Do Video Games Make Us Violent

The age-old question do video games make us more violent?

The answer is simply no they do not, there has been numerous studies done that prove to us that video games do not make us more violent or aggressive, but in fact it’s the difficulty of the game that does. A study done by the University of Oxford in the UK that it is shown it’s not the violence in the game that make us more aggressive it’s a difficult game that does. No matter what the rating or type of game if its difficult it will be raise aggression and anger.

The study was tested by having players play the critically acclaimed game Half Life 2, the scientists only allowed some of the players to be able to partake in the tutorial explaining the controls to the game, while the others had to figure it out for themselves. The study proved that the ones who did not get to do the tutorial had more aggressive tendencies whether or not they played the violent version of the game or not.

Another study that was done by Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist at Stetson University in Florida has also concluded that violent video games do not make us more violent. According to the guardian.com Ferguson concluded that violent video games in youth over the last 20 years has actually led to a fall in violent crime through the ages of 12-17 year old teens. Ferguson would go on to explain that the link between violence to video games was at an all time low and that studies are proving they are only dropping more each year, in the 1950-2005 there was a link between violence and on screen violence connecting real life murders to films that had portrayed the same violence was shown but since the video game those numbers have dwindled.

In my personal opinion I do not believe that video games have an effect on making us more violent or aggressive. I myself play games such as Gears of War, Halo, Call of Duty, and Assassins Creed, and I cannot honestly say that these games have caused me to become more aggressive or violent. All though I have become angry when playing the games from time to time, either dying during online play, or not being able to complete a mission I have become angry or aggressive towards the people I was playing. I even have been known to yell at my TV in rage, but I just turn off the game and calm down, it doesn’t make me want to go out and be violent towards others. I may yell at those individuals on my mic but I wouldn’t ever go out and ever do anything to someone over a video game, that’s INSANE! Even games like GTA which many parents do not approve of due to its extreme graphic and violent nature, GTA still doesn’t make someone want to go out and kill or harm people just because they played the game.

Sometimes its not even violent games that can make someone upset while playing, though it doesn’t turn them into violent people its just aggravating which is why I really don’t think that video games can make someone turn violent just by playing them. For example playing sports games like Madden, NHL, FIFA, MLB, and NBA can make someone upset due to either missing a goal/basket/touchdown/run or losing to a team you know you should have beaten. All of those reasons can add to aggravation but none of them should ever lead to violence or cause harm to another human being.