Virtual Disorder, Rush asked me to post this up on here Options

[-Tragedy-]

Mark Dickerson

Virtual Disorder

Adults tend to say that all the violence in videogames is the major cause of social violence. Ignoring the other factors that may contribute to the social violence, but are they right?

In the middle of a dark night, heading down a dark tunnel. The sight of my breath in front of my face chills me. Lights every so often lighting up the dark pathway. There are strange growls and screams off into the distance. A light appears out way in front of me in the distance. I run faster for it, like it was the matter of my life at stake. As I reach the light the sound of gunfire fills my ears. I emerge and charge into the battlefield against the enemy. Dead bodies lying everywhere I go. I see my objective across the battlefield. Diving for cover I land near one of my fellow comrades with his leg blow off, bleeding to death. Seeing his body lying there it enrages my spirit to go out again and fight. With this rage built up inside, I get up and jump over our cover and start blasting away at the enemy. Pushing forward nonstop, even as the enemy comes toward me. Bashing off any enemies heads if they get to close, with blood flying everywhere. My vision slowly begins to get fuzzy and fades out to a pitch black. The game is saved and head off to bed.

Experiencing the hostility of war in the game brought out inner strength and took away all the stress I had as I killed false enemies. Most kids wouldn’t see games more than that. It’s the safe way to kill and not get in trouble. Others fail to realize games are not a part of every day life.

Me myself I don’t see something wrong with the bloodshed shown in video games. The way I see it is that violence builds up the character. Not giving a false outlook softening up the inner person of the gamer to be susceptible to being hurt. It gives you a real look at to what life really is. The world is not a safe and peaceful place, some places may be like this but there is great hostility in other parts of the war. Such as the Iraq conflict, that’s a great example of how there will never be peaceful time in the world. Sure the blood and the gore of fantasy games such as “Doom 3” may be a bit extreme. It still influences kids to be imaginative and not always hostile. The best we see our kids being imaginative the better they will do in life as, they will pose a different outlook on life and do their unique good to the world. Kids below 13 or around the age I know shouldn’t be playing these games, so its kind of in a way the parents fault if the kids gets a hold of a game such as that and they either buy it or the kid gets it on their own free will, then we can’t just blame one thing, the violence. None the less you should not shelter your kids from what video games hold within, besides games can have a benefit hidden deep within them.

There is a great deal we can learn from video games not just that it is violent. With how games are becoming more realistic; people like the Army have a game out. The main purpose of the game is to help get people to join the military through the game. It is based on true stories of real time American heroes. This adds to the realism further as well informs the people who play it. They have gathered about 7.5 million registered users in their database for the game, all varying in age. Each one of those users assumes many different roles such as a Medic, Special Forces or Infantry units. This urges the user to work with a group of fellow players and complete the missions, giving some leadership skills to a few (America’s).

As well, games have brought people together in a way. With Internet rising up with the speed of Broadband, Cable or DSL, people are able to take their favorite games online to play others from across the world. Now in the online gaming community people are more willing to join these online groups called “Clans.” Clans are based on a certain group of gamers who play the same games or use the same Mods[1]. Players can even talk to each other during their game sessions online in chat programs such as Ventrillo. All the user has to do is join the voice server and they are there talking with others in that server. Along with the increased growth of the Internet, we have seen a great increase with times of people playing online. The publishers or Half-Life and Counterstrike, they experience 3.4 Billion play-minutes per month. This exceeds the viewer ship of even the most popular TV shows (Electronic).

Going back to the experience told before of the game “Quake IV” you see a great deal of brutality and that was just a microscopic view of the real game. The game is a full out war between humans and an alien race. I wouldn’t want to this game if it wasn’t for the violence. It just wouldn’t fit into the game. Always having the urge to shoot something and still be safe.

So I like to kill people in a video game, does that mean I’m going to go out and murder somebody? No, there is a great deal of difference between fantasy and reality. Some games may be going about becoming more realistic by basing them off true stories, world events or past world events. These actions are mainly used to influence and educated the users who play the game who didn’t experience the events themselves. Sure there is great cruelty in the game, but that ties it all together to get the full experience of what the real person it was based off felt.

The carnage in the games can be used as a stress reliever. Such as if I were to have a bad day at work, I would get on my computer and start playing my games online. After doing a little battle online with my friends; I would feel much better as this just gets my mind clear of anything else. It’s those people who think its ok to go about reenacting the game scene the saw earlier. Those people are just not able to tell the difference of fantasy and reality, which is where games get the blame. There is just more to it then that.

Into the other side of things into the eyes of the opposed, this mainly consists of Christian folk, and over protective Adults. There are out to put an end to the violent videogames, or at least slow them down to only adults. Based on my observations over the years of game controversy it seems they want all game for kids under 18 to be softie games. Most games I think have some sort of violence in them, it may be mild violence, but it is there. Even a kid’s game “Mario Party” series, mainly put out for kids has very little mild violence in it.

