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Mike Daris Professor Jacobs Enc 1101 April 11, 2014 Video games cannot be violent A typical Saturday for a young individual whom does not need to work or do homework can find themselves sitting on the couch in front of the TV playing one of the many gaming consoles, whether it be Xbox One or PlayStation 4 and fighting a game that contains some level of violence. In the classic game series Grand Theft Auto the player can hire a hooker, steal cars from random individuals in the game and/or kill anyone who gets in their way. In the Call of Duty series the gamer is a soldier who has the license to kill anyone on the opposing team. This constant streaming of activities and images of blood and guts has seem to led people to believe that these violent video games are encouraging the young people of this generation to part take in school violence and desensitize them to the horrors and reality of death. However, the question that remains is are these video games really causing individuals to be violent outside of the game? I believe video games dont make individuals violent, people make people violent. In the recent events dealing with students and school violence it is clear to see why people may feel like there is a connection between violent games and school violence. However, this debate will go on since there is a lack of valid research that shows the long term effects of aggression, video game usage and violence in any given population. What little research out there seems to show a tie between both arguments? There is more research supporting the idea that there is no connection between school violence and video game usage.

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According to the website ProCon.org an article called Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence? I believe that video games does not cause teen violence. There seems to be a common factor in the decrease of violence in young boys who play violent video games versus individuals who do not play games. The main argument states that individuals who play these games actually say they play violent games to relieve the stress and rage the feel inside. (ProCon.org). Also Guillaume de Fondaumiere, MA, former President of the French National Video Game Association, stated in an Nov. 16, 2009 interview with Digital Games on digitalgames.fr Playing a violent game won't turn you into a psycho, a murderer or a serial killer Most studies show that very clearly on the contrary violent games allow players to express themselves. As well as it's like an outlet for them in a way. All these violent actions that are said to have been inspired by playing violent video games are nothing but the expressions of issues unrelated to video games Ive also done a study myself I gathered five friends who play call of duty ghost on the PlayStation 4 console and ask each one does playing the game relieve any rage or anger or does it make your feel as if youre a solider in the middle of a war and you have to go out in the real world and imitate what they see. When I came up with the results from the experiment I got four out of five friends saying that video games is a stress reliever that separates their mind from this world. Our former president Ronald Reagan said I recently learned something quite interesting about video games many young people have developed hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games the air force believe these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets. To me this means video games promote nonviolence.

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In studies done they have shown that the numbers of Violent juvenile crime in the United States has been declining as violent video game popularity has increased. (ProCon.org) This study disproves the theory that violent video games increase violence in players. The theory of having a correlation between violence and playing violent games is also disproven because of the design of studies. A lot of the studies have suffered from design flaws and use unreliable measures of violence and aggression such as noise blast tests. Thoughts about aggression have been confused with aggressive behavior, and there is a lack of studies that follow children over long periods of time. (ProCon.org) Like stated earlier in that players feel that playing allows them to release some aggression studies have shown players understand that the game is not reality and that knowing the difference and players do not act out the violence shown in the game. Scott Ramsoomair at Game Core interview, Mar. 7, 2005 said Psychos will always be psychos; they dont need video games to help them. At the end of the day this debate needs more valid research from both ends because if there is no research proving either case how can one side claim superior from the other. There are a lot of articles that argue on side and not the other and studies that are bent a side being better than another. Both sides needs to research a nonbiased long term study, because as long as sales increase and game companies produce games one thing can be certain that the violence and the blood found in the games will only increase as well. Overall, the students scores on aggressive behavior, as well hostile attitudes and fantasies about violence against others, declined slightly throughout the study. Thats because children tend to act less aggressively as they get older, and learn more mature ways of dealing with conflicts than lashing out. So until further valid research can be done, the bored teenager on a Saturday will continue to spend the day playing video games. Where they will steal cars, kill

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cops, hire hookers, sell drugs, kill zombies, kill titans, destroy government buildings, launch nuclear weapons, jump from planes at night and destroy all that is deemed a threat. No matter if that teenager is the nicest person who wouldnt hurt a fly or the individual that is mentally unstable. Therefore the question remains, does playing violent video games lead to violent behaviors, filled with rage and aggression or does the player know that they maybe a level 45 General for the Marines responsible to kill zombies on the Xbox One but that is only on the Xbox and not in real life

Work Cited 1. Alice Park posted on March 24, 2014 http://time.com/34075/how-violent-video-gameschange-kids-attitudes-about-aggression/

2. ProCon.Org (2014) Video Games. Web Retrieved. Article Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence? 3. Ronald ragon speech aug 8 1983 I found it on http://www.notablequotes.com/v/video_games_quotes.html 4. . Scott Ramsoomair at Game Core interview, Mar. 7, 2005 http://www.notablequotes.com/v/video_games_quotes.html