Violence in video games has been a popular concern among parents since video games have started getting more advanced. Video games are no longer puzzles or arcade-style; instead them simulate life, which isn’t always mild. In fact, video games nowadays seem to use extremes to appeal to young people who haven’t been exposed to the more feared, graphic parts of life. War games have an enormous appeal, as the challenge is one that deals with the lives of people, or even national pride. U.S. military recruiters have even used these kinds of games to reel in young people who enjoy challenges of that severity. I don’t necessarily disapprove of violent video games, but I think it’s awful that it takes images of decapitation to interest a playful child in 2017.
I think violence in video games reflects how different our definition of a game is today vs forty years ago. I don’t think it necessarily makes kids more violent, but I do think it gives kids an understanding of the extent of violence and what they could do to someone if they were angry enough – which is scary. There’s also a strange, eerie appeal in a lot of people to seeing gore and destruction, which I think violent video games activate at an early age. I don’t think they should be banned, but I do think parents should hesitate to buy violent video games for their kids, as they might have a dark influence on them in such a formative years of their lives.
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I completely agree with your first impression post. I especially liked your first paragraph and how you described video games. I think that this paragraph was very accurate in revealing the way that video games are perceived in today’s society. I also agree with you in the idea that “video games nowadays seem to use extremes to appeal to young people who haven’t been exposed to the more feared, graphic parts of life.” This can also be related to observational learning and could possibly be tied back. The concept that children learn from watching, perhaps that is where researchers are getting the idea of video games causing violence. By watching the video games violence children could be replicating the behavior, like with the Bobo doll we observed. Overall, I really agree and enjoyed reading your post.
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I agree with your statement that violence in video games may not necessarily cause violence, but may provide an understanding of violence to children that they may not have had before! This point that you make can be supported by the idea of observational learning that we discussed in class.
As we described the basics of observational learning as imitating and taking action based on the behaviors displayed by others, the same idea can be seen in the point you make about children seeing “what they could do to someone if they were angry enough.” Just as the children imitated aggression no matter what film version they watched in the Bobo experiment, it is likely that children are being influenced to imitate violence from what they see in video games.
Similarly to how you believe video games should not be banned, but should be monitored by parents, I believe that if video games are provided to the ages that the creators intended them to be for, there should be no need for them to be banned; video games with extreme blood and gore are meant for older children or adults who have the mental capacity to know that imitating that type of behavior is wrong.
Overall, great job on your post!
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