An Essay About Video Game Violence That I Wrote For School

This was my last week of classes for the semester and I'm psyched. I hate school, I've always hated school, and the only reason I'm even in college is because I pretty much don't have a choice unless I want to be working at my crappy recycling job for the rest of my life.

For English 101, our final essay was an argumentative essay about anything we wanted to write about. Since I had to do it, I figured I might as well try to make the best of it and take the opportunity to write about something I actually care about. I decided to defend my position that video games don't cause violence, and that any claims of such are the result of a bunch stuck-up close minded media heads with no understanding of gaming who are just looking for a story. Since it's game-related, I figured I'd post it here, just for the heck of it.

Keep in mind it's an essay, so it's very formally written. There are also citations and references and all of that pointless academic stuff. Also, I rushed at the end because I was getting sick of writing it, so the ending is pretty shallow.

Anyway, here's my argumentative essay on why video games aren't bad and why the media can suck it.





In 1972, the electronics company, Atari Incorporated released Pong, which was an arcade system and which is considered one of the first video games. Since then, video games have advanced light years beyond the monochrome lines, and the bleeps and bloops, that defined them in the early years. As video games have advanced in popularity and technology, however, they have also attracted a fair share of controversy. Among the criticisms of the gaming medium, one of the most prominent is the misconception that video games inspire violence in those who play them. This is not the case, however, as video games do not cause violence. Allegations of such are the result of speculation from the biased or misinformed media.

 Most controversy surrounding video games stems from media bias. Careful analysis of the facts can quickly disprove any allegations that video games directly lead to violence in those who play. Certain incidents in recent years involving violent behavior or actions in youths have been blamed on modern video games, often claiming that the sometimes violent content of the games, combined with their interactive nature, inspire those who play them to commit similar acts of violence in real life.

 One of the most well known incidents is the alleged affect of the video game Doom on the mind set of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold during their 1999 rampage at the Columbine high school in Colorado. On April 20th, the two students entered the campus clad in black trench coats and carrying firearms. They began going through the school and shooting other students and staff before committing suicide. By the end of the rampage, the two had murdered twelve students and one teacher.

 In the aftermath of the incident, the media and other parties began to search for a primary motivator for the shooting. Conservative media groups were quick to point out that the shooters had been fans of the video game Doom, a game in which the player wanders the halls of a dilapidated laboratory shooting monsters with various firearms. The game had already received negative attention for it’s violent imagery from some religious groups. When it was discovered that the Harris and Klebold had played the game, the media quickly began to blame it for inspiring the incident. Some even went so far as to claim that they used the game as a training program for their actual assault (Block).

 Five years after the shooting took place, a team of FBI psychiatrists publicized the results of research on the young shooters. The team’s findings suggested that the both shooters had pre-existing psychological disorders that had gone undetected. After analyzing journal entries, behavioral patterns, homemade films, and writings on the duo’s personal websites, the team concluded that Dylan Kelbold was a psychopath in the medical sense of the term. Similarly, Eric Harris was found to have been manic-depressive (Cullen). These pre-existing medical issues are far more likely to have inspired the shooters than video games.

 The findings serve as proof that Doom was not responsible for the behavior of the students. If anything, it was likely the opposite: that they sought out violent video games as a way to appease their pre-existing psychotic behavior. Furthermore, the game was originally released in 1993, six years prior to the Columbine shooting. In that time, the game skyrocketed in popularity among video game players and even helped to spawn it’s own genre within the gaming world. With such a drastic following and enormous window of opportunity, true causation would have led to far more prominent violent crimes associated with the game. A single isolated incident involving psychopathic criminals who coincidentally had experience with the game (especially six years after the original release) is far from enough evidence to conclude that the game had inspired it. In short, correlation does not equal causation.

 Eight years after the Columbine shooting, a similar incident occurred in which a student named Seung-Hui Cho murdered thirty-two on the campus of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (colloquially known as Virginia Tech.) Shortly after the massacre, attorney Jack Thompson (a frequent critic of video games) went on record to claim that Cho had been influenced by a popular internet based military game called Counter-Strike. Thompson’s claims emerged as early as the same day as the massacre, long before any comprehensive evaluation of the events could have taken place. (Benedetti.) Investigations would turn up evidence that Cho, “played video games like Sonic the Hedgehog. None of the video games were war games or had violent themes” (Virginia).

 In both cases, the involvement of video games in the motivation for the crimes was a product of media speculation. In both incidents, video games were unrelated. Critics of video games used the incidents as propaganda to shine unnecessary negative light on the video game medium. Many media outlets are quick to jump to conclusions about games, often accusing them of things which are simply untrue based on bias.

 A more recent example of media bias against video games can be seen by analyzing the recent controversy around the game Mass Effect. In January, 2008, conservative writer Kevin McCullough posted an article on his blog that accused the game of being virtual sex simulator. Claims ranged as extreme as, “virtual orgasmic rape is just the push of a button away” (GamePolitics).

 A few days later, Fox News aired a segment on the show The Live Desk with Martha MacCallum about the game. Coverage reiterated prior claims of graphic sexual content within Mass Effect. Psychologist Cooper Lawrence, who was interviewed on the show, lambasted the game (Schiesel).

