Do you think violent video games make people violent?

#1 I think that chocolate makes me fat, that kids are mean, and that christmas is the best day of the year.

I however do not think that violent games make people violent. At best they give stupid people that want to be violent a scapegoat.

#2 A number of things can trigger a lot of reactions. Usually there are many triggers, but we like to look for the magic bullet.

#3 I don't believe it makes them violent - i believe that it makes them insensitive to it.

#4 Strongly agree with Josiah Wang

#5 Society makes people violent.

#6 Classical Pianists often listen to Beethoven. If pushed, some classical pianists might claim that Beethoven was why they became classical pianists.

Does that mean that without any piano lessons or practice, I can become a classical pianist if I listen to enough Beethoven?

I guess so, if you listen to some lawyers and politicians.

#7 I think viloent video games make people want to sit in front of a screen and play them.

What's wrong with shooting out someone's knee and watching them fall to the ground? Or cutting a hooker's head of with a samuri sword?

#8 I've been playing violent video/computer games for over 25 years, and I haven't killed or maimed anybody yet. One reason I like to play video games is that I can do something that I can't do in real life. That's why I'm puzzled by people that play the Sims and games like that. Why play a game that you can do in real life? But then, that's just me. ;)

#9 I would prefer to douse them with petrol, then light'em on fire, piss on them to put them out. I'd then pull out my shotty and blow thier arms off, and beat them to death with them. After, I'd continue to cut off their head with a shovel, after which, i would kick the head around and play fetch with a small dog.

.. wait thats real life.. and i don't even play games.. infact, I dont' like games at all.. nope.. they're crap.. i don't play them.. really.. i don't.. believe me.. believe meeEE!!!

#10 I don't think violent games, movies or tv MAKE people violent. Violence is one way of dealing with a situation. In games, it's a "cheap" rush, being placed in a world without restrictions or consequences(sp). Allowed to do acts that ordinarily would not be tolerated by society and in environments that are becoming increasingly realistic.

If violent entertainment does anything in the negative, it shows or promotes violence as THE answer the situation the lead player finds themselves. There are in the real world many ways of dealing with situations that do not involve violence, games don't always promote them. I am suggesting though that games may reinforce an automatic violent response to a situation.

Is that wrong?

That's a bigger question and will depend on your definition of "entertainment".
The Romans considered it enjoyable.
Who are we to say we're any better?

#11 I believe violent video games desenitize people to violence, not induce them to act violently.

#12 This book is (should be) mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to intelligently debate the question

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465036961/qid=1119244634

Killing Monsters Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence
by Lynn, Md. Ponton (Foreword), Gerard Jones

#13 And I was not implying that the previous posters were not intelligently debating :-)
It's just a damn good book if you are into gaming, you have kids, are a teacher, or any combination of the above.

#14 Games

Music

Movies

TV

Books

Art

Comics

I believe when it comes to violence all forms of media play the exact same role. They all have the exact same power. If games make people violent then all other forms of media is to blame as well. I don't believe media makes people violent. People being unstable, not being brought up right, or in hard situations turn to violence.

I grew up watching Buggs Bunny cartoons and seeing Elmer Fudd blow Daffy Ducks beak off every episode and I have yet to pull a gun on anybody. Now an unstable (drugged) or weak minded person (like a child) would look up to Elmer Fudd and want to shoot someone too because he thinks it's cool, unless his parents told him otherwise like mine did. TELL YOUR KIDS BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG! Don't just assume they know. If you have a normal child then he will listen. If he doesn't, then he would have ended up a serial killer no matter what and no game, movie, or song is to blame for it. Some people are just crazy too.
-Ajari-

P.S. Watching the news is the best way to learn to be a criminal. I can study car chases like football players study game film. I can learn the best ways to rape a girl pulled over in her broken down car on a busy freeway and get away with it. I know the best times a cop is vulnarable to attack when he pulls me over. I can't learn any of these things from a game (real cops don't behave like they do in GTA) but I'm hearing about them in detail everyday on channel 6. I don't use this information to cause harm because my parents were good parents and taught me right from wrong. If your kid is bad it's YOUR FAULT.

#15 I agree 99% with Ajari. The 1% that I disagree with is his opinion that in the new Tomb Raider that Lara Croft looks even remotely like the chick from the Drew Carey show!!!! That is just a wrong sentence to write!! Bad mental image! Bad mental image! That was just so bad that you lose 1 point on all your opinions for a while. :)

#16 LOL !O! Your crazy Anton! :p They messed that chicks face up in that game. I know I have some wild opinions sometimes but I'm sticking to my guns on that issue. Hey it hurt me too. lol I was ready to slap myself when I wrote that but they did Lara a great injustice this time. I apologize for any nightmares I may have caused when you read your Game Informer magazine before going to bed.
-Ajari-

#17 I don't think video games, movies, TV etc make people violent. Their up bringing makes them violent and the parents should start to shoulder the blame. If they didnt use video games etc as baby sitters because they can't be bothered to spend time with their kids then thats their problem.

#18 Video games, movies and tv don't make people violent, people who Whine and bitch about video games, movies and tv making people violent makes people VERY Violent!

#19 Sorry... video games, like other media, have very lil effect on a person's mental state...

if they were nuts, or predisposed to being nuts before they bought Doom3, they'd still be nuts after they played it...

same thing if some nut would listen to the Sleeping Beauty Waltz... that wouldn't change em from being a nut... at best it would only make em slice your throat a lil more in 3:4 time...

if you subscribe to the media/mind connection... then, naturally, anyone who watched the cartoons of the early 60s would surely be screwed up beyond repair... yet i have yet to murder an innocent, or be desensitised to the sufferring of mistreated dogs... and after hours on end of Doom, Quake, QuakeArena, and DoomIII, i have no more compunction to kill or mame anyone than i did before i was exposed to the demon video weed...


about the music thing... i know some of you may want to interject the point that music calms the savage beast... but bear in mind, we are not talking about savage beasts here... we are talking about the, so called civilized, functional pshycos...

they were around in society looooong before video games... they'll be around long after...

some people will never be able to detach fantasy from reality...

video games are not the cause, nor are they the catalyst...


--Mike

#20 I dont know maybe it could

i mean maybe if they play sooo many violent video games that they spend more time playing games than in the real world they may start to take certain concepts from the game into the way they think all the time


i know playing gta probably has some bearing on the way i am constantly stealing cars and beating hookers now