Does Playing Violent Video Games Have a Negative Effect on Your Behavior?

Transcription

1 Does Playing Violent Video Games Have a Negative Effect on Your Behavior? Celina Nino May 27, 2011 Mr. Devin Ozdogu

2 English 4 Introduction: Since video games and computer games have been invented, the question of whether or not they have possible ill effects has been a concern to many. Video games are more commonly played since industries have came out with Xbox 360, the WII, and the newest Playstation 3. Following these new game systems, more violent video games have also came out and sold millions. Grand Theft Auto, Saints Row, and Gears of War are only few of the video games that have violent content. Even though you need to be seventeen years of age to purchase an M-rated game, children and teenagers still manage to get their hands on it. This stirred up the controversy of these violent video games negatively influencing those who play. Teenagers and children don t intentionally play violent video games to become meaner and more aggressive. But unknowingly, whether you spend a whole week trying to accomplish the last level in your game, or even if you only spend an hour a day, the violent video game you are playing still has an effect on your mind. But does that necessarily mean its a negative effect? This brings up the question: Does playing violent video games have a negative effect on your behavior? Background: The history of video games is not as quite simple to explain as computer games. Ralph Baer, a TV engineer, was asked by his boss to build the best television set in the world in However, Ralph wanted to build something much more extraordinary. He had a vision of a television with the concept of playing video games on it. It was in September 1966 that Ralph began to scribble down notes about TV games. A month and a half later, on October 20, 1966, he was playing his first video game - a chase game with two spots on the screen. Long before the days of Playstation and Xbox, there was the Odyssey, the first in-home gaming console. The Odyssey sold 100,000 units at $100 each that year. The first controversy came in 1976, over Death Race, an arcade game in which car-shaped blobs run over stick figures, turning them into tombstones. In 1993, Mortal Kombat (with its hyper violent, torsoripping fatality moves) and Night Trap (in which a male protagonist protects a houseful of scantily clad women from vampires), caused such a stir in which proposed federal video-game regulations. Stores pulled Night Trap from shelves, and the video-game industry founded the Entertainment software Rating Board, a self-monitoring panel that instituted a tiered rating system to track games sexual and violent content (Suddath, 1). The state of California argues that simulated violence may make people more aggressive, while the gaming industry says there is no conclusive link between the two (Suddath,1). In 2010 the Supreme Court debated on whether or not a law banning the sale of violent video games to minors would be the appropriate action. They also expressed doubt about the law, from California, drew sensible distinctions among the games it covered (Liptak, 1). If the law were to be passed, it would impose up to $1,000 in fines on all stores that sell violent video games to those under the age of 18. The supreme court has viewed video games as in which the range of options available to a player includes

3 killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being in a way that is patently offensive, appeals to minors deviant or morbid interests and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value (Liptak, 1). Arguments that Violent Video Games do not Cause Negative Behavior: Violent video games have been accused of causing negative behavior to its players. But is the video game really the one to blame? Why not blame the action-packed movies that televise commercials on basically every channel? Or why not blame the influence of our children s friends? Just because children play video games where killings are needed to get you to the highest level, doesn t mean that the next thing on your child s Christmas list will be a AK-47 rifle. Reason 1: Violent video games have been accused of causing bad behavior to those who spend a solid amount of time playing them. While in fact, they might even help relieve stress instead of taking violent action. Rather than taking your anger out on punching holes in your bedroom door, perhaps you pick up a video game and channel your anger into killing the next demon to get one step closer to saving the Damsel in Distress. Video games can serve as an alternative to physical violence on yourself, let alone, other people. Texas A&M International University associate professor, Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson conducted a study with 103 young adults who were given a task which involved frustration. They were randomized to play no game, a non violent game, and a violent game. The results showed that those who had played the violent game had reduced the depression and frustration (Ferguson, 1).This shows that these violent video games can change our moods of being overwhelmed, stress, and frustration through mood management. Ferguson suggested that video games could increasingly be used in therapy with young adults and teens. Violent games may help people work through their frustrations with real life and calm down without increasing aggressive behaviors in real life (Ferguson,1). Psychologists Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson often test myths about violent video games. They conducted a two year study which results showed that there was no data to support any relation between games and real-life violence. Kutner and Olson had also studied around 1,200 middle school children. Kutner and Olson sat down and talked to the kids after hours of game playing, sometimes even up to 15 hours a week. The kids played multiple very non-violent games to extremely violent games. The results had showed that the children who played the violent video games rated Mature or above, were just relieving stress. According to Kutner and Olson, boys who don t play any video games at all are now considering to be socially inept. A danger sign for boys is not playing video games at all, because it looks like for this generation, video games are a measure of social competence (Spoerry, 1). This is evidence that video games can relieve your stress, and if you are one of the few kids who do not play video games as well, it might mean your social skills aren t as stable as those who do play video games. The Associated Press had stated It was also reported that U.S Marines fighting in Iraq brought their Xbox consoles, Gameboys and Laptops forward. Never has that been clearer than during the current Iraq conflict and at Camp Fallujah, where Marines and soldiers play because they've been playing all their

