Video Games: Are They Really Violent?

I was definately surprised at the results and true effects of video games on today's population. I have always believed that video games do affect violence levels in people who consistently play them, but it has not yet been proven. Although there are links, the effects are different than what people seem to believe. Williams states, "...they have yet to demonstrate this link" in terms of aggression. In the study of Williams and Skoric, older players were more strongly influenced and argued more with their friends and others around them. What I found the most interesting what that out of the 60 percent of Americans who play video games on a regular basis, "32 percent of the game-playing population is now over 35 years of age."
Games are becoming much more violent than before, and although there are negative outcomes of them, there are also positive. According to Williams' study, a "potential gain" is meeting new people and attaining problem-solving skills. In Anderson's article, he discusses the myths and facts of video games. It is made evident that he believes that video games to lead to aggression, even when the research is shaky. There are mixed results in which type of people are effected though. He states, "there is not consistent evidence for the claim that younger children are more negatively affected than adolescents or young adults or that males are more affected than females." His studies have shown that there is an increase in aggression with college students with exposure to unrealistic and fantasy violent video games.
I do believe that there is some link between aggression and video games in people, but with certain games only. When the game producers make the fantasy violence seem real, people start to believe it is real too--which is where the problem is.

One of the most popular video games is GTA, Grand Theft Auto. This game exposes players to stealing cars, killing people, and getting women. Here is a CBS news clip on the release of the video game.




Williams Article: http://news.illinois.edu/NEWS/05/0809videogames.html
Anderson Article: http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html