate. Funny enough, when I was taking my intro to media class this very subject came up. (Not specifally violence in video games but media in general.). My professor believed that certain violent shows or games can push those who already hold violent tendencies to certain acts.

I happen to partially agree. There's a middle ground in this issue and that issue is that while there is always a chance for violent media to affect the minds of childen, so long as the parents are doing their job and helping the child to seperate reality from fantasy and reminding them that no; it is not okay imitate what they see in games. Then there really should be no problem at all.

Those stories of people imitating things like random shootings from GTA, trying to fly like super man. I often wonder how often such things happen. News Media has a tendency to blow things out of proportion. Not to mention I think a lot of children are more intelligent then we give them credit for. (Though after talking to a few freshmen high schoolers and middle schoolers that my old piano teacher teaches. I have to wonder what they are teaching in my old school district. I could've sworn that it was a universal fact that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed during world war 2, yet they didn't even no the names of the cities. I digress. issue for another day I suppose.)

 

[EnlightenedAneurysm]

Video games are not 'Psychopath Spawners'. This is scaremongering just because a few idiots who shot up schools or killed some random people may have played an X-Box game. They probably liked eating burgers and chips too, should people stop enjoying food now? You can't tar people with the same brush, that's what happened after 9/11 - suddenly all Muslims were terrorists.

Do you play Theme Hospital and then go and perform open-heart surgery? Do you watch television dramas to do with police and then become a private investigator? This idea is ridiculous.

 

[Mr Master]

Video games are not 'Psychopath Spawners'. This is scaremongering just because a few idiots who shot up schools or killed some random people may have played an X-Box game. They probably liked eating burgers and chips too, should people stop enjoying food now? You can't tar people with the same brush, that's what happened after 9/11 - suddenly all Muslims were terrorists.

Do you play Theme Hospital and then go and perform open-heart surgery? Do you watch television dramas to do with police and then become a private investigator? This idea is ridiculous.

What concerns me more is that people watch scaremongering "experts" with no real evidence to back up their claims, and then go forth and scaremonger to a wider audience. In that sense, yes, people do pick up things from media. Just not useful things, damn it!

 

[RollingStar]

As someone who grew up playing video games, it's hard for me to see level with people who insist video games make people violent. I've played every type of violent game under the sun (Fighters, Shooters, Beat-'em-Ups, Hack n' Slash, whatever) and I've been to a shooting range a few times but I would never turn a gun on a living thing unless I absolutely had to defend myself. Maybe I'm more of a high-functioning gamer but for me it's always been very easy to understand the sanctity of life. I don't approve of any sort of violence unless absolutely necessary for self-defense. On the other hand I've met plenty of guys who didn't play video games much/at all and who are really quick to throw a punch and who talk about violence and killing like it isn't a big deal. ("If I ever see him again I'll fucking stab him,") etcetera etcetera.
Anyway, I'm no psychologist, but I think it's at least not so black-and-white as "Video games make people violent."
That's my two-cents on it.

 

[Mr Master]

Violent video games don't create violent people.

However, violent people frequently play violent video games.

People looking for an easy solution confuse the cause with the effect, and think "There, that'll fix it."

Idiots.

 

[Sapphic Addict]

(Newbie here putting her 2¢ in)

In the past, violent movies and video games have often been blamed for the actions of someone that has, at a later time, been found to be mentally unbalanced in some way. The Columbine shootings were, for a while, blamed on roleplaying games, ignoring the fact that both boys' parents were facilitating their antisocial behavior and they both suffering from one or more mental condition. Similarly, while the recent shooting event in Norway had some initial suggestions of links with video game violence, it was quickly discovered that the shooter was, to be brutally insensitive, a total whack-job.

It is not the video games, or the violent movies or the escapist pastimes of these people that cause them to perform their violent deeds, but perhaps these pastimes can be, instead, looked at as a marker for review?

"My friend is always quiet, but lately he's been playing that Grand Theft Auto game and he's texted me several times that he likes running over the businessmen in the game. I wonder if I should tell someone…"

Well, duh, what do you think? Of course you tell someone! But who should you tell? Parents, certainly. If they don't listen, other family members. If they turn a blind eye, anyone else that will listen. A little paranoia is a good thing. Too much, however, will be counterproductive. You're looking for a peaceful, preventative intervention, not a SWAT team knocking down some poor shmuck's door at three in the morning…

 

[EnlightenedAneurysm]

(Newbie here putting her 2¢ in)
While the recent shooting event in Norway had some initial suggestions of links with video game violence

No it didn't. As soon as there was news that an explosion had taken place in a government building it was assumed to be Islamic Terrorists by all broadcasters.

 

[An Hallucination]

(Newbie here putting her 2¢ in)
While the recent shooting event in Norway had some initial suggestions of links with video game violence

No it didn't. As soon as there was news that an explosion had taken place in a government building it was assumed to be Islamic Terrorists by all broadcasters.

I definitely heard Islamic Terrorists the day of, but I've also heard some video game speculation, in Sapph's defense. I think that there are certain elements that will report their pet cause as being causally connected to a tragic event all the time, no matter what. Some people who rail against video games will dig for (or make up, in some cases) a link between violent games and any attack. It's a different, more obscure sort of knee-jerk reaction that we saw when the entire global media was declaring the attacker(s) Islamic Fundamentalists.

There was an episode of South Park about a campaign to end smoking which featured the anti-smoking organization repeatedly lying, fabricating, and doing harm in the name of ending smoking. I think the episode exaggerated the lengths to which these sort of myopic groups go to accomplish their goals, but probably not too much. There are people who believe that violent video games are a true scourge, so if a few well placed lies could convince the rest of the world to ban or heavily regulate them, there is some willingness to lie. (Or, more generously, to assume a connection and report it as fact.)

So that's why, I think, I heard video games mentioned in connection to the Norway incident.