 In reality, Mass Effect is a science-fiction adventure game akin to Star Wars. The sexual controversy stemmed from a single, optional scene in the game in which two consenting adults are implied to engage in sexual intercourse. The scene lasts for fewer than ten seconds out of the forty or more hours in the overall experience. No explicit details are shown outside of partial nudity, with no shots of genitalia. The scene is tame enough to fit into a PG-13 movie.

 Prior to the controversy, neither McCullough nor Lawrence had played the game. After the controversy went public, extreme backlash from the gaming community caused McCullough to offer a public apology (McCullough). Cooper Lawrence watched the game being played for a several hours, and went on to publicly state about her prior comments that, “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and the sex scenes, it’s kind of a joke” (Schiesel).

 All criticism of Mass Effect on the grounds of explicit sexual material was unwarranted. Both major critics of the game openly admitted having no experience with it, and retracted all statements once they did. The controversy arose out of media powers exaggerating an issue which they had no understanding of.

 While the specific incidents of violence discussed above have proven to have no connection with video games, the misconception of such links persists among critics of video games. The most common accusation is that the content of video games either inspires players to participate in, or desensitizes players from, real world violence. Another common concern is the effect of such on children (during the Fox News segment, Cooper Lawrence and other guests expressed concerns about children playing Mass Effect.)

 However, such concerns are of little concern. In 2009, a government commissioned report found that three quarters of gamers are over eighteen years old. In spite of this, the majority of video game sales are from E rated games, which have no graphic violence. Mature rated games accounted for only sixteen percent of sales. In addition, advertising of M rated games to children was considered satisfactory, and sales restrictions were strictly adhered to in all but one store chain. (“Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children” 27)The report concluded that, “the video game industry outpaces the movie and music industry in the three key areas that the Commission has been studying in the past decade” (30).

 Furthermore, no long-term scientific studies have linked video games to aggression. Actual scientific research as concluded that there is no correlation between aggressive tendencies and playing video games, that people who play video games are no different from people who do not (Haines). Despite a recent rise in the popularity of video games, the violent crime rate in the United States has been on a steady decline since 1994 ("National Crime Victimization Survey Violent Crime Trends, 1973-2008").

 If video games do influence violence in players, then the logical conclusion would be that more widespread games would mean more widespread violence. However, the rate of game sales and the rate of violent crimes are moving in opposite directions. Therefore, if any correlation exists between video games and violent behavior, it would be that playing games prevents crime rather than encourage it (although since correlation does not equal causation, this is not a valid conclusion either and should be treated merely as a counter argument to the first claim.)

 With specific events debunked, no hard evidence to support a correlation, and analysis of statistics to counter allegations, the accusation of video games causing violent behavior is false. All data points to a lack of correspondence between video games and aggressive behavior. In spite of this, claims to the contrary run rampant in the media. The claims are often gross exaggerations or outright fabrications.

 While the video game industry is already extremely efficient, any issues that do arise can be dealt with by advancing education of the medium to those unfamiliar with it. By making sure parents are informed about the content of games and tightening up the already efficient sales restrictions, we can keep inappropriate games away from children and prevent any potential issues that may arise from ever forming in the first place.



Works Cited:
 Benedetti, Winda. "Were video games to blame for massacre? Pundits rushed to judge industry, gamers in the wake of shooting." MSNBC 20 April 2007: n. pag. Web. 9 Dec 2009. <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/>.
 Block, Jerald. "Lessons from Columbine: Virtual and Real Rage." American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry 28.1 (2007): n. pag. Web. 7 Dec 2009.
 "Conservative blogger claims Mass Effect offers customizable sodomy." GamePolitics 14 January 2008: n. pag. Web. 20 Dec 2009. <http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/14/conservative-blogger-claims-mass-effect-offers-customizable-sodomy>.
 Cullen, Dave. "The Depressive and the Psychopath, At last we know why the Columbine killers did it.." Slate 4 April 2004: n. pag. Web. 8 Dec 2009. <http://www.slate.com/id/2099203/>.
 Haines, Lester. "Violent video games do not cause aggression: no evidence, new report suggests." Register 15 Aug. 2005: n. pag. Web. 20 Dec 2009. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/15/video_games_and_aggression/>.
 McCullough, Kevin. "Gaming "M" ratings follow-up." Musclehead Revolution. Townhall.com, 16 January 2008. Web. 20 Dec 2009. <http://kevinmccullough.townhall.com/blog/g/cdfe6d1d-9595-45c5-bdae-af17bcfd244e>.
 Schiesel, Seth. "Author faults a game, and gamers flame back." New York Times 26 January 2008: n. pag. Web. 20 Dec 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/0126/arts/television/26mass.html?_r=4&ref=arts>.
 United States. Marketing Violent Entertainment to Children. 2009. Web. 20 Dec 2009. <http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/12/P994511violententertainment.pdf>.
 United States. National Crime Victimization Survey Violent Crime Trends, 1973-2008. 2009. Web. 20 Dec 2009.
 Virginia Tech Incident Review Panel. "Chapter IV: Mental Health History of Seung Hui Cho." 32. <http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport-docs/8%20CHAPTER%20IV%20LIFE%20AND%20MENTAL%20HEALTH%20HISTORY%20OF%20CHOpdf.pdf>.