Just blame it on the game



I recently got into an argument with someone on a message board over their argument that video games inspire violence in teenagers and those younger than 18. I was quick to jump to the defense of the entertainment medium and after the argument was settled in my favour, i got to thinking about when i took psychology for A-Level in college, I based one of my assignments on just this topic. So, I thought I'd dig it out for all you lovely people and change it slightly to be more video game than psychology based. Hey, a post is a post, recycled or not! It is estimated over 80 percent of video games on the market contain some form of violence. In a world of escalating knife and gun crime in teenagers, where violence in video games is so common, is there some correlation between them?

Grand Theft Auto is a hugely popular video game created by Rockstar that features extreme violence and crime, and the player is rewarded for anarchic behavior, as any gamer worth their salt will know. Let's face it, we've all gone on a mad rampage now and again; stealing cars, beating prostitutes, gunning down the random old lady who happens to get in your way.. However, this game does not stand alone within Rockstar. Perhaps the most violent game in all of Rockstar's catalogue is, Manhunt. Though not as popular or well known as Grand Theft Auto, in the UK at least it still pricks up a considerable amount of ears when mentioned as a hefty amount of people have played it in their youth, myself included. For the record, it was brilliant. The player controls an individual who is being told to 'execute' gang members, civilians and police officers in the most violent way possible, for the enjoyment of someone else. The player is presented with an array of weapons with everything from crowbars and guns to simplistic weapons such as screwdrivers and plastic bags.

The game has three 'levels' of executions, and these get bloodier as the levels of execution progress. Level 1 execution are the least bloody of the three, Level 2 executions are considerably more gory, and level 3 kills are over-the-top fatalities. The game encourages players to execute enemies as brutally as possible, and awards players who do so with higher scores at the end of the level.


Who wouldn't want to whack this thing?

Now, I'mma lay some science on you! In the world of psychology, this is what is known as 'symbolic modelling' as players are witnessing violent behaviour being rewarded so are more likely to imitate and learn their own behaviour from the symbolic model character. Saying 'symbollic modelling to anyone remotely involved with psychology, myself included, will throw up the name Bandura, Ross and Ross, as they conducted an experiment into this in 1963. I could describe the whole study; the aim, methodology, ethical implications etc, but that isn't why you're here so if you're really interested in that then you can go research it! Basically, they showed kids a video of a man hitting a clown doll and getting rewarded, and another group of kids a video of the same guy hitting the same doll but getting punished. Guess what the result was? That's right - the kids who saw the first video were more likely to act violently towards the doll. However, although this may SEEM to support the video game violence behaviour; people have to bare in mind it is not small, highly impressionable children who are playing these games. Also people who play these games tend to be logical, perfectly mentally healthy individuals who can distinguish between fantasy and reality, implying if they see a character being rewarded for violent behaviour in a game they know this would not be the case in real life.

There have been many court cases in which Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt have arisen as possible causes for the murder but as of yet, no direct link has been found. As of September 2007, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the best-selling video game in the United States with 8.6 million copies sold. (This could very well be horribly wrong as we now live in 2011 and I originally wrote this 2-3 years ago but hey-ho) With that many copies sold, if it really did induce violence, would there not be more cases?

That's not to say there aren't reported cases of video game 'inspired' bonuses. Every so often this controversy of violence in video games appears in the media usually due to an incident, such as this one; In March 2005, 2 police officers and 1 civilian were shot dead by 18 year old Devin Moore who was a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto video game. The game rewards the player for shooting or beating passersby and police officers, destroying and stealing cars and causing any mayhem they can. After his capture, Moore is reported to have told police, "Life is like a video game. Everybody's got to die sometime." This tragic incident caused outrage among the public, leading the brother of one of the men shot dead to file a law suit against Rockstar, the company responsible for the creation of Grand Theft Auto. In the court case, there was no link found between real life and fantasy game violence.

This is not the only case of its kind either, and the same game is involved. In Oakland, Calif., detectives said the game provoked a street gang accused of robbing and killing six people. In Newport, Tenn., two teenagers told police the game was an influence when they shot at passing cars with a .22 calibre rifle, killing one person. In each case, no direct link between the game and the violence was found. A perhaps more famous case Is that of Stefan Pakeerah. There was outcry for the game 'Manhunt' to be banned shortly after its UK release, and after the murder of Stefan Pakeerah by his best friend who was said to be 'obsessed' with the game pleaded guilty. Following the media exposure, the game was removed from store shelves such as GAME but this only increased demand for the game online. Manhunt went back on sale across the country after it was found, yet again, there was no link between the murder and the game violence.

So, there we have it. The evidence stacking against the argument that games inspire violence, as opposed to for it, is overwhelming. I have tried not to be in any way biased towards this side of the argument, looking at it from a psychology perspective but i suppose there will always be some bias. Personally, I believe that video game violence does affect real life violence, but only to a very limited extent and it only affects a limited number of individuals. I believe that those already of a certain mindset will be affected by the shown violence and may replicate it but for the vast majority, it will have no affect as they realise it is fictional and purely for fun. As for me, and I'm sure millions of other players around the world, I'm going to keep playing so long as they keep getting made, and enjoying every gore filled moment, knowing it is just a game. I mean, what beats tearing a guys leg off then beating him to death with it (God i love you Mortal Kombat).