4 lives. Games relieve both the stress of warfare and the crush of boredom. (Associated Press,1). Even though the Marines and those fighting in Iraq are going through tough times, this shows that grabbing a controller can clearly get your mind off of the physical and mental struggles they have to go through. Reason 2: Not only does playing violent video games get your mind off of stress, but these types of games may also help you develop skills. Such as visual skills, problem-solving skills, and other skills that may be helpful for you in the future. Researchers at the University of Rochester in New York report that action in video games can develop better process in your brain relating to visual information. People who play video games seem to adjust more to their surroundings while doing certain tasks like driving down a residential street, where they may be more likely to pick out a child running after a ball than a non-video gamer. The research also suggests that action game playing might be a useful tool to rehabilitate visually impaired patients or to train soldiers for combat (Roach, 2). These violent video games are more of a training tool to teach our minds to develop skills that can help us in the real world. This doesn t necessarily mean that if you are good at a sniper game, you should take that up as a career, but for example it could help your visual skills and timing. Maybe instead of blaming these video games, we should have more of them to develop our mind in many ways. According to a pair of researchers at the University of Rochester in New York, such action video games such as Medal of Honor, Modern Warfare and Call of Duty train the brain to better process certain visual information. The researchers also suggest that action game playing might be a useful tool to rehabilitate visually impaired patients. Roach stated I, for one, after playing first person shooters and mystery games, have better map-reading skills, problem-solving skills, nunchak skills and the ability to focus my eyes on a small, moving target from a far distance (Roach, 1). Daphne Bavelier, an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, and her student Shawn Green stumbled upon this field of research while testing the visual-attention skills of deaf people as part of their on-going studies into how experiences shape the organization of the visual system. Their study demonstrates that expert video game players had better strategies for attending to two visual targets appearing simultaneously at two locations on a scree than novice players. As well, practice playing a game helped the non players improve their visual attention skills relative to a control group that did not play the game. Bavelier and Green agree that video games can serve as a learning tool, whether the game is violent or non violent (Roach, 1). Reason 3: Like with comic books, like with rap music, 99.9 percent of kids - and adults, for that matter - understand what is real violence and what is a representation of violence. According to a report issued by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services in Canada, by the time kids reach elementary school they can recognize motivations and consequences of characters actions. (Gilsdorf, 1). Kids aren t going around chucking pitchforks at babies just because we see this in a realistic game. Video games are more of an activity to keep children from boredom, more importantly, to keep them out of trouble and off the streets. All those people who play violent games, for example, Grand Theft Auto,

5 aren t most likely to turn off the game console and go steal a car from an old lady. Surprisingly, violent video games may have more of an advantage to keep teens and children out of trouble. Media is always trying to scare people into believing that violent video games are bad for you, and that you ll become a much meaner and more aggressive person than when you first picked up the game control. However, Scientific enquiry, Patrick Kierkegaard of the University of Essex, England, suggests otherwise. He believes that there is scientific evidence that violent video games are harmless and do not lead to real world aggression. Kierkegaard explains that there is no obvious link between real world violence to the content in the video games. If anything, the effect seems to be opposite of what others argue: video game usage has reduced real violence. Kierkegaard states: Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s, while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use. For example, in 2005, there were 1,360,088 violent crimes reported in the USA compared with 1,423,677 the year before. With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence. Instead, violence has declined (Inderscience Publishers, 1). It is possible that certain types of video games could affect emotions, views, behavior and attitudes, however, so can books, which can lead to violent behavior on those already exposed to violence (Inderscience Publishers, 1). Arguments that Violent Video Games do Cause Negative Behavior: Although studies have reportedly shown that violent video games have no relation to any sign of aggression, there is still a sign of evidence that might disagree with those studies. Violent video games have been one of the most to blame for kids or adults suddenly turning into psychopathic killers. These adults and teens who do play these violent video games aren t taught to do good if they re spending their time in front of a television set shooting citizens, stealing or being chased in a high speed chase to try and get away. Violent video games may have more of an effect that what people think, and maybe society is taking this whole video game controversy a little too lightly. Reason 1: It is a proven fact that we act upon what we are surrounded around. In other words, we are influenced by what we see. This means if children are playing violent video games a couple hours each day, they are more likely to take action into what they see. Therefore, if you re playing a game with blood, gore, and violence, it is most likely going to change your attitude to more negative than positive. Other than stealing cars, the game Grand Theft Auto is known for killing police officers. The game gets so detailed, that you can kill the police men with a sniper rifle, massacre them with a chainsaw, or set them on fire. Eighteen year-old Devin Moor, who played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months, might have taken the game a little too far over the edge. In Fayette, Alabama, Moore was charged for murdering three police officers, just like in his favorite game to play Grand Theft Auto. Moore s victims were Ace Meeler, a 911 dispatcher; James Crump, a police officer, and Arnold Strickland. Moore had no criminal background and was more than welcomed to cooperate with the policeman as they booked him

