Lately there has been a lot of controversy surrounding ‘violent video games’, games lke GTA 4, which has been particularly making big waves in Thailand, after a group of hoodlums recreated a GTA scene by killing an innocent taxi driver. This one event, which may well have been influenced by the undoubtedly violent video game (GTA) has caused the Department of Health in Thailand to come up with a list of the ten most dangerous video games. Today, I thought I’d go into more detail about the controversy around supposedly violent video games and point you towards a few sources covering the topic.
By the way, I’m not writing this article to either sway you towards or away from violent video games, but to explore some opinions on it. I don’t mean to come to any sort of conclusion by writing this article, so don’t feel offended and please, read on (if you want LOL).
The first source I’d like to point you to is a book called Grand Theft Childhood
Thirteen-year-old Darren and a half dozen of his video game-playing friends are sitting around a table at the Boys and Girls Club in a working-class section of Boston. We’re talking about the games, especially the violent ones. They’ve all played them.
Darren had a tough time in school earlier this week. On Monday, a teacher said something that embarrassed him in front of his classmates. When he went home that afternoon, he plugged in his video game console, loaded Grand Theft Auto III, blew up a few cars and shot a half-dozen people, including a young blond woman. When asked, Darren admits that the woman he killed in the game looked a lot like his teacher.
If you listen to the politicians and the pundits, the relationship is blindingly clear: playing violent video games leads children to engage in real-world violence or, at the very least, to become more aggressive.
This is a typical statement from someone who is obviously opposing violence in video games. The text is quite clear, but the authors (Laurence Kutner and Cherry Olsen) are saying that violence in video games can either encourage or envoke real world violence. They used the example of Darren, who emulated his teacher’s killing by killing a woman who looked like her in GTA 3. This is a fair enough point, but what about all the kids with common sense (like me!), who don’t get too immersed in video games (GTA 4=Dissapointment). This is just another stereotype of the easily influenced child which I don’t at all agree with.
The next point I’d like to make refers to the game, Manhunt, developed by Rockstar, and made infamous for it’s extreme graphical nature and also the tasks carried out in the game. In the UK, around the time of the peak of the game’s popularity, a murder was linked to the violent nature of the game. This excerpt is taken from Wikipedia:
In the UK, the game was linked to the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, by his friend Warren Leblanc, 17, on the 27 February 2004. Giselle Pakeerah, the victim’s mother, claimed[13] that Leblanc had been ‘obsessed’ with the game after he pleaded guilty in court. During the subsequent media frenzy, the game was removed from sale by some vendors, such as the UK and international branches of GAME and Dixons, leading to “significantly increased” demand[14] both from retailers and on Internet auction sites. The police denied any such link between the game and the murder, citing drug-related robbery as the motive. The presiding judge also placed sole responsibility with Leblanc in his summing up after sentencing him to life. It was later discovered that Leblanc didn’t actually own the game, but Pakeerah did. It was also found out that Leblanc had previously seen a Chucky film at a theater and it went unnoticed that the murder was identical to one seen in the film; when this became known, Manhunt returned to store shelves.
This story shows that video games are always under the most criticism, and are the easiest to accuse, sometimes falsely, and without much investigation, not to suggest that it was an extremely gory and disturbing, coincidentally from the same studio as the Grand Theft Auto series.
It’s no secret that the USA is a country of gaming fanatics, and also that the authorities are incredibly slack with age ratings and the sale of violent or controversial games to underage customers. Even the US Government are known to create video games, such as America’s Army, an incredibly realistic and readily available online multiplayer shooter available for free download on the web or on CD at recruitment centres. This is definitely one thing I am against. America’s Army is effectively a recruitment tool, aimed at young American boys (yes, I said it: boys!) in an attempt to sucker them into the system while they’re fresh and ripe. That’s the way I see it, anyway. Video games should be used for entertainment only, not to simulate real life or persuade you to fight for your country (you should be able to decide that yourself).
That’s the end of my article on controversial video games. As I said at the beggining, I didn’t write this in the hope of forming a conclusion about violent video games, or to make you believe what I believe, but to explore some opinions and some seemingly controversial uses of video games. I hope this was enjoyable at the least for you.
If you did enjoy this article, why not use one of the icons below to share it with your friends!?
Like this post? Why not keep updated by Subscribing to PlayStation Heads?
Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe by Email
I ran across your article on the web today…I encourage you to read Grand Theft Childhood beyond the first page. The point of the book is that the “politicians and pundits” who think games spell the end of our civilization are completely wrong!
There’s more (free) excerpts from the book’s website, at http://www.grandtheftchildhood.com