Thursday, May 5, 2011
Guest Post: Emily
Have you ever played an aggressive video and then felt a little aggressive afterwards? According to some researchers, this is normal. Violent and aggressive video games tend to make a person more aggressive and more reckless. Some people even go as far as to take dangerous risks that do not lead to useful results. These are the games that people will automatically relate to shootings or aggressive behaviors in school though these video games are not the only reason for this. The way the person is treated can lead to aggressiveness also. Video games are more of just a scapegoat for this. Henry Jenkins talks about this when he has to give a testimony for the Columbine shootings. He talks about how people will relate violent video games to aggressive behavior automatically because they do not understand the game; they just know the game encourages the player to kill people and be aggressive to other players. Taking the time to learn about the different violent video games will show that these games do not just encourage violent behavior but also help the player develop skills like problem solving and rational choice; some video games rely on your choice to determine what the rest of the video game will be like.
Link to Professor Jenkins Goes to Washington: http://stuff.mit.edu/people/cshiley/Content/NotMine/jenkins.html
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I don't play many violent video games, but one of my guilty pleasures is Grand Theft Auto: IV. I fell in love with the game the first time I played it and have been addicted to it ever since. The game is extremely violent and many challenges require you to kill people, but I never have felt violent after playing it. I think that the game has more mind games than it does violence. It's not about how many people you can kill, but what is the correct way to the end of the map or how to escape. While the themes may not be all that great, they are not the purpose.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Gerbosi
I have never personally played one of these video games but my brother is very addicted. My mother was very apprehensive to start letting him play because she was scared they would provoke him to violent behavior. Soon all of Carson's (my brother) friends had the game except him and so my mom gave in. After a few months the boys started pretending that they were killing and punching each other on the playground. This did not sit well with my mom because she knew my brother would have never thought that type of role playing was fun before the video game usage. Needless to say my brother does not play near as much as he used to. I think the reason Ryan doesn't experience the urge to be violent as much as my brother and his friends because he is older. These young boys are still at the molding age. - Macey Flowers
ReplyDeleteI have personally played a lot of violent video games. Games such as: Call of Duty, Halo, God of War, UFC, and Grand Theft Auto, and I have never thought that those games in anyway made me feel more aggressive or violent in my day to day life.
ReplyDeleteHowever, one of my really good friends has been in one fight in his entire life. He is the type of person who avoids confrontation at all costs of pride. Anyway, when the UFC Unleashed video game first came out last year, him, all of our friends and I never put down the controllers. UFC Unleashed is a fighting game, where one can take on the persona of an UFC professional fighter and fight in matches against friends or the computer. After 2 weeks of nonstop gaming UFC Unleashed, my friend said he thought he was just a “primetime fighter.” Then sure enough, he gets into his one and only fight of his life within 3 weeks of the games release date. He still says to this day, that the fight he got into was completely provoked by extended playing hours of an extremely violent UFC Unleashed.
Patrick Carver
It's funny how Grand Theft Auto comes to mind when people think of violent video games. This isn't surprising to people who have played the game, it's like a crazier version of the show cops or if you've seen Reno911 (lol). It's a fun game and all. My only concern is when kids in elementary school are playing these games when the content of this game is obviously too inappropriate for them. Nevertheless, i think violent games are fun and entertaining but they do give ratings on these games for reasons, more mature minds can handle more mature games it's that simple. So when you see little elementary kids playing these types of game snatch the control and send them to the corner for time out.
ReplyDeleteIf you did anything nonstop for 2 weeks, wouldn't you go a bit crazy!? Especially if it involved mostly sitting around looking at a screen. I think Jenkins is right that we have to look carefully at the games and not jump to assumptions about whether they create violent behavior, but it also seems true that the gaming habit takes away from ways to relax and unwind that might be healthier--especially for younger kids.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this I ask, would we take violence with the development of rational thought or have no video games and no development of rational thinking? Which one should we sacrifice?
ReplyDelete--EPortman