6 into the Fayette police station on suspicion of stealing a car on the morning of June 7, Then suddenly, Moore snapped (Leung, 1) According to Moore's own statement, he lunged at Officer Arnold Strickland, grabbing his.40-caliber Glock automatic and shot Strickland twice, once in the head. Officer James Crump heard the shots and came running. Moore met him in the hallway, and fired three shots into Crump, one of them in the head. Moore kept walking down the hallway towards the door of the emergency dispatcher. There, he turned and fired five shots into Ace Mealer. Again, one of those shots was in the head. Along the way, Moore had grabbed a set of car keys. He went out the door to the parking lot, jumped into a police cruiser, and took off. It all took less than a minute, and three men were dead. The most interesting part though, is when Moore was arrested again he told police that Life is a video game. Everybody s got to die sometime. Moore is now awaiting trial in criminal court. David Walsh, a child psychologist who studies the relationship between aggression and video games, researched at the National Institutes of Health and his results shown that the teenage brain is not fully developed, therefore there is not much of a relationship (Leung, 1). But does repeated exposure to violent video games have more of an impact on an adult rather than a teenager? The answer is yes, it does. Walsh says this diminished impulse control becomes heightened in a person who has additional risk factors for criminal behavior. Moore had a profoundly troubled upbringing, bouncing back and forth between a broken home and a handful of foster families. And so when a young man with a developing brain, already angry, spends hours and hours rehearsing violent acts, and then he s pun in this situation of emotional stress, there s a likelihood that he will literally go to that familiar pattern that s been wired repeatedly, perhaps thousands and thousands of times. (Leung, 1) Not every child playing a violent game is going to become a cold-blooded killer, but those children who have all those risk factors may come together in a tragic outcome. Reason 2 Playing these violent video games may cause you to have more aggression than when you first picked up your game controller. Also, playing violent video games may cause you to be meaner, which means your level of sensitivity may skyrocket downwards. Therefore, playing violent video games may desensitize you and your feelings for others. This doesn t necessarily mean you will become the biggest bully and steal children s lunch money, but this means you may not feel compassionate or sensitive as you were before towards violence Dr. Grafman, senior investigator at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders, conducted a research involving 22 boys between the ages of The boys all watched 60 violent movie scene clips, the degree of violence ranging was low, medium and moderate, and there were no over-the-top violent scenes (Oxford University Press, 1). The boys were then asked to press one of two buttons, choosing the button whether or not they had thought the movie clip before was more or less aggressive than the previous video. All the boys were put into a magnetic resonance imaging scanner that collected data on their brain function while they watched the videos. The boys also had electrodes attached to the

