Do violent video games lead to real life violence?

Does anyone on here think violent video games lead to real life violence? I do not think they do. I think other factors are involved that make a person resort to violence. There have been studies done that say violent video games cause aggression though. Glenn Beck thinks violent video games are not good. I am thinking of creating a no gore version of Doomsday video games that will be rated Teen.

I think, in some circumstances, they contribute to it, but how the hell should I know. Tons of kids over here play violent video games and we only rarely we have shootings. In my country there's never been a school shooting and tons of kids here play violent video games.

We don't have sociological schisms, poverty problems and no religion to keep us scared/zealous all of the time, so maybe you people could take care of that in order to avoid school shootings... Maybe?

Does gambling lead to wife-beating when the guy can't pay his debts?

If Call of Duty causes people to be mass murderes, does Farmville cause people to be farmers?

Studies have shown that video games do increase aggresiveness... as in you might react snappier when someone asks a question. But if that was because of the violence or because of the competitive nature of gaming was something that still needed to be researched. But gun-related violence is all a mental health issue anyway, games/movies/books/art have always been scapegoats because people don't want to face the issue.

[ as in you might react snappier when someone asks a question

Snappier? Aggressive if you're out of it already, or you're addicted.

Again, Ron is right with the increasing annoyance and more direct confrontation you get from a person deeply immersed in a video game. Again, this has happened to me from a guy who played Wii bowling (!) as well as Call of Duty or what-have-you... So I think it is the game as a competition, something you have to win to prove a point, and not necessarily the violence.

Personally I have a problem playing GTA and beating up people on the street. Call me what you want, but I always found it odd to do. I do like to play the game for its cruising features and amusing fictional radio stations.

I also don't like Half Life, CounterStrike or any other random "new" game... I just don't. Unreal Tournament is an exception, but that is so ridiculously unrealistic it doesn't go to my head at all. Nuclear rockets in outer space killing the same people over and over because of their respawning? I mean, come on. Killing Nazis, Communists, fictional Islamists or whatever is different to me, somehow. A totalitarian threat with no respect for human life and common decency whatsoever... What's the need not to shoot them? I mean, I don't know... It's just how I feel.

Dark_wizzie wrote:

[ as in you might react snappier when someone asks a question

Snappier? Aggressive if you're out of it already, or you're addicted.

In that case yes, as with any addiction. But the articles I read were about casual gamers.

And Thomas, have to agree with you about GTA and the senseless violence; I enjoy playing the missions and like you said, the cruising and the radio stations were lots of fun (Emotion 93.8 from Vice City, loved it! ). But randomly beating up people just isn't my thing, I guess. I have also never been able to play Fable as a bad guy. Even if it is just a game, I can't play a bad guy.

ronwolf1705 wrote:

Dark_wizzie wrote:

[ as in you might react snappier when someone asks a question

Snappier? Aggressive if you're out of it already, or you're addicted.

In that case yes, as with any addiction. But the articles I read were about casual gamers.

And Thomas, have to agree with you about GTA and the senseless violence; I enjoy playing the missions and like you said, the cruising and the radio stations were lots of fun (Emotion 93.8 from Vice City, loved it! ). But randomly beating up people just isn't my thing, I guess. I have also never been able to play Fable as a bad guy. Even if it is just a game, I can't play a bad guy.

Oh, I also prefer playing the good guy. Usually the bad guys in games have some pretty crappy attitude anyways. Casual gamers... aggressive? Don't think there is a link. Soldiers suffering PTSD play tetris to lower stress and be less aggressive, not to hype up for a new kill.

Casual gamers... aggressive? Don't think there is a link.

Except the researchers did find a link. I'll try to find the article if it's freely available somewhere (it probably isn't though, because of JSTOR and copyright). Also Tetris is a different beast, relies more on human nature's compulsive need to tidy up.

I'd love to see someone go apeshit over losing a game of tetris (morbid as it may seem)

OOOOOOOOOOOH, HORSESHIT! STUPID FUCKING TETRIS! OOH, LOOK AT ME, I GO FASTER AFTER A NUMBER OF LEVELS AND THEN SCREW UP THE WHOLE GAMEPLAY! UNGH! *breaks device*

Thomas wrote:I'd love to see someone go apeshit over losing a game of tetris (morbid as it may seem)

OOOOOOOOOOOH, HORSESHIT! STUPID FUCKING TETRIS! OOH, LOOK AT ME, I GO FASTER AFTER A NUMBER OF LEVELS AND THEN SCREW UP THE WHOLE GAMEPLAY! UNGH! *breaks device*

Inspires me to beat people on the head with a brick until they bleed to death...

Yeah, and I yelled at my cat because he nicked all the mayo. Sonofabitch.

to be honest even though i play tons of volent games every day i still cringe at the very tought of puncheing\shooting
anybody in real life [key words:real life]......not that i haven't been tempted to before

A five minute video of FOX Business with John Stossel VS Franklin Graham on video game violence: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Since this is about violence, then I have a rhetorical question of, “Why doesn’t Franklin Graham mention religion causing violence?”  What the condescending Franklin Graham is saying is an insult to our intelligence!

I've met John Stossel in Indiana about 4 years ago.  I think he's now a Libertarian.

Possibly 1 or 2 people might read this before Dr. Phil airs tomorrow.

I saw a commercial that the August 2, 2023 rerun of Dr. Phil will be about electronic addiction.  I'm confused if I've seen that episode.  A girl is homeless in a tent to get some sort of psychological high off of her phone.  The other half is about the boy that shot his Mom or Dad in an argument over an electronic game.  Is he the one that's a football player?  Please don't take me too seriously if I've accidentally confused him with the football player in a different story.  I saw an episode of Dr. Phil or Katie Couric's Katie about the high school football player.  He got injured in his shoulder and/or back and maybe even had a hole in his shoulder or back from the football field.  He got disturbed, had to drop out of school for multiple surgeries, still couldn't go back to playing football, was still in pain to my understanding, and couldn't walk appropriately at first.  I thought that he became addicted to pain killers and a game.  He shot his father in the jaw in an argument over a game, and the father lived.  I think that it's only partly true that he shot somebody over a game because there were other factors.  But if somebody is in pain while addicted to painkillers while having their passion taken away, then it's also about other reasons why he unraveled.  That's an explanation, but not an excuse.

Dr Phil McGraw, you do realize, don't you, that before the age of the internet that some people killed each other over TV addiction?

When my Dad was in high school and college, there were fights that he later knew about that he didn't witness where 2 guys argued over a girl, or guys beat each other up in arguments about The Vietnam War going on at the time.  People will still fight anyways.