Literature Review On Video Games

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

“Approximately 90 percent of kids in the U.S. play video games, and more than 90 percent of those games involve mature content that includes violence.”-(Time Health). The link between violent media and aggression in video games has also created a spawn of research studies that has gone back and forth on the issue of whether

Content analyses show that 89% of video games have some violent content. Half of the video games on the market have extreme violent actions toward other characters. Games, today, are allowing players to not only connect with the game physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. In essence, the player becomes the character. According to Nielson Media Research, at least 45 million households in the United States have at least one video game console (Markey & Charlotte, 2010). The average age of video game players has increased to age 34, and 60% of Americans play interactive games on a regular basis. However, researchers believe that younger children are more susceptible to the negative effects of playing violent video games compared to older teenagers and adults. Furthermore, games that include violence have raised serious concerns among

Kutner and Olson also report on interviews with kids. One respondent said that he plays video games because he wants to see something that will hopefully never happen to him—experience it without actually being there (Kutner and Olson, 2008, 116). Some other kids said that they played M-rated games with groups of friends, and further research showed that M-gamers were more likely to play games in social settings or with more friends in the room (Kutner and Olson, 2008, 130). Other research shows that video games are a good tool for bringing people together—especially new kids, shy kids, or mentally disabled kids (Kutner and Olson, 2008, 132-134). This book does a good job of describing the effects of video games on lots of different kinds of kids—from different regions, different races, depressed kids, both genders, and mentally disabled kids (Kutner and Olson, 2008, 134).

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

The release of early games, such as Pac-Man, Donkey-Kong, and Space Invaders, initiated the innovative and precedent era of video game popularity; however, modern games follow a distinctly uniform pattern in violent graphics and paucity of discretion. Whereas early media did little to affect the teenage psyche, the impact of modern media and its barbaric implications are considerably heightened by the large teen proclivity towards television, video games, and film. Surveys by the Kaiser Family Foundation6 have shown that in today’s highly digitalized society, children ages eight to eighteen spend approximately six and a half to seven and a half hours a day using media devices. Correlatively, research from the Pew Internet Project reveal that 97% of American teenagers play video games. Such media saturation, while undoubtedly harmful to health and social interactions, has only become psychologically harmful in recent years with the emergence of violence in interactive and narrative media. Unable to actively participate in violent crimes in the real world, teenagers take solace in doing so in the imaginary one, effectively learning to disassociate themselves from the characters they brutalize and murder. This talent, unfortunately, has become useful to those whose minds have been

Over the past few centuries,video games have become a great leisure and hobby among kids of all ages and cultures. With the advancement of technology, video games have advanced highly in its realism and genres. This high type of advancement brought the video game industry to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with realism, comes negative effects as well. Ever since the creation of violent or “mature” video games, there has been a constant debate on whether it will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are violent, and just increase skills in a player such as hand-eye coordination. Nevertheless, there is research going on for the link between violent video games and youth violence. The question is which event happens first in the sequence, do violent video games aggravate a person’s violent behavior, or does a person get rid of their anger through playing violent video games? Either way, violent video games are not beneficial to our society.

Video Games have come a long way since their first introduction into the main stream. With video games becoming more sophisticated and using advanced technology, it seems as if video games are closing in on the gap between games and reality. However, as video games become ever so life-like it brings up the question of if the violence associated with video games is having a negative consequence. There have been many accusations over the years over the harm video games are causing children and teenagers. Experiments have been conducted trying to associate a link between video games and aggressive behavior. Even the media has been known to point fingers at video games for the cause of children

After the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook in 2012 this issue of violent video games became a hot issue calling for a connection of violence to video games. However, the final investigative report suggested that he was more a fan of nonviolent games (Ferguson, 2015). Video game violence is an issue that continues to be studied due to the inability to come to a general conclusion on whether or not the games provoke violence in connection to mass shootings. With shootings occurring and receiving mass coverage the media and public often seek a person/item to place the blame on. After the tragic events that left people dead or injured one of the topics that emerged was that of video games affects/effects on the person.

Almost everyone in the world has played some sort of videogame before. They exist everywhere and are becoming more and more accessible due to the globalization of technology. On average you will spend 10,000 hours playing video games from 5th to 12th grade (McGonigal, 2010). It is estimated that 68% of households play video games (Evolution of Games, 2010). So where did video games originate from? What was the first game ever created?

Good Morning, everyone, i'm going to start off with a poll of who all plays video games in this class. A lot of you/ maybe not too many in this class play video games and/but, as of 2015, 42% of Americans played video games at least 3 hours a week, which is roughly 135 million of the total population. This proves that video games play a large role in our society. Today I’m going to be speaking about the psychological effects that video games have on youth, but in order to do that, I need to inform you of the evolution of violent video games, the effects of violent video games, and the positive effects of video games.

In a third person shooter game, the player’s character is seen on the screen whereas in a first person shooter game, the screen is viewed through the eyes of the character. The video game industry has made great advances since the 1970’s when gaming images were simplistic and therefore not very graphic nor realistic (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, & Walsh, 2004). Nowadays, with the prevalence of highly violent and realistic video games involving person-to-person brutality, there are rising concerns regarding its effects on users real life thoughts and behaviors- particularly in youth.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.

Video games have been known as a form of entertainment since its introduction in the 1980’s. With an ever growing market driven by millions of people, video games have become one of the largest industries in the world. However as the video game industry has evolved, so has the content of the video games. What started out with family games like Super Mario and Donkey Kong that involved maneuvering over obstacles, evolved into violent games such as Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto which required the player to kill people within the game. With the market for video games increasing, there has been growing concern for the effects video games may have on the individual with numerous studies looking into this. Since video games have the ability to affect or influence a person, it is important to understand how they may influence a person. Specifically how video games influence an individual in the emerging adulthood period, defined as a developmental period between adolesance and young adulthood spanning the early to mid-20’s.It is in this developmental period were individuals are not only prone to influence but also begin to develop a sense of what they want to become were they experiment a little with their identity. The question is not why, but how does video games influence an emerging adult positively and negatively. Since emerging adulthood is such an important developmental period, this paper will examine the effects of video games on the individual during the emerging