7 fingers of their non-dominant hand to test skin conductance responses, which varies with it s moisture level and is a sensitive way of measuring people s emotions and responses to internal or external stimuli.. (Oxford University Press,1) Dr. Grafman said: We found that as the boys were exposed to more violent videos over time, their activation in brain regions concerned with emotional reactivity decreased and that was reflected in the data from the functional MRI and in the skin conductance responses. The data had showed that the boys had become more desensitized by the video clips that had more violence rather than the ones that had very low violence. Researchers had also discovered that boys who had the most exposure to violent media in their daily lives showed the greatest desensitization. Dr Grafman observes that the important new finding is that exposure to the most violent videos inhibits emotional reactions to similar aggressive videos over time and implies that normal adolescents will feel fewer emotions over time as they are exposed to similar videos. Dr. Grafman also adds that The electronic media concerned with aggression does stimulate structures in the brain that are typically activated when they actually are aggressive. Most people can distinguish between playing a video game and real life behavior, but given the right circumstances. Particularly if they are a heavy user of games and, in our device-driven world, that will be more and more likely in the future (Oxford University Press,1). Reason 3 It is no secret that alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and other dangerous objects are easy to become addicted to. But who knew that video games could also fall into this category of dependency. It is probably easier than most things to get addicted to a video game, to the point where if you don t have a controller in your hands, may become a bigger problem than you may admit too. An example of a game addiction gone too far is Daniel Petric. He was 16 years of age then, and shot both his Mother and his Father for taking his Xbox console and Halo 3 game away. His father Mark, who was a pastor, didn t like the idea of his son playing these types of games, so he had forbid Daniel to purchase the new Halo 3 and took away the Xbox console as well. Daniel s dad had taken the game away and locked it in a lock box where he also kept his 9mm handgun (Harvey,1). On the night of the shooting, Daniel had stolen the key to the lock box and took out the game and the handgun his Father kept in there. According to Mark Petric s testimony, Daniel had come into the living room where his parents were laying, and he said would you guys close your eyes, I have a surprise for you. At this point, his parents were expecting a surprise, but instead, Daniel shot both his Mom and his Father. Only his Dad survived. When Daniel had fled the scene of the murder, he only took one thing with him: his Halo 3 game (Harvey,1). Lorain County Judge James Burges convicted Daniel of aggravated murder for the death of his Mother, and attempted aggravated murder for the attack on his father. Since Daniel played the Halo games more than 18 hours a day at his friend s house, Judge Burge said playing the games long enough caused

8 physical and psychological changes in the teenager s brain, similar to drug use. When you stop, your brain won t stand for it, just as it wouldn t stand for it when you quit using heroin or crack cocaine (Harvey, 1). This just shows that playing a game for too many hours a day, many days a week, can trigger as an addiction. And just like all other addictions, the result may be tragic. Conclusion: From looking at both sides of the argument, each have great reasons that support their points of view. Those who agree that video games do cause violence are concerned about the safety of the children and teenagers who play the games. If it s true that violent video games do cause negative behavior, then it wouldn t be sensible for the violent video games to still be sold on the shelves of stores. There are a couple of murder cases that has evidence leading back to the video games that the killer had most often played. It isn t sure whether to blame the video games completely, but with the evidence shown in both Devin Moore and Daniel Petric s murder cases, the violent video games they both played seemed to be the reason for the attacks. For those who believe that violent video games are not related to any violence or aggression do have evidence to back it up. If the military is using certain games to improve their skills, then why not allow us to improve our skills as well. It s personally up to the players that play the video games to decide whether their skills have truly improved or not. The media and everyone trying to ban these violent video games need to be aware that children and teenagers don t intentionally play violent video games to become cold-blooded killers. They play the games as something to do to pass their time. Also, since the Xbox and other games have online applications, kids and teenagers also find this as a way to connect and play online with friends. They don t see this as a gateway to become a killer. Reflection: At first, before I started all this research, I had no idea that there was even a controversy relating video games to violent behavior. But after hearing both sides of the arguments, I don t think that people play violent video games intentionally to build up their violence skills or to desensitize their minds, but I do believe that after a long period of time playing these violent games, they are bound to have some kind of effect on your mind. If that is the case, then it should be limited to how long you spend in front of your television with a game control in hand. Even though there were murder stories related to the video games, I think that the gamers who pulled the trigger might of had some kind of obsession towards the video game. I believe that this lead them to their breaking point. For Devin Moore, I think that he must of had a whole bunch of rage inside of him and he just decided to unleash it all at once, and unfortunately the unlucky police officers were the victims of his attack. Also, I think that Daniel Petric, the teenager who shot both his Mom and Dad, had hatred towards both of his parents because they forbid him from playing his favorite video game. Of course teenagers are

