Do video games create violence in people? Adam Clarke 12 September 2011

Do video games create violence in people? Can these…………….. cause this?

What I think In my opinion I don’t think video games cause violence in people I think it is down to the person and not the game. If a person has a mental illness or anger issues then they could be more likely to get angry and frustrated with a game compared to a calm person. I also believe that games can be a good way to release anger or frustration and can calm the player.

Evidence Many large study groups such as The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health have show no connection between video games and violent activity. Other large study groups have discovered that people who play games have better hand-eye coordination, visual motor skills and social capabilities. Dr. Cheryl Olson has done research and discovered that over 49% of boys and 25% of girls use violent games such as Grand Theft Auto IV as an outlet for their anger and has also discovered that crime rate has decreased as M+ games have increased.

Realistic violence in video games With each passing year technology increases and becomes better and games are no different, games are becoming more and more realistic and violent every year. starting as pong a simple game where you hit a ball back and forward in order to score against the opponent. Nowadays games such as battlefield 3 which has state of the art graphics and is very realistic.

videos Some violent scenes from God of War 3 Some violent scenes from Manhunt

Cases of violence linked to games In December 2007, 17-year-old Lamar Roberts and 16-year-old Heather Trujillo were accused of beating a seven-year-old girl to death. They are said to have been imitating the moves taken from the game Mortal Kombat the character Cyrax, even though he does not actually perform the move at all In October 2010, 22-year old Florida mother Alexandra Tobias killed her baby because he would not stop crying while she was playing Farmville; on February 1st, 2011, she was sentenced to 50 years in prison and the judge stated, during sentencing, "He who is the most defenseless among us was murdered by his own mommy. And why? Because he was crying during a game of FishVille or FarmVille or whatever was going on during Facebooking time that day."

statistics This graph show that crime rates have rapidly decreased each year as the release and sale of games has increased. 20% of video game players are boys under the age of % of people who play games are over 50 (male and female). The average game player is 34. nearly 40% of players are female

Primary research Do violent video cause violence in people? Why/how do the games cause people to be violent?

Secondary research The U.S Navy have discovered that people who play games perform percent better than those who don't they state “They allow the player to focus longer and expand the player's field of vision and improves the players intelligence and social capabilities” a theory behind it is that it “increased blood flow, and become more synchronized with other neural networks in the brain” The pediatricians journal published studies saying that playing games lowers performance, can make the player antisocial and can exacerbate existing depression, anxiety or social phobias.

conclusion In conclusion by searching around from both people and the internet most people don’t think violent video games make people violent but rather ‘activates’ a persons mental problems or anger. I also think that the media need something to blame, before games it was films, TV, comics and music. Even though there are cases that point towards games the person there was other things going on in that persons life at the same time.