13 Oct 2015 07:39:10
Hi guys, I read an article that suggests that violent video games make people want to commit acts of violence.as a gamer I disagree, I think that most people (not all) are smart enough to not be influenced by any game. What do you guys think?

{Ed001's Note - it depends on the person, like drugs or alcohol, the effects vary from person to person. Those that actually are influenced are being influenced because of other problems they have, which would make them prone to acts of violence anyway. Same as films and books, they influence as much as we allow them to.}

 
13 Oct 2015 08:20:35
I'm a big gamer also. I think it comes down to individual mindsets though. anything can be influential to anyone good or bad, its not to say video games solely are to blame for all the dramas in the world but I bet in the odd occasion they are the root cause.

{Ed001's Note - so you wouldn't say the root cause was the person? I would say it was problems in their upbringing that caused it far more than the games. It seems to me that mostly it is people desperately trying to find something to blame rather than admit it is society that is the major root cause. Parents not caring, bullying at school, schools being useless, lack of a real community etc are far more of a cause of violence than the video games they play.}

 
13 Oct 2015 08:31:18
That's very true ed, didn't look at from that perspective thanks for all you guys insight.

 
13 Oct 2015 09:32:39
There was a huge debate when GTA 4 (iirc) came out when Devin Moore shot his way through a police station after stealing the gun from an officer; he then stole a police car and was caught after a car chase (much like the game he'd been playing non-stop). After being caught, he s something along the lines of "Life's a video game, you got to die sometime". This sparked a battle in the courts between Rockstar and Jack Thompson about whether or not the game caused this. I'd recommend watching Gamechangers as it is all about this. Should be on iPlayer as was pretty recent.

 
13 Oct 2015 11:48:51
No Ed of course its down to the person, sorry I didn't come across clear. I was trying to say about influences and how they can affect peoples judgements be it good or bad.

 
14 Oct 2015 18:18:00
I think that video games are a bit of an easy target because it seems more obvious that it could create behaviour problems, but in reality there a lots of things that can cause these problems and most of them are very subliminal. Most kids in my opinion copy other kids and try and fit in just depends on how impressionable they are. I used to love Mario and all that fly agaric chomping didn't influence me at all lol. I'd seen some 'expert' in his mid 60's giving his ten peneth in on the evils of bloody minecraft ffs he thought that kids now want to turn themselves into heavily pixilated blocks and fly through the sky looking for an ender dragon. He obviously didn't watch magic roundabout in his early days and probably watched re runs of captain pugwash instead, I hope he didn't call any of his kids Rodger