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Argue Your Opinion...please
Funseiki
Member UncommonPosts: 263
Okay I need all of you people's help. I am writing an argument of a topic of my choice for english class, so i chose violence in video games. This will be kind of like a poll thingy, please post your opinions and if you can write why you chose what you chose, I might use your answers in my paper since all of you are gamers and by experience gamers know a thing or two about how violence affects them, and i don't really care if your 5 or if your 50, all opinions count. Also if you have hard evidence please cite it so i can check out the source to see if i can use it. It would be really helpful to post something to go along with your opinion.
Hard evidence would be anything that supports your argument- an article, a personal event, etc. Sorry about the confusion
Comments
http://www.fbi.gov/publications.htm
I think it's under a tab for violent crime. Look around that site, their online reports have some good research material for you.
For counterpoint arguments, check out the National Institute on Media and the Family website:
http://www.mediafamily.org/
I don't believe these games are harmful, but if it's a research paper than both sides of the argument you shall have
Hard evidence? As in:
He was convicted of a violent crime, but had never played a game in his entire life.
He was peaceful and not convicted of anything.. and owned a computer.
This whole discussion start from a flawed viewpoint. It is like saying:
Music will make you a satanist. Yes or No. Because satanists listen to music. And... Nonsatanists.. don't?
Or otherwise you have statistics. No statistic in this case can be called "hard evidence". Like:
X% Violent criminals had, at one time in thier life, played a computer game.
X% Violent criminals had, in their life, never played a computer game.
Again, back to satanists: X% Satanists.... had never heard music in their life. How big do you think this piece of the cake will be? So statistics would also start form a flawed viewpoint.
Because they begin from the idea that computer games or not a fully integrated part of everyday life in a normla household, just as music. It is still seen as an odd thing used by some strange subculture.
And the discussion is exactly the same as with RPGs in the 80s, that Pen and paper RPGs, the joy of the nerds and geeks around the world, was an indoctrination to satanic cults of mass murderers...
Its a flawed discussion being held primarilly by uneducated "people of morale" and the best thing anyone could ever tell them would be "go read a book, you have no idea what you are talking about"
Now... Do violent people play computer games? Yes. They can use games to channel their violent tendencies instead of bashing someone on the street. Do computer game smake people violent? Then I am pooped, I have played since 1973, I need to buy a shotgun to fit into the statistics.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Of all the people in the world we should watch out for, not sure a gamer's one of them. What have we got to be pissed about? Long load times? Our video card won't run a new game? Even then I don't really want to go out and kill a bunch of people. As for a larger scale? Most gamers are intimidating people and not many of us have the connections to go out and buy anything better than a hunting rifle. Even then, for all the FPS's I play, I can't even hit anything with my BB gun. It's just more political bullshit to fuel another SAHMWTMFTWHTTAF crusade (stay-at-home-moms-with-too-much-free-time-who-hate-things-that-are-fun)
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people have complete control over their actions, no video game, movie, or song forces you to violence, they may give you a rush or a pumped up feeling, but they do not force you to do punch someone in the face.
Hard evidence like violent crimes have decreased over 32% since 93... around the same time that PS1 was introduced?
I suggest you check out this link http://gaming.bolt.com/articles/violence/violence.htm
The math doesnt lie. Amount of violent games have gone up, amount of violent crims have gone done. In fact, the article points out, that the only age group that has gotten more violent since 2000, was 25-34 year olds.
Violent video games provide a release for the youth of America. Rather than strike out at others, they can kill people in virtual worlds. Those who would lash out in reality are likely already angry enough that violent influences will do little to change them.
Note that video games with even caricature human violence are only about twenty years old. Double Dragon, 1987. Yie Ar Kung Fu, 1985. Street Fighter, 1987. Most of today's youth have lived in a world where violent video games have been available their entire life. Television has gained similar violence. HBO shows violent movies that network stations would never have dreamed of showing as little as ten years ago. Example? The second Bill and Ted movie, "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey" was named so because the original title was just too racy for TV. What was it? "Bill and Ted Go To Hell." These days, nightly news shows dead people, only a few words are not used (That's for cable TV to use), and the only thing that shocks people is a half-naked breast.
Think media is overly violent now? Look at the cartoons of yesteryear. Bugs Bunny was kissing men, dressing as a woman, shooting people, and running around naked, in the 1940s and 1950s.
Wartime propaganda, 1941-1945. Everywhere, you could find outright racist caricatures of Germans and Japanese. Comic books where soldiers shot up enemy troops sold like wildfire and they were considered a positive and patriotic influence.
Violence doesn't come from media. Sure, some media outlets are letting it get out of control, but it's more distasteful than anything. Violence comes from those who don't have other opportunities, those who aren't taught much of anything, and addicts, mostly. Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, any sort of addict, although drug addicts are worst.
Personally, I'm 22 years old, been playing video games for over 18 years. My 4th birthday, I received a Nintendo Entertainment System, and my first games included Kung Fu and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!. Obviously, both violent games. I was about as rambunctious as you could expect a young boy to be, and I've been in a total of two fights in my life. One being a rather normal schoolyard rumble, and one punching the crap out of a bully. Not even out of place a hundred years ago, really.
Video games can be blamed for a number of things. Distraction from study, some real-world ignorance, and definitely distraction from exercise. They definitely don't make kids any more violent than they naturally are, especially regarding the environment they're raised in.
Yeah, I've been tempted to go on a murderous rampage after a particularly intense game of Sinistar or Pac Man (both very violent games if you judge by their descriptions alone). However, crazy people have been doing crazy things since before video games, TV, Comic Books, Theater, and even printed books.
You want to know what causes violence in society? One word: Poverty. People that have no money and no way to better themselves tend to turn to all manner of vices in order to escape. Drinking / drugs (same thing except the former is legal), excessive sex, fighting, these are all ways that people with no other means of recourse express their frustration. Violent crime has been going down. Whether that's because poverty is going down, or people are just plain tired of killing is anyone's guess. But violent video games? You can take that shit somewhere else essay.
Mankind is ( and allways will be ) aggressive because that is how nature works.
Race - Religion - Colour - Vidiogames, all are simply excuses for our natural, primal, condition. Which is to ensure that our own genetic heritage continues into the next generation.
We wear the pretence of Civilisation to convince ourselves and others that we are more than just animals. Some people discard that pretence and are then condemd by society as murderers, thieves or whatever.
It is people who are terrified of their own reality who try to find reasons or excuses.
I'm not saying Civilisation is a bad thing.
I for one wouldn't last five minutes without it's protection.
I just don't understand why so many people can't just accept reality and stop looking for excuses.
You have my permission to use my deranged rambelings in any way you see fit
Thanks for your opinions, it was a lot of help
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