When War Meets Video Games

I was researching more on this topic and found some quite shocking facts. I play video games on war, but it does not do anything to me---or so it seems. Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Call of Duty, or Mortal Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratories and in actual life. Furthermore, violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to eliminate and destroy the aggressor(s).

I play one of those games that was mentioned in the article "War Games Come Marching In", and suprisingly, it is actually one of my favourites. I love and mostly play RTS games, sometimes I play RPG. The game that was mentioned there was Rise of Nations , which is rated 9.3/10 at Gamespot©. To give an average person the fell of control over a nation and politics. To feel how Winston Churchhill made his decisions. Even the simple rush of huge armies marching against one another and conquering the world fill me with liveliness. I wouldn't even suspect that games aboult violence did that to my brain, however I have maken a vow along time ago not to let them get to me. These were some facts I came across:


Mature-rated games are now the fastest growing segment of the video game industry (Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 1/5/03).

About one-third of video games now purchased are rated "M," the marketing firm NPD Funworld reports.

About 40 percent of those who play Mature-rated games are under 18, according to the Federal Trade Commission. But children under 18 comprise less than 20 percent of the U.S. population, according to the US Census Bureau.

45 percent of all video game players are under the age of 18, according to a Wall Street Journal survey (10/14/02). That means that of the 146 million gamers in the United States, 65.7 million are children and teens. 20 million video game players are 12 and under.

The best-selling game of 2002 was M-rated: Grand Theft Auto III.

78 percent of unaccompanied children ages 13–16 were able to buy Mature-rated games at retail stores, according to a secret shopper survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission in 2001.

Even among several of those retail stores with programs in place to restrict sales, 73 percent of unaccompanied children were able to buy violent, Mature-rated games.

95 percent of teenage boys play video games each month, according to a survey conducted by Jupiter Research in April 2003.

Children are leaving traditional toys and play at younger and younger ages in favor of electronic entertainment. Toy sales were stagnant in 2001; video game sales were up 43 percent over 2000. (The Washington Post, 2/17/02)

The number of violent interactions in a 10-minute play period ranged from 2 to 124.

Boys who play Teen or Mature-rated games for a minimum of 40 minutes a day may witness over 180 incidents of aggression per day, or 5,400 incidents per month.

In 98 percent of the games surveyed, aggression went unpunished. In fact, in more than half the video games the perpetrators were rewarded for their aggressive actions.

The basic prototype for aggression in Mature-rated video games involves human perpetrators who engage in repeated acts of “justified” violence involving weapons.

78 percent of all violent interactions in the first ten minutes of game play featured lethal violence.

In almost a quarter of the violent interaction in mature games, players perceived themselves as stalkers.

78 percent of the violent action was shown up close.

Almost half of all violent video game segments featured humor.

I actually do enjoy more realistic games that are based on reality rather than fantasy violence. However, I will not play gore games with violence that is like murder and is made with humour. I think the people who actually made a game about the Columbine massacre (or whatever it is called), are sick, repugnant people. Recently this was the case, with a man who played this game and went on a rampage in Dawson College, Montreal. This is what is the disdainful acts of entertainment, that leads to such hatred. I personally think that games with intense violence and mass virtual murder should be taken off the market. There should also be strict laws against underage children buying M-rated games, that are actually taken into affect and enforced.

Signed,
Daniel