Essay About Video Game Violence And Generation Of Violent Games

Videogames Violence
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Concern about video game violence is not new. There were calls to ban violent
games as early as 1976 when Death Race, often acknowledged as the first
violent video game, appeared on the market. Of course, the violence in
Death Race seems tame in comparison with todays “first person shooters.”
As technology advances, each generation of violent games became more graphic
and extreme. The processing power of video game platforms has increased
an astonishing 188 fold in the past seven months. The goal of creating
virtual experiences draws ever closer. The addition of sexual material
and crude language raises additional worries.
As the annual report cards issued by the National Institute on Media and
the Family have shown, the most violent games still find their way into
the hands of millions of children and teens. Since these games have become
implicated in the string of recent school shootings, concern has reached
new heights. This testimony brings together some of the findings from research
to determine if these concerns are justified. In addition it provides findings
from ongoing research being conducted at the National Institute on Media
and the Family.
Review of Research Literature
The first thing we learn from the research is that it is the younger children
who spend the most time playing games. According to one study, the time
spent playing video and computer games peaks between the ages of eight
and thirteen (Roberts, 1999). A study we completed at the National Institute
on Media and the Family found a similar pattern with game playing time
peaking between eight and fifteen (Gentile and Walsh, 1999). We also know
that youth, especially boys, gravitate to the “action games,” which include
the “first person shooters.” In one study 50% of boys listed violent games
as their favorites (Buchman and Funk, 1996). A growing number of children
and teens now have the technological skills to customize the computer games.
A recent development is putting “skins” on the characters in the games.
This means that the player can insert the images of real people and places
thereby making the games even more realistic.
Many pre-teens and young teenagers therefore spend a significant amount
of time playing electronic games, with a preference for the violent ones.
We also know that they have easy and frequent access to increasingly violent
and realistic games. The next important question is, of course, “What are
the effects of this Because the ultra-violent games are relatively new,
the research literature is just beginning to accumulate. Research findings
appearing in the 1980s and early 1990s are irrelevant because those studies
did not include the types of violent games that have proliferated in the
past six or seven years. For the last few years most experts have pointed
to the vast body of research on television violence. That research clearly
shows that a heavy exposure causes negative effects on children (Walsh,
Brown, and Goldman, 1996).
Because there has been so little relevant research specifically focusing
on electronic games, some state that there is no demonstration of harm
to children. That, of course, was the same argument used to defend television