Please be harsh I want to get an A!
Video games have been around since the early 70's and were just considered just another toy for children to play, but fast forward more than twenty years later and it is evident that that video games isn't just a toy for children its a pastime and a hobby for children, teenagers, and adults alike. Recently video games have become more realistic and life-like than ever before making them more interactive and memorable. There are all types of games but some that have made controversy among people are the violent ones, people have raised the idea that video games are the cause of violence and that they are the blame for incidents such as the Columbine high school massacre of 1999 and many other acts of violence. In this I will present to you facts, idea,s and solutions proposed by scientists, parents and teachers alike. At the end of the paper you will be more knowledgeable on the topic and may come to a conclusion yourself.
One of the first video games that caused mass controversy in the world of video games was Mortal Kombat which was released in arcades in 1992, It was a fighting game in which the player would choose a character and fight other characters in a death-match, while there were other game like Mortal Kombat before it MK was different for the fact that it contained blood each time one of the characters was hit, but that wasn't it, after the player has defeated the opposing character they would have a couple of seconds to input a combination of buttons to perform a "fatality" which was a move that the player would do to destroy the opponent in gruesome ways which included decapitating the opponent, punching into their body and ripping out there heart, and many others. While much of the video game community praised the game many parents and adults saw the game as disgusting and and a cause for violence among young teens. In many places around the world the game was banned but in the U.S. It isn't illegal to ban video games cause of there graphic nature and is considered freedom of speech. After all the controversy about MK and other violent video games ESRB came to be which is a video game rating system to let customers know what type of game they are buying. The ESRB rating systems ranges from and E rating meaning everyone to a A rating meaning Adults Only. Many say ESRB has helped a lot in keeping violent video games from young children but many others do not agree they want to go even further with a ban of all violent video games. It is not a proven fact that violent video games cause violent behaver or aggression but n many cases of violent behaver video games have been linked. Take the case of the Columbine High School Massacre the authors of a research study in 2000 notes that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold enjoyed playing violent video games, and they speculate that these games played a role in their violent acts at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in April of 1999. Eric Harris had actually modified a version of the game Doom and placed it on his Website. In his version there were two shooters, extra weapons, and the other people in the game couldn't shoot back. He and Klebold essentially acted-out their version of Doom on innocent ****ates. Many other scenarios like this have happened and people think that violent video games are the cause. Many talk about the damage these games can do but they offer no scientific fact or evidence but there are groups of people who have tried.
There have been Non-experimental studies but they just consist of small surveys.People are asked about their exposure to video games, to violent video games, and to various other media. They are also asked about their aggressive behavior, or occasionally others provide information on the respondents' aggressive behavior. Then the researchers conduct analysis to see if those who are exposed more to violent video games are more aggressive than those who are exposed less. Sometimes more detailed analysis are conducted to see if other factors mediate or reduce any relation that is found. The findings of this research are similar to that of the survey research on other violent media and aggression. Despite some inconsistencies the results seem to indicate that people who spend more time playing video games tend to be more aggressive than those who spend less time playing them Because there are so few studies and the lack of representative samples, they cannot put much confidence in the ****of these examples. In the end, it seems likely that the basic survey is true - those who like violent video games tend to be more aggressive than those who do not like them. Then we move on too the Experimental Research, The experimental work seems to have followed the same idea as laboratory experiments on the effects of film and television violence. The first thing they do is that people are brought into a laboratory, some play a video game containing violence while others play a video game with less violence or no violence, and in some studies others do not play any video games. Then various measures are done that are meant to indicate the players level of aggression, If those who played the violent video game score higher on these measures, it is shown to show that the violent video game caused aggression.There are very few experiments but to many people who have performed experiments the results they have when finished say that violent video games do cause aggression amongst players. The authors of a research expirement in 2000 made their experiment by gathering college students who played either a violent video game (Wolfenstein 3D) or a non-violent game (Myst). Following video game play the students took some tests and participated in a "Competitive reaction time task" where they were told that they were playing against another student. They were told that they could blast the other student with a noise if they won, and that they could vary the intensity and duration of the blast. Students in both groups blasted their opponent longer and louder following trials when they had lost and their opponent had just blasted them. Students who had played Wolfenstein 3D blasted their opponent longer and louder on such trials than students who had played Myst. Female students blasted their opponents longer and louder on all trials than male students. The authors made this conclusion: "The present research demonstrated that in both a correlational investigation using self-reports of real-world aggressive behaviors and an experimental investigation using a standard, objective laboratory measure of aggression, violent video game play was positively related to increases in aggressive behavior. In the laboratory, college students who played a violent video game behaved more aggressively toward an opponent than did students who had played a nonviolent video game. Outside the laboratory, students who reported playing more violent video games over a period of years also engaged in more aggressive behavior in their own lives. Both types of studies-correlational-real delinquent behaviors and experimental-laboratory aggressive behaviors have their strengths and weaknesses. The convergence of findings across such disparate methods lends considerable strength to the main hypothesis that exposure to violent video games can increase aggressive behavior. (Anderson & Dill, 2000)". Many say its impossible to make a perfect experiment on the subject but there is no doubt that violent video games do "something".
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