Video games Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Video games - Essay ExampleInfamous events have created widespread debates regarding the negative consequences of video game violence. For example, a national discussion began regarding what connection video games may have had to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre. Though many motivations were likely involved, it is not reasonable to signalise precisely what motivated these teenagers to shoot their schoolmates and teachers but violent video games were mentioned as a contributing reason. With enhanced realism and the increasing tendency towards greater amounts of graphical aggression in games, people who play violent video games should be educated to the possible consequences. When video games first appeared around 35 years ago, they were simple(a) and seemingly harmless. Atari introduced Pong during the 1970s, a video game version of table tennis. Arcade games such as Pac-Man and Asteroids were popular in the 1980s. The seemingly harmless spirit of video games noticeably evo lved to cartoon-like ghost chomping to blatant violence in the 1990s. Mortal Kombat, the most popular game of 1993, featured accurate portrayals of human-like display cases fighting crashing(a) battles. The purpose of the player in the game, as the name suggests, was to kill the enemy. Violent games even more brutal than Mortal Kombat dominate the video game marketplace today. Near the end of that 1980s, a weigh tested 33 of Sega and Nintendos most popular video games determined nearly 80 percent were violent. (Dietz, 1998). The study also revealed that a troubling one-fifth of the games portrayed violence towards women. It has also been demonstrated that playing violent video games encourages the tendency of experiencing hostile thought patterns by means of the semantic priming process. Current studies reveal that hostile behaviors occur during controlled studies using independent scientific methods and in daily life circumstances as well. The playing of violent video games unq uestionably was associated with an increase of violent behavior. Other studies were conducted which considered the video game patterns of university students throughout their four year career which demonstrated that when in a normal, dorm-room surroundings, playing violent video games over a four year period was the initiating factor in incidences of aggressive behavior. This increase happened, not on the nose when playing of the game but during other aspects of their lives too. Both studies revealed that violent video games negatively affected a persons current emotional stipulation and increases feelings of hostility. The similar findings of these studies give added credibility to the contention that exposure to violent video games promotes aggressive behavior. Though the inclination for increased violent behaviors cannot be scientifically turn up on the basis of two studies, this evidence corroborates the results of similar research. (Calvert & Tan, 1994). When playing a vide o game that uses first person interaction, the player typically chooses a character whose personality the player identifies with. By manipulating the action of their character a player usually tries to visualize the game from their characters perspective. The player becomes that character, which enhances the players enjoyment of the game. Anyone who has seen two teen boys, or their fathers, playing video games has witnessed them envisioning they are the character that they are controlling. The second rationale entails the