Does playing violent video games cause young kids to do violent acts and have violent thoughts, I do not believe they do. According to experiments, many people played the same violent game, and the scientist said that, “Players were not statistically different from the non-playing control group in their beliefs on aggression after playing the game than they were before playing." "Nor was game play a predictor of aggressive behaviors. Compared with the control group, the players neither increased their argumentative behaviors after game play nor were significantly more likely to argue with their friends and partners." This said, I do not believe that playing violent video games is a factor of violent kids.

In 2003, in Fayette, Alabama the death of two police officers and a civilian police worker was blamed on the playing of the video game, “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”. Authorities arrested a 20 year old perpetrator, Devin Moore. Moore was alleged to have said, “Life is a videogame. Everybody has to die some time.” Attorney Jack Thompson said Moore was known to play the videogame GTA: VC for many hours, Thompson dubbing it a “murder simulator.” Thompson declared that “Moore rehearsed, hour after hour, the cop-killing scenarios in that hyper-violent video game. The makers, distributors, and retailers of that murder simulator equipped Moore to kill as surely as if they had handed him the gun to do it. Blood is on the hands of men in certain corporate board rooms from Japan to New York.”

While the eventual outcome of Thompson's campaign in uncertain, the Illinois findings will do little to further his cause. Report lead author Dmitri Williams said researchers found "no strong effects associated with aggression caused by this violent game", referring to Asheron's Call 2 (AC2) which guinea pigs played an average 56 hours over the course of a month. The “experiments” I was referring to in the first paragraph. If 56 hours a month worth of “violent video game” playing does not have strong effects, I find it hard to believe that violent video games negatively effect our youth. If you do the math, 56 hours would be equivalent to just about 2 hours a day every day for a whole month, and if that’s not a lot of game time with a “violent video game”, then I don’t know what is.





“This game featured fantasy violence, while others featuring outer space or even everyday urban violence may yield different outcomes.” Williams also concedes that because the study didn’t concentrate solely on younger teenagers, “we cannot say that teenagers might not experience different effects.” Still, and interestingly, older players in their study were “perhaps more strongly influenced by game play and argued with friends more than their younger counterparts.” This is what Dmitri Williams had to say in his article and study about violent video games and there links of aggression in people. If what Dmitri’s study showed is correct, then maybe the argument we should be talking about is if playing violent video games has a negative effect on adults. Also, if this is correct, then I my thesis would also be correct in that “playing violent video games” is not bad for children, this because of their short term memory, and that they understand it is only a game.
The new study involved two groups of participants: players – a “treatment” group of 75 people who had no prior MMRPG play and who played AC2 for the first time; and a control group of 138, who did not play. The participants were solicited through online message boards and ranged in age from 14 to 68, the average age being 27.7 years. Because of the study’s design, only moderate or large effects caused by exposure to the game were capable of being detected. Today, more than 60 percent of Americans play some form of interactive game on a regular basis, while 32 percent of the game-playing population is now over 35 years of age.Fears about the games’ social and health impacts have risen with these numbers, Williams said, with politicians, pundits and media outlets fanning some of the flames. Games are becoming increasingly violent, as shown by content analyses, Williams said. One reason is that “the first generation of game players has aged and its tastes and expectations have been more likely to include mature fair.”
After reading this, and especially the last few sentences, you can make the conclusion that, yes, in fact games are becoming more violent, but at the same that is only because that is what society likes and favors. So if society is complaining about the violent nature and their children being “negatively” effected, then they should clean up their own act so that things like this will not happen. If you blame barbed wire fences for cutting your hands, no one would feel bad for you, I believe this is the same concept.









Outline

I.
Playing violent video games does not cause anger, experiments prove it.
II.
Devin Moore’s triple homicide blamed on GTA: VC
III.
Dmitri Williams’ experiment/study on violent video games.
IV.
William’s telling that adults are effected more than youth by violent games.
V.
Williams’ new study, with a control group, proving violence is societies pref.
VI.
Conclusion, opinion that violent video games are not to blame for violent youth.


Lester Haines, “Violent Video Games Do Not Cause Aggression”. The Register,

The Register, Published Monday 15th August 2005 12:10 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/15/video_games_and_aggression/
Andrea Lynn, “No Strong Link Between Games And Aggression”. News Bureau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Published 8/9/05.

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html