Kurdyumov 1

Irina Kurdyumov
Mrs.Allison
Period 4
December 10, 2014

VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES

This world is full of violence. A lot of the violence comes from the violent video games. Im
going to talk about three reasons that bring violence. The first reason is the confusion of what's
real and not real. Second is increase aggression. The last one is influence of the game on the
person. Violent video games cause violence in real life.These types of games has been in the
media since the 1990s.
The first reason that violent video games can lead to real violence, is that games get into
players head who confuse of what's real and what's not.An article by Julia Layto describes a
sixteen year old Evan Ramsey who brought a shotgun to his High School and shot four people,
killing two. Ramsey later explained he was surprised to find that rule did not apply to real life. As
we can see he was really confused of what he was doing. On April 20,1999 according to the
article on howstuffworks.com two seniors walked into their high school carrying rifles and killing
twelve students and one teacher. There has been school shootings before but it came out that
shooters had spent a lot of time playing violent video games. In games you get rewarded for
killing the enemy, so children or anyone who plays violent video games may think it is a game
when it comes to real life. You get rewarded in games such as Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty,
Mortal Kombat and many more. According to different internet articles it is estimated 97 percent
of American young people play videogames and most of them contain violence. By 2008, it
estimated they play on average of 13.2 hours per week.
Violent video games cause aggression to the gamers. In UsaToday.com it says a prefessor
of communication and psychology Ohio State Brad Bushman, finished a major review, in March
2014, of studies looking at 381 effects of violent video games over 130,000 people. Brad found
out that violent video games unmistakably raised levels of aggression. FoxNews.com talks
about Anders Breivik who killed 77 people in Oslo. Breivik said he actually used his video
game Call Of Duty to train for mass murder, Dr.Paul Weigle told Fox News.The same news
channel says,children ages 8 to 17 who played a lot of violent video games showed an increase
in aggressive behavior such as hitting, shoving, and pushing. The reason for the increase in
aggressive behavior was that children who played violent video games had an increase in
aggressive thought. For instance, they were more likely interpret an ambiguous act, like
Kurdyumov 2

someone bumping into them, as hostile, said study researcher Craig Anderson, a psychologist
and professor at Iowa State University.Douglas A.Gentile told to Reuters Health in an email,
Just like childrens bodies can be affected by what they eat, their brains can be affected by
what they repeatedly do.
The last reason that bring violence of the game on the person.According to Fox News, Devin
Moore, an Alabama teen with no history of violence. Was brought in by police on a minor traffic
violation. Once he got inside the police station he took a gun from a police and shot three
officers, then stole the officers cruiser to make his escape. Later Moore told the police Life is a
video game and he was inspired by the game Grand Theft Auto. Dr. Paul Weigle said Its quite
possible that playing this script out numerous times in the game influenced his decision making and, that is in fact what he said.
On the other side of the argument violent video games don't bring violence. Ever since
violent video games came out in the market, there has been a thirteen to twenty two percent
increase in adolescent violence. A lot of people say its not just violent video games that bring
violence it is tv influence . TV has the same effect on kids behavior they say, for instance,
there's evidence linking high exposure to TV sex with younger participation in sexual activity.But
some believe video games are more likely to affect behavior because they're immersive. People
don't just watch them they interact with them.
All in all, playing violent video games can cause confusion of what's real and what's
not.Violent video games increase aggression in gamers,and can influence people and lead to
do terrible things like Devin Moore did. This doesn't mean that government should ban violent
video games, they just need to have strict regulations. There are many other ways to stop
playing video games such as going outside, spending more time with family or asking someone
to help to overcome this addiction of violent video games.

Works Cited
"Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence?" Www.ohio.com. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-real-violence-1.375519>.
"Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence? - HowStuffWorks." HowStuffWorks. Web. 04
Jan. 2015. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-violence.htm>.
Doyle, Kathryn. "Violent Video Games May Be Tied to Aggressive Thoughts." Reuters. Thomson
Reuters, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/us-violent-videogamesidUSBREA2N1MC20140324>.
Jaccarino, Mike. "'Training Simulation:' Mass Killers Often Share Obsession with Violent Video
Games." Fox News. FOX News Network, 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/09/12/training-simulation-mass-killers-often-shareobsession-with-violent-video-games/>.
Julia Savacool, Special for USA TODAY. "Think You're Immune to Video-game Violence? Think
Again." USA Today. Gannett, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/03/30/video-gamesviolence/6437253/>.
Julia Savacool, Special for USA TODAY. "Think You're Immune to Video-game Violence? Think
Again." USA Today. Gannett, 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/03/30/video-gamesviolence/6437253/>.