9 going to want to be rebellious and do whatever they want, especially when all the other teenagers at school and around your neighborhood are playing the latest video game. So, from what I believe, I think Daniel didn t want to be told that he couldn t play the video game he wanted too. I learned from this research project that there is so much evidence to back up everybody s belief and opinion towards this topic. For those who believe that violent video games improve your skills, there is studies showing teenagers who proved that. On the other side, the people who oppose, have a good reason to think so. Overall, I learned a lot from this report and even though I do not believe that there is a relation between violent video games and aggression, there s still a part of my mind which tells me to think otherwise. Works Cited: Associated Press. Troops Stationed in Iraq Turn to Gaming MSNBC News. 03 January MSNBC News 04 December 2010 < Ferguson, Proffesor. Study by TAMIU Proffesor Finds No Link Between Violent Video Games and Aggression. 27 March Texas A&M International University. 08 January 2010 <

10 Gilsdorf, Ethan. Violent Video Games Are Good for You Psychology Today. 17 November Psychology Today. 15 December 2010 < -are-good-you> Harvey, Mike. Teenager Daniel Petric shot parents who took away Xbox Times Magazine. 13 January The Sunday Times. 04 January 2011 < ec e> Inderscience Publishers Could Violent Video Games Reduce Rather Than Increase Violence? 15 May 2008.ScienceDaily. 03 May 2011 < Leung, Rebecca. Can A Video Game Lead To Murder? CBS News. 19 June CBS News. 24 April 2010 < Liptak, Adam. Justices Debate Video Game Ban. New York Times. 02 November New York Times. 14 December < Oxford University Press (2010, October 19). Watching Violent TV or Video Games Desensitizes Teenagers and May Promote More Aggressive Behavior, New Study Finds. 01 May 2011 Science Daily. 10 May 2011 < /releases/2010/10/ htm> Suddath, Claire. Brief History: Video-Game Violence Times. 10 May Times Magazine. 03 May 2011 < Roach, John. Video Games Boost Visual Skills, Study Finds. National Geographic 28 May 2003 National Geographic 05 April 2011 < ml>

11 Title: Justices Debate Video Game Ban Author(s): Adam Liptak Website: Date Downloaded: 12/14/10 Date Published: 11/02/10 Category: Against Summary: In Washington, the Supreme Court faced an issue over a law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. The justices struggled to define how the First Amendment should apply to this. The court worried about whether it would make sense to extend principles allowing the gonvernment to regulate depictions of sex to depicions of violence. They even considered doing studies on the effects of violent video games on young people. The law would impose $1,000 fomes on stores that do sell video games to people under Key Quotations with Paraphrases: In Ginsberg v. New York in 1968, the court did allow the government to regulate the distribution of sexual materials to minors that fell well short of obscenity, which is unprotected by the First Amendment. (1) Back then, stores weren t so protective of sexual content or materials. They were sold to minors with no problem. And there wasn t an age limit to get sexual materials, even though it was obscene and graphic. The law would impose $1,000 fines on stores that sell violent video games to people under 18. It defined violent games as those in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being in a way that is patently offensive, appeals to minors deviant or morbid interests and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. (1) The law will fine $1,000 to stores that do indeed sell these violent video games to minors. This gives minors the choice to view killings and volgure images in a way that may effect them. These violent video games cause a lack in literary, artistic and political or scientific value. They tried analogies to books, films, cartoons, comic books, fairy tales and rap lyrics. They argued about what the drafters of the Bill of Rights would have made of an extremely violent game like Postal 2. They worried about whether it made sense to extend, for the first time, principles allowing the government to regulate depictions of sex to depictions of violence. They considered conflicting studies on the effects of violent video games on young people. (1) This controversy became a huge deal that they even thought about conducting a study to test the effect video games have on young people. But this brings up a good point: we surround ourselves with books, films, rap music etc. and these can all have a negative effect on us also. Yet, this doesn t stop us from listening or viewing these materials.

12 Title: Violent Video Games Are Good For You Author(s): Ethan Gilsdorf Website: Date Downloaded: 12/15/10 Date Published: 11/17/10 Category: For Summary: 3 Key Quotations with Paraphrases: Back in 2005, the state of California passed a law that forbade the sale of violent video games to those younger than 18. In particular, the law objected to games in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being in a patently offensive way as opposed to games that depict death or violence more abstractly (1). California passed a law banning the sale of violent video games to minors, under 18 years old. This was to prevent them from being able to play as someone who kills and sexually assaults other humans in the games. According to a report issued by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services in Canada, by the time kids reach elementary school they can recognize motivations and consequences of characters actions. Kids aren t going around chucking pitchforks at babies just because we see this in a realistic game. (1) This is just saying that even though children are revealed to the violent video games, they don t act on what they see. Children are taught better than to go around causing violence to others. Just because they see it in the game, it isn t a monkey-see-monkey-do situation. Children have always been drawn to the disgusting. Even if the ban on violent games is eventually deemed lawful and enforced in California, the games will still find their way into the hot little hands of minors. So do online porn, and cigarettes and beer. But these vices haven t toppled Western civilization. (1) Even though there was a law passed banning the sales of violent video games to minors, this law doesn t prevent them from playing it. They can still find a way to play the game if they truly wish. This is also true with other obscene and inappropriate materials. So passing the law doesn t guarantee a hundred percent prevention. Title: Can A Video Game Lead to Murder Author(s): Rebecca Leung Website: Date Downloaded: 04/24/2011 Date Published: 06/19/05 Category: For

