Look at my research paper and give me your ideas about it. This is the first biggest paper I have ever done in my life. It is about violent video game and responsibility
Violent Video Games and Responsibility!
Violent video games do not cause more crimes, the players themselves must take all responsible for what the do. Indeed more and more people play violent video games now, as every game store has those kinds of games and people can easily buy them. Shooting games, mafia games, ninja games,…all involve bloody scenes or strong language. Criminals will say the reasons for their crimes start from playing violent video games. They want to blame something, they do not want to take criticized, they want to push the responsibility to something else, which cannot talk to protect itself. Irresponsible people, they should learn how to behave and how to take what they deserve. Violent video games are innocent. People must have a better understanding about video games and violent video games; about their purposes, and their significances in real life.
Violent video games should have some important element for people to classify them as “violent”. Based on my twelve-year long experience, violent video games have some important elements, and sometime do not comfort everyone: bloody scenes, strong language, using of alcohol, nudity, and gore. Some titles contain extremely violent scenes and only mature or adult people can play it. Almost every game company makes violent video game, as the consumers really like to play them. For some example: Capcom creates a very popular series called Resident Evil, a horror game. The game makes people feel the fearful atmosphere when playing it. The game uses strong language and very bloody. Players can blow zombie’s heads by shooting with a powerful shotgun, or a chainsaw wielding guy will behead the players. Blood will spread everywhere all over the TV screen. Another popular violent game is the Call of Duty series from Treyarch. The game represents a FPS (First Person Shooter) game, which makes player become a soldier and join the war around the world. Although “fighting for justice” theme goes through the story of the game, the fact players still pick up guns and kill people (enemy). Strong language and bloody scene never disappear in this game. One more example, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) brings the violence to the extreme. That game takes players to the world of gangsters and black organizations. Players can do every criminal act such as robbing a car, using a gun to kill innocent people, or using the car to hit pedestrians with no reasons….All those make Grand Theft Auto both famous and infamous. This makes another question: Where and when did violent video games come from?
Violent video games took place at least three decades ago as a new idea for video game. The oldest violent video game has the name of Death Race; which the old game system Atari twenty-six hundred can play it. In the magazine PC world, author Emru Towsend mentions the context of the game in his article “Top 10 Worst Games of all time”: “Run over as many people as possible, and try to inure yourself to their dying screams.” The game was released in 1976, based on the movie of the same name. With the limitation of technology at that time, everything in the game looks like many cubes stick together to make a vague image of what they present. The game has the sound of an old machine, full of “bip, bip” tone. Blood, corpses or fancy explosion do not appear clearly in the game. However, idea of “driving a car and running over people” started a new line of video game at that time: Violent video game. Most video games back then had peaceful theme like Pong. Nobody realized the violence theme of Death Racer, because they did not really care much about it, thus not so many people played it. Mortal Kombat also showed itself as an early violent video game. People who grew up in the 1990s would know this game. Mortal Kombat, a fighting game, it never changes until now. What makes Mortal Kombat so special? The bloody finishing moves in this game do so. The word “Fatality” carved into many people’s minds. Author Travis Fahs describes the Fatality in his article “IGN Presents the History of Mortal Kombat”: “In fact, the studio did much to make the violence a selling point, adding "Fatality" moves that added nothing to the gameplay, but let you act out gory deaths on your defenseless, incapacitated foe.” The finishing moves in this game give people chills. The ice-man Sub-zero will freeze enemy and punch him into pieces; the Bruce Lee-style fighter Liu Kang will transform into a dragon and bite the upper half of the enemy’s body; or the yellow killer Scorpion will take out the heart of the opponent while it is still beating;…Mortal Kombat became one of the most memorable violent video game in the early 1990s era. People enjoy playing Mortal Kombat. They seek the “fun” inside the game. And yet, at the time, reports about crime that involved violent video game were rarely seen. Violent video games existed in the past, exist in present and will exist in the future, so for what purposes do they serve?
Video games in general and violent video games do play big roles in many people’s lives today, as they reduce stress for people and make them relax. Work, school, an others trouble make people going crazy. Video games come in like an effective way for entertainment. After many hours of working about tons of hours of studying, people get stress really easily. Video games help them “escape” the real life temporarily. People will live in a world of fantasy, the world that reality cannot provide. In most video games, everyone will become some kind of hero. You rescue the princess; you save the city; you smash criminal to pieces; or simply you are finding your own self. Indeed, in real life, you cannot run around and punch people unless you want some troubles. In real life, there is no monster to kill, no princess to rescue. Games have it all. Some games may have bloody or fight-to-death scenes, but the fact they bring players a feeling of satisfaction. They finish the games, almost will feel great because they have accomplished something. Even more, sometimes the “fun’ factor is more important than to finish the game. In “Reality is Broken”, Jane McGonigal says: “The process of leveling up is easily as important, if not more important than the end game.” (McGonnigal 54) She mentions World of Wacraft, a very popular online game, where people should have each other to do quest and level up. The fun part when everyone, even strangers, go together. Talk about World of Warcraft, it has some sorts of “violent” elements. People go together to beat up the monster. And players can swear by chatting. However, it forms a bond between people. They will know how to collaborate to complete a task and level up. If people can manage to use the cooperation skills in real life, they will be more productive. Obviously, video games are helping people, they do not harm anybody. However, some people will not believe so, and they blame video games for everything.
