Violence in Video Games

Violence in Video Games

For many generations, society has always blamed its problems on some form of entertainment. Whether it be books, music, movies, or television, people never seem to be able to realize that there are other factors to how a person thinks and feels. Ever since the early 1990s, the world seems to have found a new hobby to blame. That hobby is video games. Video games have been around for over thirty years now, but it wasn't until 1992 when an arcade game called Mortal Kombat hit the streets and became massively popular among kids for its comical, exaggertaed cartoon-like gore. The game used digitzed pictures of actors as its graphics, making the characters look as real as you could get at the time. This is one of the main reasons why the game caused so much controversy. There were, of course, violent games before this, but this was the first one that really made people take notice of violence in video games.

In 1993, Mortal Kombat was to be ported to the home consoles, Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Acclaim, the developer of the home console, was forced by Nintendo, infamous for their strict censorhip in video games, to remove all blood and gore from the game, as well as the game's more violent finishing moves. Sega chose to do the same with their version as well. However, to increase sales, they allowed Acclaim to put in a code to enable blood back into the game. Needless to say, the Genesis version outsold the Super Nintendo version because of this factor. The game made such a huge impact that it required Sega to make some form of rating system to warn concerned parents about what their children play. This spawned the Videogame Rating Council, the first rating system for video games. There were three ratings: GA, general audiences, meaning the game was appropriate for children, MA-13, meaning the game contained content suitable for players 13 and older, and MA-17, meaning the game contained content suitable for players 17 or older. Sega then used this rating system on all of the games for their systems from 1993 to late 1994, when the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) was established. Up until then, Sega had been the only company to have ratings on their games. When the ESRB came around, games for all systems, including home console games and PC games, were required to go through their reviewing process. The original ESRB ratings were K-A (Kids to Adults, though as of 1998 it has been changed to E for Everyone), T (Teen, 13 ), and M (Mature, 17 ), and AO (18 ). This was very similar to the Videogame Rating Council. In recent times, concerned parents and groups have demanded there be a change in the system. However, there were indeed a few changes to the ESRB's system. Most recently is the new E10 rating, which debuted in 2005, and is very similar to the PG rating of the MPAA. With this new rating, it's hard to see why people would like to see a change in the system, as now it's almost exactly like the MPAA, and nobody seems to have a problem with that. E being compared to the G rating, E10 being compared to the PG rating, T being compared to the PG-13 rating, M being compared to the R rating, and AO being compared to the NC-17 rating.

On April 20th, 1999, the school shooting of Columbine High School occured. The two perpetrors were known to avid lovers of shooting games. This raised the question of whether or not video games induce some kind of violent aggression towards children. I, for one, do not believe this is true. While video games do simulate it, they do not encourage it. It is a known fact that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were social outcasts and were bullied and made fun of constantly. This most certainly had more effect on their mental health than any video game could ever do. Government researches have found in a national survey that most people associate positive feelings like enjoyment, fun, and challenge when playing video games. I think this is an accurate statement, yet many people think violent video games induce anger and hatred within people. Why would one play a game, let alone do anything, that results in them being angry and wanting to replicate what happened on-screen? People play video games to have fun. That's why they were made. To have an enjoyable time with. Many people use the argument that the terrorists who did 9/11 were trained using Microsoft Flight Simulator, and that kids can be trained to kill their friends through shooter games. However, Flight Simulator is just that: A simulator. It's not a game, it wasn't created to have fun with, it was created to educate people on how controlling an aircraft feels and is designed to be as completley realistic. Video games, however, are not designed to be realistic. They're designed to take out the realism and allow the player to do things they could never think of doing in real life. If all of these theories were true, then with all the video games that I've played over the years, I should be some kind of homicidal maniac according to these people.

There are many concerned people out there who protest against violent video games and the selling of them to minors. However, they don't realize that retailers go to great measures to do this. It is infact illegal to sell an M-rated game to a minor without their parent's concent. By that, the parent knows what their kid is playing and is entirely their choice whether or not to buy the game. Funny thing is, someone around the age of 15 or so can walk into many stores, buy an R-rated movie, and be on their way. Go to the same store, buy an M-rated video game, you can bet they'll ask for an ID. That's how ironic the situation is now, considering there are R-rated movies out there even more violent than a lot of M-rated video games.

In conclusion, I certainly believe that playing violent video games does not have an effect on my mental well-being and that the so-called problem of violence in video games is greatly exaggerated. The rating system is fine, and is very clear on the age groups the ratings represent. There are other factors to how someone turns into a murderer. There is a set policy on how kids can get these violent video games and that it is the parent's decision of whether or not that game is right for their child. I believe that, in time, the concern for this will go down. After all, we all know how controversial slasher films were when they first debuted. Even rock 'n roll was considered a work of Satan to many people when it first surfaced. Hopefully people will stop blaming the industry instead of having control over what their kids do.