The Effects of Gore helps bring out more realism for Gahr

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1 Demarco Brown 1 Demarco Brown ENGL 1102 February 21, 2012 The Effects of Gore helps bring out more realism for Gahr In Evan Gahr s essay Gore for Sale, Gahr expresses his thoughts about violent video games and the effect they have on young children in this generation. Gahr compares the violent effects of video games to the horrific scene from Littleton, Colorado. Gahr uses pathos when he makes the connection between violent video games and the Littleton shooting. His article first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 30, 1999 and the shooting happened just 10 days before. Gahr believes that violent games can have an impact on children because of how real the graphics are now becoming. Gahr uses good imagery to show how the game Doom may appear to be real to the player, and also tells the how the manufacturer of Doom explains that You don t just play Doom- you live it (560). Gahr uses video games from different time s eras to explain how video games have evolved to become more realistic and violent. He starts off by explaining the recently popular games Postal and Doom. He also adds the web sites description of how the game Postal is so realistic by stating Corpses stay where they fall for the duration of the game-no mysterious disappearing bodies (559). Gahr then tells the reader about the time when video games first started to show signs of being pretty violent. He even goes to the start of when some people thought that the old arcade game, Space Invaders, was pretty violent when it first appeared in stores, and Gahr explains that games have become progressively more violent ever since (560).This shows an evolution of violence from these games throughout the whole article. Gahr explains that video game companies first started to add the realistic

2 Demarco Brown 2 effect of being able to see the action from the on-screen character s point of view (560) when the game Wolfenstein 3-D became available to people. Although Gahr did a pretty good job of using pathos to explain how the game Doom was directly related to the shooting in Littleton, Colorado, he didn t really have that much pathos in the rest of the article that was as strong as the one in the beginning. He tries to use pathos again at the end of the article when he states that In Chicago, about fifty people recently demanded that Toys R Us stop selling video games and toys. The Protesters, from a partnership of several churches, held a mock funeral outside the store (560). This shows that people really wanted these video games off the stores and away from their children, and people even had casket displaying violent games to show that the some people really cared about the topic. He also uses Logos to explain that it is going to take more than the worries of parents take make sure that these games don t become more popular to children. His logic that violent video games are not just a new thing, but they have in fact been around for quite some time is good fact that shows that instead of games becoming less violent they have in turn become more violent as companies try to push their product to be the best in the business. Space Invaders was considered to be too violent according Gahr and people around that time, but compared to new games like Doom, the games are nowhere as close to be as violent as them. He has a logic that is not directly stated in the article, but he is actually trying to say that violent video games will always be popular amongst kids because they will always be popular with everyone because of realistic they have become and how that appeals more to gamers. Gahr also shows signs of ethos by showing statements from Senators Joseph Lieberman and Herb Kohl. They both see the violence in video games to be big problem for children. Their presence in the article shows that the government also sees how violent these video games can be and also how they are trying to stop kids from being able to buy these of video games. They both even use their

3 Demarco Brown 3 powers granted by Congress to have hearings to discuss the impact violent games have on young children and how they use this to create the rating system for all video games. Gahr also points out that the government made a voluntary rating system that all video games must follow. This didn t seem to work because many stores simply do not enforce these rules when children buy these games. This is another way that Gahr shows that although there have been many ways to help prevent the sales of these violent video games too children, they are still being ignored by many people in charge selling the games. Gahr organizes his article well by using the same method of introducing a video game and then describing the game. He starts off by giving a quick description of a violent video game at beginning of the article, but then he quickly uses a good example of how that type of video games can turn deadly and have a negative effect on kids. Many gaming companies know that these types of games are very popular to children so with each new release players are promised seemingly endless amounts of blood and gore (560). The placements of different types of violent games descriptions are placed pretty well in the article. They aren t clumped together, but they are instead spread out through the article and they are followed by different types of information like what percentage of video games are violent games compared to others. He starts off with the very violent video game Doom and gives reasons why it appears to be real to its players and then he slowly begins to go backwards in time to show violent games have evolved over time. This works out to the reader because they have probably played or seen these games before in their life no matter what age the reader might be because of how in depth Gahr goes with his violent video game timeline. The details in the article are very good and they are good examples of why these games are too violent for little children. Gahr makes the connection between the game and how children could see their selves as actually being a part of the game too. He shows that the more realistic a game becomes the more

4 Demarco Brown 4 children are going to become interested in it. Gahr main point and argument remain strong throughout the whole article, and the conclusion is also a strong way to end the article. Gahr does a good job of picking one side of the argument and giving examples of how the games can have a negative effect on children. At the end of the article he kind of gives more emphasis on what he believes violent games do to kids, but he also doesn t overstate his opinion too. Gahr could have used more pathos to maybe show how a connection between violent video games and himself since he has probably played or seen other people he knows play at least one video game. Gahr did a decent job but not a great job of showing the other side of his argument. He states how the violent video games are bad to kids, and he even gives an example for the counter argument. He shows that the video companies believe that all though there are plenty of adults that are concerned about these violent games that they It s just a game (561). This shows how the companies have responded to all the negative criticism that they have received from angry parents. There may not be as many for Gahr to state, but he should have at least tried to find some connection that could have been made between the good and bad effects of these video games. Gahr needs to find a better way of finding common ground, but it also shouldn t be to the point to where it interferes with his points against the negative effects of these games. His tone throughout the article seems to be kind of relaxed and sometimes he throws a small joke into the article, but he also wants to make his points clear. One example of Gahr being kind of funny and sarcastic at the same time is when he says What is going on here? Well one thing entrepreneurship (560). He gave an example of a game being too violent and it becoming more realistic for its players. His tone is sarcastic and funny in this point because he questions why these games are so popular with young children, and then he explains how violent video games have an influence on the video game market.

5 Demarco Brown 5 Overall Gahr uses good examples and techniques in his article. He didn t over use techniques because of the length of the article. He shows an evolution of video games throughout the article and this helps bridge the connection between the games and his readers no matter what age they may be. He also does a good job of painting an image how these games are violent during many points of the article. Gore for Sale may not be the longest and most informative article about violent video games out there but it gives good examples and reasons to why these games have a negative impact on our children today.

6 Demarco Brown 6 Work Cited Gahr, Evan. Gore For Sale. Wall Street Journal April 30, 1999: n. pag. Rpt. in Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. Boston: Bedford/St Martin s, Print.