Article Analysis Essay on Shooting in The Dark

Introduction

Carey Benedict presents an article that he names as "shooting in the dark" where he describes the concept of playing games. Carey suggests that there are hostile urges and mild aggressive behaviors that are stirred by playing games in the short term. Majority of youngsters are addicted to games thus developing a gaming habit that makes them more aggressive. The evidence of this kind of aggressiveness is through the measured clashes that they experience with the peers.

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Carey begins the article by giving an example of a violent video game behavior where some young men opened fire at Columbine High school at the movie theatre. These individuals were video gamers, and they were acting out some dark digital fantasy that led to exposure in computerized violence which probably led them to go on a rampage (Carey, 2013). Carey poses a question on whether it was necessary to do that. The author states that as per the research, scholars are seeking to clarify the effects of violent gaming and the ultimate statement they make us that playing games stir hostile urges and aggressive behaviors among the individuals in the short term. However, what is not clear is whether the long-term development of such aggressive behaviors may lead to other violent crimes such as murder, rape or assault. The view of the psychologists concerning violent video games is that they help children socialize over time and they try to imitate the behavior they see being portrayed by the characters in the games which include the dismissive brutality and the cartoonish machismo among others. These children also imitate the people closest to them such as their parents, friends, teachers, and siblings and develop habits of these people. However, Carey says that the researchers have not defined when a habit becomes so consuming such that the effects it causes tend to trump the facts of socializing and impacts on other significant figures in the life of a child.

There are three main ways that Benedict uses evidence to support the assertions that he makes. Benedict cites some of the scholars such as Michael R. Ward who is an economist at the University of Texas, Arlington (Carey, 2013). Michael says that he does not know whether a psychological study can answer the question of the long-term habit of violent gaming causing other crimes such as murder and rape and that individuals are left to glean the much they can from the available research and data on the video games that they have.

The author uses research that he says falls into three categories of short-term laboratory experiments, long-term studies that are based in schools and correlation studies which is between the playing time and aggression. Benedict focuses on the laboratory experiments which he says confirm what any gamer knows in his gut such that playing games such as "call of duty" is likely to stir the blood (Carey, 2013). He also used the lab experiments to show to validate his assertion of aggressive behaviors in playing games where he shows that the undergraduates playing "mortal combat: Deadly Alliance" for a period of fifteen minutes tend to exhibit more aggression soon after playing.

The author also incorporates psychological research from major scholars which are opposing ideas that demonstrate an argument that is well-balanced. Benedict references Craig Anderson who is a psychologist at Lowa State University, and he claims that the extreme acts such as school shooting do not occur because of a single factor like video gaming and that other factors such as the feeling of being socially isolated, being bullied and many others contribute to such acts. He suggests that violent media is just one of the factors and not the largest nor smallest Factor.

Focusing on The How of Violence

Hamilton Kirk describes his interest in how video games tend to be violent and why they are like that. He states that majority of the games that individuals play show aspects of enhanced interrogation but few of them are willing to interrogate the act. In this case, he provides a reason as to why game developers hesitate to use the greatest strength of gaming which is interactivity to their advantage. Kirk gives an example of one of the vacuous and self-satisfying game known as Grand Theft Auto V that he says had very little to say about the amount of torture (Hamilton, 2014). In the game, players are made to endure extended sequence whereby the playable character known as Trevor tortures an innocent man that is screaming which is an implication of the player in the real world as an act of counterterrorism operation.

Kirk describes an interesting exploration of torture where he says that a game such as Consensual Torture Simulator helps to stir other feelings apart from violence. The game investigates the notion of consensual S &M in a loving relationship. Even though the game is provocative at some point and a bit kinky, it is also resolutely human and contains emotional honesty.

Kirk uses personal research on playing games to assert his value-based conclusion that violent games are boring. He says that boring was the feeling he had to most of the activities of shooting, maiming and also torturing in games. He realized this when he played the position of the first-person shooter in BioShock Infinite saying that during his 40th gunfight, he asked himself whether he was desensitized to the violence in video games or what could have been happening (Hamilton, 2014). At this point, he wanted to see whether upcoming games would embrace the concept of specific personal violence. He also says that the violence from playing BioShock Infinite made him feel gratuitous. He also states that the game Grand Theft Auto V was vacuous such that it lacked the thought of intelligence where Trevor engages in torturing an innocent man that creates a questionable operation.

Hamilton's value-based assertion that Grand Theft Auto V is vacuous is relevant because the game itself depicts a lack of thought in the operations of the characters. The fact that Trevor tortures an innocent man is provocative and can lead to violent behaviors considering that it should reduce these behaviors. It shows consistency and transparency because the act goes on for quite a long time and it shows speculation as individuals imitate the actions of Trevor (Hamilton, 2014). The value-based assertion that BioShock Infinite is boring and gratuitous is relevant because these are feelings he gained first hand from playing the game. The values are also consistent and transparent as he keeps questioning himself as to why the games involve so many fights. They are also speculative since they can stir reactions from the gamers to imitate the players.

References

Carey, B. (2013). Shooting in the Dark. The New York Times, D1.

Hamilton, K. (2014). Focusing on the How of Violence. The New York Times, C5