Why Should Violent Video Games Be Prohibited? - Argumentative Essay

Introduction

Video games are part of modern life and most people already engage in them. Gaming is a way of spending leisure time and people take pride in defeating their opponents. They are a form of entertainment because they are fun and exciting. However, the truth is that these video games cause more harm than good. They have a dark side that is no longer ignorable. This new generation of video games contains a significant amount of increasingly realistic representations of physical and sexualized violence. Playing violent video games can contribute to a whole host of problems which then results in negative impacts in the society. The writing will argue points on why video games need to get banned.

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Playing the US military video games teaches troops to kill. The military offers training for its soldiers through video games as they use these games to murder because the drones kill the same way in real life (Ferguson, 2010). These games are effective in teaching the military on the effective ways to shoot and kill, similarly, the pilots tend to use the high-tech simulators to learn on ways of flying new aircraft at the airports which are a good easier technology to put into use.

The shooting and killing in the game are violent and when people use this technology from their homes, they end up adapting mannerism that is similar to what they see. The games affect the "safety catch" located in the brain where it is disabled especially when individuals play the game regularly. Thus, these people gain the skills that they learn from these video games not only in the killing but also disabling the normal psychological restraints that prevent them from such activities (Funk, 2005). These activities then result in crimes from the players now that they already know how to handle guns and shoot. This way, there is a need to reduce criminal activities by banning violent video games.

There are other violent video games that have characters with negative attitudes towards women and constant playing of such games results in similar attitudes in real life. There are societies that have negative attitudes towards women and they depict women as pervasive across some sections of the society. These video games support the negative attitudes by making sure they expand on them and incorporate them in these games.

Domestic violence has been prevalent in most societies and some violent video games play up to these behaviours encouraging them. In this case, since the men are the constant players, they take up these behaviors and practice them in real life (Gabbiadini, 2016). Those who play the game develop the attitude against women. There is a need to stop such behavior by recognizing that all genders are equal. The more that those who play violent video games get exposed to such situations where the character gives a violent reaction towards women, the more likely they behave in real life. For that reason, violent video games should be banned.

Playing these violent video games tends to desensitize people to violence in real life. The reason for this is that they result in a reduction in the capacity for empathetic behaviors among the gamers. It is because these video games have an element of merciless killing of the opponents because that is the only way they can win (Kutner, et al. 2008). The issue of desensitizing people is that playing these games for a couple of minutes, like twenty has an impact on the understanding of the gamer concerning the effects of violence in real life. It is such that they become less provoked by instances of violence in that it takes more time to get shocked by instances of violence because they are used to the behavior. Their response to real-life scenarios involving violence is with greater levels of aggression compared to their peers who give rational reactions. Exposing children to this level of violence at a young age is dangerous because it will be difficult to teach them other better ways to handle situations. The level of violence that the gamers acquire is not normal and there is a need to prohibit the violent games.

Statistics have shown that the majority of individuals that have been found responsible for mass shooting have also played violent video games (Swing, et al.2011). Reports state that more people in the U.S were shot. Most people that were responsible for such shootings were the keen players of violent video games. In the famous case of the Bethel High School shooter, he said that he did not understand that getting to shoot a person would actually make them die because he was used to the fact that when he played Doom, they would just get back up again. It is such a serious case that concerns arise on the need to ensure that violent video games get banned because these individuals playing the games pose more threat and violence to the rest of people.

Violent video games tend to cause poor social relationships. Individuals learn social skills by interacting with others but if they have no chance to do that, they fail to learn these skills and struggle with communication and behavioral issues. Individuals who live in the virtual world for long periods have great difficulties when it comes to dealing with problems and demands in the real world.

In real life, video games encourage violent behavior. The cumulative effect of desensitizing people, reduction in empathy feelings and the impact on aggression causes the likelihood that one who plays violent video games has a higher probability of exhibiting violent behavior in real life and this behavior has a greater level of magnitude if the person had not played the game.

Conclusion

The sad truth is that it is not necessary to contain violence and these video games that have such impacts need to get banned. Prohibition is the only way to help deal with violent situations that people find themselves in over decisions that they make after playing these games. Players become desensitized such that they are emotionless and lack empathy. They are less mindful of others and their response to other violent instances is with greater aggression. These individuals are real threats to the existence of others since they declare no peace. There are people who argue in favor of the violent view games saying that there is no causal relationship between violence and playing games but the fact is that there is the development of aggressive behaviors. There is a need to completely prohibit video games from getting sold to other citizens other than the military because they only absorb the wrong side that they translate to real life, unlike the military who get trained.

Works Cited

Ferguson, Christopher J. "Blazing angels or resident evil? Can violent video games be a force for good?" Review of general psychology 14.2 (2010): 68.

Funk, Jeanne B. "Children's exposure to violent video games and desensitization to violence." Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics 14.3 (2005): 387-404.

Gabbiadini, Alessandro, et al. "Acting like a tough guy: Violent-sexist video games, identification with game characters, masculine beliefs, & empathy for female violence victims." PLoS One 11.4 (2016): e0152121.

Kutner, Lawrence, and Cheryl Olson. Grand theft childhood: The surprising truth about violent video games and what parents can do. Simon and Schuster, 2008.

Swing, Edward L., Douglas A. Gentile, and Craig A. Anderson. "Learning processes and violent video games." Gaming and Simulations: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications. IGI Global, 2011. 1807-1822.