13 Summary: Eighteen year-old Devin Moore was known for playing his favorite video game Grand Theft Auto, but one day he decided to bring the game to life. Moore shot three police officers after being arrested for stealing a car. His case was most important because it was based on the video game he most often played. This raised major controversy because no one was sure who to blame: Devin Moore or the video game he was most influenced by. 3 Key Quotations with Paraphrases: He bought it as a minor. He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game. It s our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did. Attorney Jack Thompson believes that the video game Grand Theft Auto was the reason Devin Moore had killed cops. Especially since killing cops on the video games earns you more points, it only makes sense that that is why Moore decided to kill police officers. Thompson is positive that the video game trained Moore into doing what he did. According to Moore's own statement, he lunged at Officer Arnold Strickland, grabbing his.40-caliber Glock automatic and shot Strickland twice, once in the head. Officer James Crump heard the shots and came running. Moore met him in the hallway, and fired three shots into Crump, one of them in the head. Moore kept walking down the hallway towards the door of the emergency dispatcher. There, he turned and fired five shots into Ace Mealer. Again, one of those shots was in the head. Along the way, Moore had grabbed a set of car keys. He went out the door to the parking lot, jumped into a police cruiser, and took off. It all took less than a minute, and three men were dead. This is when Moore was taken down to the police station for suspicion of steeling a car. He was cooperative until he decided to attack an officer taking his gun and shooting him twice in the head. Still holding onto the gun, Moore shot another police officer who heard the gunshots. Then, Moore kept walking and shot at an emergency dispatcher while grabbing keys to a police cruiser. He then sped off. "A police officer we spoke to said, 'Our job is dangerous enough as it is without having our kids growing up playing those games and having the preconceived notions of "let's kill an officer." It's almost like putting a target on us.' Can you see his point?" asks Bradley. A police officer brought up the point that Grand Theft Auto s main mission is to kill police officers, and since children and teenagers are the most percentage of people playing Grand Theft Auto, that kind of sets a bad example. Just like Moore, if there are negative influences saying that it s okay to kill police officers in video games, you never know who is going to act upon that in real life. Title: Brief History: Video-Game Violence Author(s): Claire Suddath Website: Date Downloaded: 05/03/2011

14 Date Published: 05/10/10 Category: History Summary: This article is about the law passed in California saying that it is illegal for minors to purchase violent video games. It talks about the most controversial games that have made it into the courtroom before a judge. 80% of stores voluntarily refuse to sell violent video games to minors. 3 Key Quotations with Paraphrases: It defines violence as anything depicting the killing, maiming, dismembering or sexual assaulting of a human image. While this will be the first time the Supreme Court has meddled in the $20 billion videogame industry, legislators have been waging a largely failed war against virtual violence for nearly 20 years. Since violent video games are too violent for children, any video games that have killings or sexual assault will not be sold to minors. Even though its never been taken to the supreme court, there has been a twenty year long controversy between the video game industry and the courts. The first major campaign came in 1976, over Death Race, an 8-bit arcade game in which a vaguely carshaped blob runs over stick figures, turning them into tombstones. This quote shows the first controversy over video games. Even though the blob was just running over stick people, it meant something more to the courts. Especially since one they were ran over, they were turned into tombstones. This shows violence because the stick people were dying. The state of California argues that stimulated violence may make people more aggressive, while the gaming industry says there s no conclusive link between the two. Regardless, with an estimated 80% of retailers voluntarily refusing to sell mature games to minors, it stands to reason that the more violent the scenario, the less likely it is that a child is the one mashing the buttons. While most people are blaming video games for the violent behavior in children, the video game industry says otherwise. They believe that there is no connection between video games and real life behavior. But it is good to know that stores are not selling them to minors.