Video Game Violence
... Making things even easier, Johnny is doing all this harm from the comfort of his bedroom, controller in hand, playing his favorite Nintendo game, Mortal Kombat Trilogy. ... From the medias favorite example Doom to lesser known, much more violent games such as Acclaims first-person shooting game Turok 3, video game violence is more prevalent than ever. The biggest concern when it comes to video games of this nature is if having them available to younger audiences will lead to real-life problems. More specifically, can and does video game violence increase aggression in young children. There has been much debate on this subject, largely between researchers against the medias availability and possible influence and the game players who feel the connection simply doesnt exist. ... Years later, and there could possibly be a link between kids playing video games and those same kids later murdering their fellow classmates. Possible links such as this one continue to fuel the research supporting the idea that video game violence increases aggression in children. ... Therefore, subjecting a young child to something that glorifies violence can have a very negative effect. Noams position stands not only for video games, but for the media in general (Lacayo, Rainert 2). For Noam, children of young age are very prone to increased aggression through violent video games. ... Cesarone sites researcher studies on television violence that suggest a 3 to 15 percent increase in aggressive behavior after viewing violent programs (Cesarone 2). ... Scientific research and studies aside, the idea that video violence can increase aggression is easily supported through the experiences of many young gamers. A group of dedicated gamers, ranging in age from 11 to 18 shared stories about aggressive events resulting from game play experiences (www. ... " WrestleMania 2000 is a video game for the Nintendo 64 where the player wins by beating a virtual opponent to the point where he cannot continue. Another gamer claimed that his younger cousin would become angry after being "killed" by him in the Nintendo 64 shooting game, GoldenEye 007. It would get to the point to where his cousin would actually turn off the game and throw things at him (www. ... He feels that because video games are so immersive, the issue of increased aggression comes down to whether the player can distinguish between the simulated violence and violence in real life. ... If this is true, then it can be assumed that violent video games can actually teach some children that violence is not only acceptable, but also necessary (Schroeder 2). Violence becomes the solution to problems outside the gaming environment and in the real world (Schroeder, 2). ... They feel that while still unanswered, how actively controlling the violence in a game affects the influence of the experience is something that could have interesting results (Schroeder 4). The underlying premise that could provide the interesting result is that as the video game technology becomes more advanced, gaming environments become more real. As the industry grows, so does its push to involve gamers with game-related merchandise even after the power switch has been turned off. ... For the impressionable, young mind, too much interaction with violent games can lead to an altered state of thinking where violence in real life is acceptable and encouraged (Schroeder 6). ... Take for example, a recent technology that was perhaps luckily left out of game developer Rarewares most recent shooting game, Perfect Dark.