And so, violent video games became “victims” when criminals try to push all responsibilities on it. Author Rebecca Leung in her report “Can A Video Game Lead to
Murder?” shows a case: An 18-year-old boy, Devin Moore, killed three police officers by gun. And the reason: he played too much Grand Theft Auto: Vice city. He played all time, in the other word, he got addicted into the game. After getting arrested by the police officers because of suspecting stealing a car, Devon Moore took the gun at shoot the officers. He simply said this after being arrested: “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime.” Cold answer indeed. How can he say that after killing three officers? He meant he did not want to kill people, video game told him to do so. This young man did not know what he talked about. Even worse, his Attorney Jack Thompson said : “What we're saying is that Devin Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator.” and “He bought it as a minor. He played it hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop-killing game. It's our theory, which we think we can prove to a jury in Alabama, that, but for the video-game training, he would not have done what he did.” The attorney and Moore obviously pushed the responsibility to the video games. The fact, he was not suitable to play the game like Grand Theft Auto. Also, his habit of playing is not good at all. More importantly, “he was given a murder simulator” response from the attorney did not do justice. Nobody forced him to play all day, he played by the will of himself. Look deep into his situation, Devin Moore played hours without stop. He lacked social life. Nothing stood between he and the game. He did not play moderately. Grand Theft Auto did not have power to tell people to go out and kill others. What could a CD do? It could not talk, it could not move. If only Devin Moore could distinguish game and real life, he would not make mistake. The game has nothing to do with his crime. He used the game as an excuse to get away with his wrong doing. The game itself means to entertain the player, not influence the player to copy everything he plays. Also, game companies do make warning, but rarely people care; that is why the tragedy happened.
Many researches have shown violent video games do little to nothing about violent crimes. In AAP news, Author Melissa Iaria points out the result from the investigation in the article “Most kids unaffected by violent video games: Study”: “A Swinburne University of Technology study of 120 children aged 11 to 15 revealed children prone to worrying, neurotic behaviour and predisposed to aggression were likely to be more aggressive after playing violent video games”. However, if you want to blame something, you will do it! Non-gamers and criminals always use violent video games for their reasons to blame. They can argue that violent video games do take part in their actions because the research show “12 percent had an interest in violent video game.” And yet they neglect other factors that lead to their crimes: problem with family; self-struggle; their interaction with society;…A study has proved this. Author Brandon Erickson concludes in his study article “Study: Violent Crime cause by family violent”: “It makes a lot of sense that people who are already aggressive, perhaps because of a violent family environment, would be more likely to seek out violent media, whether that be movies, music, or videogames.” The other way around, the violent people themselves seek out more violence. Unfortunately video games belong to one of those. And when they get arrest for whatever they do, they easily put the reason on something else. Violent video games seem to become the obvious reason, as people will look at it first. Although research shows the opposite, but blaming something for wrong doing is the human natural nature.
Also violent video games do not always portray about taking someone’s lives, some violent games show the player how to save lives. The game Trauma Team will fulfill a dream of becoming a doctor of everyone. The game makes the players to become seven kinds of doctor. Surgery does operation for patients. Orthopedic fixes people’s bones and repairs it. Emergency care does the emergency job such as trying to keep the heart beating. Endoscopy goes inside patient’s body to see what wrong inside is. Diagnosis predicts the disease and forensic analyze the dead body of the patient. No matter which doctor the player control, they have to try their best to save a patient’s life. The accomplishment of saving an “unreal” life can make players feel they need to save people in real life. The game makes players value the life. Chris Walters descries the Emergency care situation in his review of Trauma Team in Gamespot: “Burns, cuts, and broken limbs are your common foes, but the real challenge is that you have to handle multiple patients at a time, and they are all losing health quickly.” The situation requires the doctor (player) to put everything he/she has to the limit. Saving as many lives as possible becomes the ultimate goal of the game. I myself experience this amazing game. Yet, this game belong to the “violence” category because it has strong language in the cutscenes; it has terrorists; and it shows blood spreading out all over from an infected-virus person. Game such as Trauma Team shows the no limitation of imagination of video games. Whenever people mention violent video game, the image of killing people will
instantly appear. However, with Trauma Team, it teaches the players how to value life, and we can save it.
Everyone should choose the game that suits one’s age because not only the players can have fun with the game, but also they can avoid causing unwanted troubles, such as committing a crime like Devin Moore. The Game Industry has an organization named The Entertainment Software Rating Board, known as ESRB. ESRB has the function of rating the game, to see how much violence in it. According to ESRB, there are six levels of rating age in video games. C is for early childhood, which is suitable for children under 3 years old. E stands for Everyone. E 10+ suits everyone over the age of 10. T is for teenagers, which includes age between 10 and 17. M is for Mature, for gamer over the age of 17. Finally, AO is Adult Only, for people older than 18. Follow the ESRB instruction may help avoid catastrophes. But ESRB only provide a small wall to prevent player to play the game that is not suitable for them. The main effort belongs to the players themselves. They need to control themselves, and must distinguish where game is and where real life is. If they cannot do that, they better do not play video game anymore.
Being one the most complex problem in the world of technology, people keep on targeting violent video games. But to say the truth, the video game cannot speak for itself because it is a “dead” thing. A disc, no more, no less. Fairness does not exist. People need to understand violent video games fully, and do not misunderstand it anymore. Video games can entertain people very well, reduce stress, make people live in the world that they can never live in real life. Solution for the problem? Obviously, players should take the responsibility for what they have done. Follow the ESRB, and play in the moderate amount of time, balance between game time and real life time, things should be OK. Finally, violent video games are innocent, but irresponsible individual keep blaming them. Violent video game should get better views from people and a fair verdict for it.
. Violent in games
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