Violence+in+Video+Games

by John Becker

As technology evolves over time, so do video games. There have been numerous genres introduced to the video game industry, the most popular of them all, shooters. Shooting games (first person shooter, third person shooter, etc.) test the player's ability to combine their speed and reaction times to shoot down enemies that are attacking them. The objective, most times then not, is to kill and avoid being killed yourself. Some of the very popular shooting games available now include: the Call of Duty franchise (Black Ops, Modern Warfare, etc.), the Halo series, Metal Gear Solid series, Gears of War series, etc. There are tons of popular games in the shooter genre and almost dominate the gaming market today.

Call of Duty has become one of the most popular games in the United States due to the realism of the presentation. The graphics seen in the game are some of the best available on home gaming consoles and continues to evolve every year. Along with the graphics, Call of Duty is praised for its online multiplayer and thrilling story plots in the single player campaign. Halo is famous among the gaming community because of its futuristic style of gameplay. The player is in a war with an alien species and wields various futuristic-looking weapons. The fanbase really appreciates Halo's story and addicting online multiplayer.

The thing that people tend to forget is what is actually going on in these games. You are murdering others. Your objective is to run around and kill. Not only are you killing people, but you are looking at all of the details of the murder scene in high definition. These games feature realistic graphics that sometimes come close to emulating real life visuals. You see blood gushing all over the place and on to the screen. Heads and limbs get blown off the bodies while the blood gushes everywhere. New games such as Killzone 3 for PlayStation 3 praise their graphics and level of detail when comes to killing the enemy. They have introduced a new brutal melee system where you get up close and personal with the opponent and perform a variety of killing mechanics to him. You get the chance to put your thumbs through the glass of your opponents mask and poke your thumbs right into their eye sockets as they bleed to death. Another one allows you to stick a knife right threw their face as they scream in pain and blood goes all over your screen.

Another, and very popular, game called Grand Theft Auto takes violence in video games to a whole other level. You are a gang member and can do basically ANYTHING you want to do. You make your own rules because nobody can stop you. If you see a car you really like, why would you pay for it? That's nonsense. Go up to the guy driving it, put a gun to his head and take it. If you want, you can even shoot him down it doesn't matter. Uh-oh, looks like you got some cops after you, time to pull out the shotgun and shoot away. You stole a car, killed the guy you stole it from, and escaped trouble by killing the cops, too.

Grand Theft Auto is blamed for countless crimes among teenagers. On June 7, 2003, 18-year-old American Devin Moore shot and killed two policemen and a dispatcher after grabbing one of the officers' weapons following an arrest for the possession of a stolen vehicle. At trial, the defense claimed that Moore had been inspired by the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. (Sounds exactly like what I descibed earlier). On June 25, 2003, two American step brothers, Joshua and William Buckner, aged 14 and 16, respectively, used a rifle to fire at vehicles on Interstate 40 in Tennessee, killing a 45-year-old man and wounding a 19-year-old woman. The two shooters told investigators they had been inspired by Grand Theft Auto III.

Those were just a few of the countless crimes associated with Grand Theft Auto, although that is not the only game associated with video game-related crimes. These kind of things happen everyday and people are constantly trying to get these games banned. I personally believe that they will never go away due to their worldwide success. People would be outraged if they were gone and a whole batch of crimes would ensue for sure.

Can A Video Game Lead to Murder?