The Effect of Violent Video Games
Video games have become a large part of modern culture. It all began in 1958 when William Higinbotham created the first video game. A simple game called “Tennis for Two” started the craze that we see today. From simple 2D scroller to the realistic open-world role playing games, video game technology has progressed much quicker than expectation. For gamers this is a dream come true. Realistic games that you can play for endless periods of time and the player could still not experience every aspect that the game has. However, along the advancement of video games, the violent games have become the most popular. With releases of series such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Assassin’s Creed, people have begun to speak out against these games. Not only are these violent games being criticized, but the video game industry as a whole has been attacked. The industry tries to regulate who can purchase these games by use of the ESRB. But these regulations are not enough. Violent games, due to effects and impressions that they leave on younger individuals need to have stricter regulations. Game distributors need to target their advertising to adults and parents need to be better informed on the content of the games by the distributors labeling when they are purchasing the games for their children.
ESRB stands for Electronic Software Rating Board. This board determines the rating that every video game receives before it is released in the United States. The rating system that they use ranges from early childhood to adults only. A large majority of the violent games fall under the mature category. Mature rated games are available to be purchased by individuals seventeen years of age or over. That being said, there are still many children under the age of seventeen who are watching or playing these games that their parents purchased for them or obtained from friends. Mature content may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. Young minds many times are not fully developed to where what they are seeing isn’t processed psychologically correct. It is possible that the comprehension of what is actually real is not fully understood from what is pretend.
Video games are popular in today’s society; however, the younger audience is affected by games in a negative way. Movies, television, and now games are now dominated by the violent genre. The violent genre causes increases in aggression, especially in younger individuals, that can affect social behavior and interactions. There are positive results from video games, but primarily towards older adults. Violent video games are made too easily available for kids when the consequences of playing them excessively can hurt their future.