Do you think Video Games can lead to violent behavior?

[Sir Suomi]

Well, as the title states, do you believe video games, especially those that are considered "Violent", cause violent behavior?

I say no. Being a gamer since the age of about 10(Original Xbox with 3 games: Halo 1, NCAA 2005, and Sid Meir's Pirates), I've never acted out violently, at least beyond the norm of a young child. I still play games to this day, and I'm one of the nicest guys you could possibly meet. I'm active in sports, all A's, etc, even with my love of video games.

I did a quick scan through for an article over the positives of playing video games, and found this article, although it may be slightly outdated. I just scanned through it, so if anything in it is found to be wrong, please forgive me.

Link: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/positive-effects-of-video-games.html

[Helena]

Not really. I mean, Most of them glorify killing and whatever but it's the whole "kill for a noble cause" crap.

[Jess]

No, although it can be a factor. Generally, just because you like violent games doesn't mean you will become violent or are one. Other factors come into play, like maybe an abusive childhood

[xmojox]

The article you linked seems about right to me. To answer the question, I'd say if a person has problems separating fantasy from reality, then, yeah there might be problems. Video games are just one more scapegoat for parents who can't be bothered to actually parent.

[Lonely teen]

The article you linked seems about right to me. To answer the question, I'd say if a person has problems separating fantasy from reality, then, yeah there might be problems. Video games are just one more scapegoat for parents who can't be bothered to actually parent.

Yup thats how i see it also if they have a mental illness it will contribute to it

[naglfari]

everyone our age plays videogames. there's about as much evidence that breathing air makes you more violent.

there's been a lot of shootings recently by old people too but no one investigates the link between violence and shuffleboard

[SoSalty]

When I was younger me and my bro used to play Smackdown vs. Raw and when he beat me I used to start acting like a wrestler and slamming him on the bed cause I was mad lol. But other then that never violent mostly cause I play mainly sports game besides black ops.

[Cygnus]

It can cause violent behavior, however good parenting and good principles will limit that. The average person will not be affected though, and I personally think people are exaggerating when they say video games are a massive problem. If I show you a video of a man actually shooting himself and dying and then show you a game like Gears of War you will still be more shocked by the man shooting himself.

[Cicero]

No they do not. Although they may be a risk for an insane person

[Byzantium]

Well, as the title states, do you believe video games, especially those that are considered "Violent", cause violent behavior?

I say no. Being a gamer since the age of about 10(Original Xbox with 3 games: Halo 1, NCAA 2005, and Sid Meir's Pirates), I've never acted out violently, at least beyond the norm of a young child. I still play games to this day, and I'm one of the nicest guys you could possibly meet. I'm active in sports, all A's, etc, even with my love of video games.

I did a quick scan through for an article over the positives of playing video games, and found this article, although it may be slightly outdated. I just scanned through it, so if anything in it is found to be wrong, please forgive me.

Link: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/positive-effects-of-video-games.html

For the most part, I agree with you (And I think we sound shockingly alike, but whatever)
As long as you have common sense, I dont think seeing violence in games would cause you to react violently in reality.

But then again, some people dont have common sense, so I guess its possible it could

[Neptune]

I don’t think the games themselves cause someone to be violent but they can be a contributing factor. A violent person has violent tendencies and the games only give them ideas but it doesn’t start the violent tendencies. Does that make sense? Lol - Just my opinion though. :)

[PinkFloyd]

No. Not at all. One of my favorite video games is Grand Theft Auto IV. I mean in that game basically all you do is kill... Just because I own a gun and play violent video games, does NOT mean I'll be some psyco..

[adam16]

No, studies have shown that they don't at all in Europe

[WaffleSingSong]

Well, they can trigger negative behavior if the person playing them is not necessarily right in the head. Also, very young children might also see it and might put that in there mind as a cool thing to do (and I mean 4-5 year olds.).

But for the most part, no. Most children know the the difference between reality and fantasy, well, the sane ones that are well parented.

[Horizon]

they can trigger negative behavior, but I feel the parents need to tell the children that those things aren't okay to do in real life.

