Video games - Essay Example

Infamous events have created widespread debates regarding the negative consequences of video game violence. For example, a national discussion began regarding what connection video games may have had to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Though many motivations were likely involved, it is not reasonable to identify precisely what motivated these teenagers to shoot their schoolmates and teachers but violent video games were mentioned as a contributing reason. With enhanced realism and the increasing tendency towards greater amounts of graphic aggression in games, people who play violent video games should be educated to the possible consequences.

When video games first appeared around 35 years ago, they were simple and seemingly harmless. Atari introduced Pong during the 1970’s, a video game version of table tennis. Arcade games such as Pac-Man and Asteroids were popular in the 1980’s. The seemingly harmless nature of video games noticeably evolved to cartoon-like ghost chomping to blatant violence in the 1990’s. Mortal Kombat, the most popular game of 1993, featured accurate portrayals of human-like characters fighting bloody battles.

The purpose of the player in the game, as the name suggests, was to kill the enemy. Violent games even more brutal than Mortal Kombat dominate the video game market today. Near the end of that 1980’s, a study tested 33 of Sega and Nintendo’s most popular video games determined nearly 80 percent were violent. (Dietz, 1998). The study also revealed that a troubling one-fifth of the games portrayed violence towards women. It has also been demonstrated that playing violent video games encourages the tendency of experiencing hostile thought patterns by means of the ‘semantic priming process.

’ Current studies reveal that hostile behaviors occur during controlled studies using independent scientific methods and in daily life circumstances as well. The playing of violent video games unquestionably was associated with an increase of violent behavior. Other studies were conducted which considered the video game patterns of university students throughout their four year career which demonstrated that when in a normal, dorm-room surroundings, playing violent video games over a four year period was the initiating factor in incidences of aggressive behavior.

This increase happened, not just when playing of the game but during other aspects of their lives too. Both studies revealed that violent video games negatively affected a person’s current emotional condition and increases feelings of hostility. The similar findings of these studies give added credibility to the contention that exposure to violent video games promotes aggressive behavior. Though the inclination for increased violent behaviors cannot be scientifically proven on the basis of two studies, this evidence corroborates the results of similar research.

(Calvert & Tan, 1994). When playing a video game that uses ‘first person’ interaction, the player typically chooses a character whose personality the player identifies with. By manipulating the action of their character a player usually tries to visualize the game from their character’s perspective. The player ‘becomes’ that character, which enhances the players enjoyment of the game. Anyone who has seen two teen boys, or their fathers, playing video games has witnessed them envisioning they are the character that they are controlling.

The second rationale entails the