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The Effects of Video Games and Violence
Over the century, video games have become quite an attraction among people of all ages and culture. A statistic showed that the age bracket for video gaming ranges from eight to forty year olds (Baran, 2012). With the advancement of technology, video games also have advancement in its realism and genres. The technologies allowed video games to become very sophisticated and realistic. This type of advancement had brought the Video gaming to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with the level of realism, there are also negative affects to society. Since the creation of violent video games or "mature" games, there have been constant disputes whether or not if these games will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are graphic and violent in nature, some video games may promote skills such as motor coordination, learning, and creativity. Nevertheless, there are researches on the effects between video games and violence. The studies show concerns about the effect of violent video games on young people who play videogames excessively. However, it implores the question: Which comes first, can violent video games aggravate a player's violent behavior, or does the player with violent tendencies is more susceptible to act out their violence through playing video games?
In order to understand the researches and debates, the word violence must be clearly define. There are many researches and debates that prove aggressive behavior in real life are a result of violence in video games, however, many disagree with this because researchers failed to define what violence is or why the types of games experimented with are considered violent. The perceptions on violence will differ from one person to another. For example, when the game Super Smash Bros. came out in the 20th century, there were many disputes if the game is violent. Even though the games consisted of fictional cartoon characters, the objective of the whole game was to select a character and battle to the death; the winner achieves higher powers and abilities. On the contrary, recent games of the 21st century such as: Mortal Kombat, Modern Warfare, Call of Duty, and most notoriously debated Grand Theft Auto all involves some type of high gore and blood violence and a reward system for it. For example, in Mortal Kombat, at the end of a match, when a player has weakened their opponents, they are given the chance to do more damage called "Fatality". Fatality involves over-killing such as cutting off head, ripping skin, burning. The standards for violence half a decade ago is very different from the violence standards of today. Today, the term violence through video games is deemed by the realism in gore, crimes, blood, and unorthodox methods that a person would never act in society. These exposures to violent graphics also affect the player's physiological and psychological functions. An update, previous meta-analytic studies of violent video games underestimate the true magnitude of observed deleterious effects on behavior, cognition, and affect ( Anderson, 2003). Advantaged technology video games came out everyday and more technologist and more realism . The Games are more blood and violence, it make player's more active when they playing games and more involved and in control. Most games have blood, many weapons such as explosives or rifles. Being exposed to those behaviors in the game, dead bodies and blood can make the players insensitive to violence. Player will tend to be more aggressive, more prone to confrontation with everybody, maybe engage in fights with their peers. It is indirect effect on their mood and their behavior.
When a person plays a video game, there are all sorts of chemical and physiological reactions within the player's body. These types of reactions to the video games occur because players are more involved and in control; people interact with video games, not watch them. Studies have shown that the limbic system within the brain is the most activated as a person is exposed to violent video games. The limbic system consists of the amgydala, hypothalamus, thalamus, and the hippocampus. When a player becomes interactive with the video games, all of the brain structures are active. However, when it comes to violent video games, the most important of the four are the amgydala and the hypothalamus. The amgydala controls a person's aggression and the hypothalamus controls is responsible for regulating your response to pain, levels of pleasure, sexual satisfaction, and anger. Some of the games provide practice in problem solving and logic as well as strategizing. The subset of games that feature violence, gore, and antisocial behavior has raised concern among parents, school, child development, and policy makers. Therefore, we should keep track on our children, decrease hour with video games , and try to avoid violent video games. It leads to aggressive behaviors in our children, and have psychological effects on the way children perceive the world
A statistic from CNN stated that about 90% of American kids ages eight to sixteen plays about thirteen hours of video games a week (Harding, 2008), the stats does not say whether or not if the video games being played are violent, however, about eight-five percent of games today are veered towards violence (Munger, 2008). Playing a violent video game differs from watching a violent T.V. show or a movie, playing the violent game requires the gamer to be actively involved in the game; which causes the gamers' physiological and psychological aspects to be altered. A study in Japan showed a link between cognitive and memory functions to be linked with computer gaming. The study revealed that long exposure to computer games would hinder and affect the gamers' social behaviors (McVeigh, 2001). The data above shows that majority of kids play games on a frequent average throughout their adolescent years; and the long-term exposure to these video games will hinder their social life. If playing regular video games and computer games have already hindered their development process, what will playing violent video games do, not to mention, eighty-five percent of the video games sold are violent video games. Consequently, a study conducted in 2008 on 362 third, fourth, and fifth graders in the U.S. and 1,231youths ages twelve to eighteen in Japan over a period of the school. The students were ask at the beginning of the school year what types of games they played and for how long. At the end of the year, the study showed that students who exposed to games that are more violent are subject to more fights (Adams, 2010).
There have been constant debates on the topic of video games and violence. Some would say that violent video games increase the players' aggression. On the contrary, others would say that there is no actual evidence that video games would affect a person judgment and increase their aggression. The purpose of this paper is to explain the physiologically and psychology effects of video games on a person and how that would alter a player's cognitive and social functions. The debate between violence and video games is unending. However, based upon facts and data shown, there are correlations between video games and brain functions. A typical gamer with long exposures to video gaming may hinder their developmental functions towards society, especially if the gamer is a developing kid. Overall, a person cannot assume that violent video games are the cause of violent behaviors. Violent video games alone will not cause crimes.