[ImCoolBeans]

Yes, video games can certainly lead to violent behavior, but that can't be said for everybody. Some people (not most) should definitely not play violent video games. They can poorly influence somebody who is already slightly violent or has behavioral issues to begin with. That isn't the case with everybody; but without a doubt for some. You hear on the news every so often that a child took his or her parent's gun and shot somebody because the child thought that it would all be okay in the end like in a video game where there are no consequences for killing or where you can re-spawn in a matter of seconds.

No. Not at all. One of my favorite video games is Grand Theft Auto IV. I mean in that game basically all you do is kill... Just because I own a gun and play violent video games, does NOT mean I'll be some psyco..

I've seen you say that you've thrown controllers out of pure rage... That's pretty violent behavior :P

[Rayquaza]

Social Learning Theory is the theory that explains that behavior can be caused through the onset of witnessing behavior, and then replicating those actions under the impression it is normal to do so. It is indeed possible to become violent from excessive or even a small amount of visual stimuli (such as a video game) as the brain subconsciously programs what is seen and replays it, extracting what it views to be normal. This is most common in children and the feedback from the subject will become less likely to do so as they grow up. This means that if you're stupid enough to let your kid buy Call Of Duty when he's like, 9, he will pretty much find a gun and want to replicate those actions based on what he's seen.

But yes, it can't be said for everyone. It can be said for most infants but as they grow up, the differences will become more apparent. For you, since you're more aware of it, it's less likely to happen. Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment was an experiment conducted in the 1960's, and he performed this experiment with little children. They all saw an adult violently punch a Bobo doll for a minute, and the adult left. Guess what happened.

The infants also beat up the doll. Well, it's what they saw, bless them. Now, this was during the time TV was being rolled out into homes, so this experiment was re-conducted but this time, children watched the violent behavior on the TV. Once again, the results showed that those subjected to that violent behavior became more aggressive. A control group of other children were subjected to watch flowers in fields and boring things. From that we can deduct that this was definitely cause and response.

Just remember this is all simply a one-tailed hypothesis, it's not a definite answer, merely a suggestion.

[anyone50]

Not for the general public that buys these games but for certain individuals that are predisposed to be influenced by these games to act out in an irrational manner i have to say yes it can lead to violent behavior in those individuals. The problem is that most of those individuals don't realize that playing those games are a trigger to their behavior untill it's too late and even then because of thier irrational thought patterens they can't recongonize it. So how do you stop the very small group of people from playing the violent games you can't unless you want to deprive everyone which is the Radicals approch to everything from smoking to gun control.

[PinkFloyd]

Yes, video games can certainly lead to violent behavior, but that can't be said for everybody. Some people (not most) should definitely not play violent video games. They can poorly influence somebody who is already slightly violent or has behavioral issues to begin with. That isn't the case with everybody; but without a doubt for some. You hear on the news every so often that a child took his or her parent's gun and shot somebody because the child thought that it would all be okay in the end like in a video game where there are no consequences for killing or where you can re-spawn in a matter of seconds.



I've seen you say that you've thrown controllers out of pure rage... That's pretty violent behavior :P
Okay... you got me! :D

[Stronk Serb]

In my case, video games do not cause violent behavior, but lag does, I once threw my headset because I was about to complete a VERY long quest in Skyrim an it crashed.

[Sir Suomi]

In my case, video games do not cause violent behavior, but lag does, I once threw my headset because I was about to complete a VERY long quest in Skyrim an it crashed.

That's what I've been thinking
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8323529874_bf7950fe0c_z.jpg

[Giannaras]

Although many people think that action games like call of duty battlefield and any with shooting and killing is teaching violence its the exact opposite by my opinion cause the kid expells this urge to hit or whatever by killing virtually other people without causing any harm in real life so I think video games dont make you violent but the exact opposite.Also lag can make you violent I play bf3 and lags.

[Danny_boi 16]

No video games do not promote violence. But those, whom have mental handicaps, can be influenced . But in a sane person, no.