Controversy started mainly with the launching of the games “Wolfienstein 3-D” and “Mortal Kombat,” with the sight of blood, and even the pulling of ones skeleton out as a finishing move. Even though violence may be bad for the youth of the nation they believe. Violence will sell products more than non-violence (Video).

Starting in the year 1993; congress started to have hearings to control such games. The told the videogame industry that they needed to find some sort of rating system to help protect kids from buying games they should not get. After a year or two of discussing ideas two different rating systems were established. One of the systems was mainly used, and was the one financed by the videogame companies. The system later became named the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) (Video).

Throughout the 1990’s people and the new claimed a great number of accidents were influenced by videogames. The most prominent cases were that of Micheal Carneal; who shot three girls at a high school in Paduch, KY. The most extreme case was the Columbine shooting. Two kids named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. They shot and killed 13; as well they wounded 23 others before committing suicide (Video).

I’m really sure those were tragic events, even though the kids of Columbine built bombs and such in their basement. That leads to believe that there was more with the kids then just one thing. They said that the cause of the action was because the played violent games the day before the incident. Strange I play violent games all the time and I have yet to get in a fight at school. There must be other contributing factors besides videogames; there could possibly be family problems or even mental issues with the two kids. Even after all the killing I do in my games I could never get the guts to even think of killing another human being, its just such a hard thing to do just cause one sees it done in a game so easily. After the courts cases of both incidents were over, the court ruled out that the videogame companies were liable for their actions of the kids who played their games (Video).

In a report by the Federal Traffic Commission (FTC), it showed that out of the 13 to 16 that went undercover to buy “M[2]” rated games. That’s over 80% of them being able to buy the games of ratings above their age. Now this is what I would take as being very irresponsible by the retailers. Sure it’s ok to have the violence, but if you’re not going to make sure you’re checking the kids to see if they should be playing at their age, what kind of example are you setting with that action? With how people are being checked now at most of the major retailers such as Wal-Mart, they are doing a good job at making sure kids of to young of an age get games they shouldn’t play or to at least make sure their parents know of wanting the game. Other major retailers such as Best Buy don’t check the age of the buyers. Now I sure hope they are thinking wisely about that decision because that could ruin a store for giving underage kids “M” rated games (Video).

With all the controversy people who oppose the violence, they have tried putting up countless laws to limit games. Such could be seen in the state of Washington; they passed a law prohibiting the selling of games depicting brutality towards law enforcement officers to kids under the age of 17. Soon later a federal judge revoked the law when the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) challenged it. The IDSA was the representative for game manufacturers and was later renamed to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). In many other states nation wide are trying to pass laws such as the one Washington passed. They have yet to make it through the process to become a law. The only problem of these laws being passed is the fact of freedom of speech keeps games safe (Video).

No matter how much more realistic gamers get, I will always know they aren’t real life situations. I never see them bringing out violent behavior except in a few cases, but I will still think there are bigger factors helping to the cause. As well after seeing all the attempts at trying to limit gamers come and fail it, brings me up to believe that games will never to be taken away. There is no way to please both sides of the argument, but with utilizing small measures such as the ESRB system. We will try to keep the gaming world a fair place. No matter what though, the video games will still be the main accusation no matter the cases it’s put into. So, where do you stand?

Bibliography

“America's Army Game to Add 'Real Heroes'.”ARMY LINK NEWS. 12 September 2006. n.p.. SIRS Knowledge Source: SIRS Renaissance. Brown Lib., Virginia Western Community Coll., Roanoke, VA. 27 November 2006. <http://sks.sirs.com>.

“electronic game." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 27 Nov. 2006 <http://search.eb.com/eb/article-233732>.

Gregg, Robert. Computer/Video games. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture. New Your & London; Routledge 2001-2002.

"Video Games and Violence." Issues & Controversies On File 13 Feb. 2004. Issues & Controversies @ FACTS.com. Facts On File News Services. 27 Nov. 2006 <http://www.2facts.com.ezproxy.vccs.edu:2048>.


[size="3"][/size][1] Mods are modifications to games that increase the playtime of a game extending from what the original game designers intended.

[2] Mature, the game is meant for people over the age of 17.

[Bargod]

Are we really more violent today, and do video games add to that violence in any way, or is it that anti-social violent behavior has always existed and only in our media/news-hound/24-7/internet-ready/ society is just seeing what was already there, but not talked about in the past?

I think it's obvious that violence lies within the individual, and society/music/movies/games are used as an excuse for the anti-social behavior.

[-Tragedy-]

Are we really more violent today, and do video games add to that violence in any way, or is it that anti-social violent behavior has always existed and only in our media/news-hound/24-7/internet-ready/ society is just seeing what was already there, but not talked about in the past?

I think it's obvious that violence lies within the individual, and society/music/movies/games are used as an excuse for the anti-social behavior.

no im not looking for corrections rush just thought it would be nice to post this, we talked bout it on vent im sure its not perfect but its bout my argument so, im not expecting all to like what i say. Im also sure its not the best paper outthere trust me, but bear with me