Violent Video Game, a Cause of Crime Or an Innocent Scapegoat for the Real Cause

http://yoursinglesourcefornews.com/academics-debunk-theory-linking-violent-video-games-with-aggression/1379/

Since the first video game “Tennis for Two” was invented by William Higinbotham in 1958, for the past fifty-eight years, the video game has walked through a significant path of development and revolution, from arcades to sixteen bit games and finally to the games designed for the eighth generation of gaming consoles such as Xbox one and PS4. But for half of a century, one thing has remained unchanged. Video games, especially the violent ones, are always viewed as an uncertain factor, even a dangerous one in our society that could increase the violent crime rate and consume people’s energy and morale. I disagree with this point of view. In my opinion, the negative influence of playing violent video games is often dramatized by the mainstream media. It tends to stigmatize video games morally and blame it for promoting aggressive behaviours while ignoring the more essential factors that could lead to violent behaviour and the fact that certain games may improve players’ visual attention, reaction, and intelligence.

               Blaming violent video games(VVG) for causing crime is not only a unreasonable behavior but also an irresponsible one. It is unreasonable since all the research on the relationship between VVG and human behaviour done so far include factors which cannot be controlled and those factors definitely contribute to the shaping of one’s behaviour. For example, Christian Happ’s research on the relationship between VVG and human empathy is often used by criticizers as a evidence for their theory against VVG since the result of the research shows a lower level of empathy among players after hours of playing. It is true that Christian Happ’s research does a good job suggesting a possible connection between empathy and VVG, but it does not confirm that VVG will kill human empathy and lead to aggressive behaviors as many criticizers claim for two reasons. First, there are factors Happ cannot control. Factors like the emotions during the experiment, the early experience, the mental history and the social background of the participants. In this case, the participants did not help delivering the lost package which belongs a stranger may simply due to the reasons that they feel sad or angry that day, or they are afraid of being conned. Second, one choose not to help a stranger does not mean one will hurt others violently. There is considerable gap between not being helpful all the time and committing violent crimes. Our life experience may suggest us not to help someone under certain circumstances to keep us away from troubles. This could be a action of self-protecting and it has nothing to do with violent actions.       

http://pixelkin.org/2015/10/12/a-psychologist-reacts-to-a-recent-apa-report-on-video-game-violence-studies/

There are many major causes for violent crimes but VVG is not one of them. That is also why it is irresponsible to blame VVG for increasing crime rate. Instead of a reason, it is more like an excuse. On December 14, 2012, in Connecticut, a horrifying tragedy happened in Sandy Hook Primary School that the shooter named Adam Lanza broke in and brutally killed and injured twenty kids and six adults. He is definitely guilty, I will not argue for him, but I am also shocked by the mainstream responses toward it. The social media and police report both blame violent video games,more specifically, a FPS called “School Shooter: North American Tour 2012” for causing this atrocity. For example, Leonard Greene and Bruce Golding claimed that “Adam Lanza, 20, prepared for the Dec. 14 2012 slayings on a computer game called 'School Shooting', in which the player enters a school and randomly fires on students and teachers” in their article titled “Lanza prepared with ‘school shooting’ game”, which is published on New York Post. Such response reveals an issue that the mainstream focus more on the fact that shooter of Sandy Hook Primary School is a video game addict and rise really loud voice blaming VVG for turning normal men into violent maniacs and helping them “prepare” for their crimes. On the other hand, they choose to ignore the the more important factors such as the mental and childhood history of the shooter. No one paid any serious attention to the fact that Adam Lanza suffered from Asperger syndrome, a mental disorder that could lead to lack empathy, poor social skills and aggressive behaviors. Lanza suffered from it since the age of sixteen due to the shock and depression brought by his parent's divorce and family violence. No one around him, including his parents, doctors, and teachers, who have knew it for four years, chose to do anything about it. I believe this mental disorder and the indifference he received are more influential motivations caused this brutality than VVG. This fact makes me think that this common shard biased view against VVG is an excuse allows us to avoid seeing how careless we view things that matters more, such as child mental care from both parents and our society and social help and attention children and teens may receive when they suffer from rough family issue.

http://kotaku.com/5970778/after-sandy-hook-this-guy-says-he-got-50000-people-to-stop-playing-violent-video-games-but-one-gamer-refused

   Some people find it hard to believe that there are benefits for playing video games, even the violent ones, but the truth always sounds surprising. Playing videos games, beside as a good form of entertainment, can be also a way for players, especially for children, to develop their brain flexibility(including reaction), creativity and observation ability. Also, playing VG is widely used in the field of psychotherapy as a healing method for people who suffer from mental disorders. An article titled “Video game play may provide learning, health, social benefits, review finds” published on the official site of American Psychology Association suggest that “playing video games, including violent shooter games, may boost children's learning, health and social skills” based on a meta-analysis done in 2013. I believe in the benefits of playing video games not only because of the scientific research results, but also because of my personal experience. I stayed two weeks with my ten years old cousin last summer and we spent some time together playing Xbox. We mainly played one game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and I surprisingly found that my cousin actually gained something from it. His observation skill, reaction and team work ability are improved since the game we play requires sharp eyes, fast reaction and a good sense of cooperation.      

http://techu4ria.com/scientific-studies-show-why-everyone-should-play-video-games/

            We tend to judge and criticize VVG based on biased points of view which usually relate to our moral standards and it could lead to moral panic. We are afraid of things that seem uncontrollable and dangerous in our eyes. And when are afraid of a thing, we stigmatize it, people with extreme opinions would even think about destroying it. When this fear and desire of control is widely shared, a moral panic will be triggered, which can be very serious and lead to consequences we will later regret. If you do not believe me, think about the Salem witch hunt. Dozens of innocent young women were burned to death due to our unreasonable fear toward the so called witchcraft. Moral panic is built upon rumors and unproven theories, as well as many our common shared theories against VVG. My personal experience could prove many use conspiracies against VVG to support their belief that a sensor system is required. For example, I have met with someone who believes that terrorists use violent games as training materials, and they did it before the 911 and Boston bomb attack. In their opinion, Microsoft Flight Simulator, a video game released in 2000, offered training experience to the terrorists who organized the inhumane attack next year and this experience greatly aided them. Also, they believe that terrorists who attacked Boston in 2013 learnt how to properly use guns and bombs from FPS games such as Grand Theft Auto. At first, I found those conspiracies ridiculous, but later I became afraid of them because they are dangerous in terms of causing moral panic. It is pretty simple to cause a moral panic, all one has to do is to label something or someone as they could jeopardize our cherished beliefs, then the public would attack them without thinking. In this case, those conspiracies placed VVG on a spot opposite to our cherished belief about social safety by making a claim VVG can be used to help terrorists. They just gave people more so called reasons to hate VVG based on nothing.        

             In the end, I wish to call one action, which is to consider both the pros and cons of VVG with reasons and logic instead of anger and fear before we judge VVG. It is necessary to avoid being addicted to VVG and it is correct for parents to regulate their kids’ time with Xbox or PS4, but it is wrong to put a harsh censorship on it because we all know if it that happens, it will not stop with the sensor system. Next thing we see maybe people serve twenty years in jail for selling VVG to teenagers online, or GameStops run background check and evaluate a consumer’s probability to attack others before they sell VVG to him or her.  

http://www.psych2go.net/playing-video-games-improves-your-focus-and-meditative-abilities/