[Ryhanna]

Sure they can. However, that's not to say that anyone who plays violent games is going to massacre a bunch of people. Violent video games may act as some sort of a 'trigger' to a person who is mentally ill, or predisposed to violent behaviour.

Should we be blaming video games every time somebody gets hurt? No. Most video game players are able to distinguish reality from fiction, and understand that the sort of violence used in video games is in no way acceptable in real life.

[Harry Smith]

There are much bigger issues than Video games, people just tend to use it as an easy thing to blame in order to coax over the wide issue. Look at Newtown, everyone was saying that he was an ardent gamer and that he was obsessed.It's just a way to avoid the truth

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

No, video games don't lead to violent behavior in people. Not in most people, anyway.

If someone has a preexisting issue of anger management and other things such as that, video games can be a factor. But those people were violent and angry to begin with, so you can't really say video games had a big effect on them.

I've been a gamer since I was about 7, and I've never shown a tendency towards violence. Sure, I get angry sometimes, but so does everyone else. You can't blame video games for that.

[fast8]

Heck NO!!!!

[Sugaree]

No video games do not promote violence. But those, whom have mental handicaps, can be influenced . But in a sane person, no.

LOL! Are you shitting me? Of course video games promote violence. Look at franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield which glorify killing brown people and Russians. You seriously don't think that video games aren't used to promote violence? You need to look at the industry.

[Aajj333]

I think the assassin's creed people nailed this subject when some animal rights group got angry when they included whaling in their game

"We don't codone illegal whaling, just as we don't codone a pirate life style of poor hygiene, plundering, hijacking ships, and over the legal limit drunken debauchery."

So the video games have violence but they don't encourage it.

[Danny_boi 16]

LOL! Are you shitting me? Of course video games promote violence. Look at franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield which glorify killing brown people and Russians. You seriously don't think that video games aren't used to promote violence? You need to look at the industry.

Video games do not promote the killing of real humans being. It does not cause one the kill another. If I play Call of Duty, it will not make me to kill spies in the USSR. If anything it cause people to join the US military, which people should be involved in.

[Sir Suomi]

LOL! Are you shitting me? Of course video games promote violence. Look at franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield which glorify killing brown people and Russians. You seriously don't think that video games aren't used to promote violence? You need to look at the industry.

Also don't forget the gore fest movies, TV shows, music, hell, even books. You cannot single out Video Games. It's either all of the media or nothing.

[norcaldude18]

I actually do think that violent video games can make some people more violent. I obviously don't think it does this to very many people. Your average teenager that plays Grand theft auto knows the difference between a video game and reality. But I think kids that are easily influenced and mentally unstable are more likely to go and commit crimes in real life that were perceived as fun and acceptable in the video game.

[randomnessqueen]

not always
but they definitely can

[xmojox]

The real issue here is why a parent would allow a very young child or a kid already prone to violence or who can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality to play a violent game in the first place. Parents need to actually take time from their busy lives and parent their kids. Violence has been blamed on movies, TV, music, games, and, even books. A parent should know his or her kid better than anyone and not allow things the kid can't handle.

[justin 13]

Nope, I dont think so. I play a lot, and I am not a violent person.

[Daracon]

Playing sports video games doesn't make me good at sports. So violent games don't make me violent. I am sure some people can take games to the extreme by acting them out but those are rare cases. Our culture and world in general were incredibly violent before video games came along.

[Hunter_Steel]

I'll say it like this.

HELL NO!

Only in mentally unstable people. But not in Stable people. I play Unreal Tournament, Brothers in Arms, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, many strategy games, and quite a lot of violent racing games. Am I violent? Nope. Only if you threaten my life, my family or my girlfriend will I get violent, but normally? I aint gonna go and take my brother's .45 and kill someone just like they do in the video game.

It doesn't promote it, if anything, I play these games to get rid of my Anger. Better to get a "Headshot" score in Unreal Tournament III than to go and get a Headshot on a real person and end up with a life sentence in prison.

~Hunter

[NzForever]

No it justs games.