The Effects of Violence in Video Games on 16-18 Year Olds

Violence in Video Games:

Video games are becoming part of our everyday lives, especially in teenagers within the 16-18 year age bracket. With new releases such as Call of Duty Black Ops III due to hit the shelves, there are a lot of questions being asked about the amount of violence within games and how they effect the people playing them.

Audience Theory:

Hypodermic Needle Theory, or Magic Bullet Theory, is the theory of media controlling the minds of the audience.

“Hypodermic Needle Theory promotes a few basic assumptions:

1. Humans react uniformly to stimuli.

2. The media’s message is directly “injected” into the “bloodstream” of a population like fluid from a syringe.

3. Messages are strategically created to achieve desired responses.

4. The effects of the media’s messages are immediate and powerful, capable of causing significant behavioral change in humans.

5. The public is powerless to escape the media’s influence.”

The above example gives the impression that after seeing, or hearing, violence will give the person violent temptations or urges. Originally developed in the 1920’s, Hypodermic Needle Theory is still looked at as the reason as to why people react in specific ways. It is disputed however, due to the difference within the audience. No one person reacts exactly the same as another when given the same resources.  Hypodermic Needle Theory focuses on enforcing the impression of brainwashing the audience, whether from playing a game, watching a film, reading a book or hearing a news article or song from the radio. The University of Rochester, New York, did an experiment to try and determine if violent games are bad for a person, or whether they help with cognitive motor skills.

"It's not the case that the action game players are trigger-happy and less accurate - they are just as accurate and also faster," said Daphne Bavelier, a cognitive scientist at Rochester who has been testing how computer games affect the brain and eyes for much of the past 10 years. "Action game players make more correct decisions per unit time. If you are a surgeon or you are in the middle of the battlefield that can make all of the difference."

Where the above statement doesn't reference violence, it gives the indication that games are a useful part of our everyday development. There is some dispute to this given that many violent acts are linked to have been inspired by what the accused had witnessed within the games they have played. One of the most famous cases of this was after the release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in 2003. The crime took place in Alabama and saw 18 year old Devin Moore shoot and killed two police officers, as well as the dispatcher and then proceed to steal a police car. Whilst in custody Moore told officers that "Life is a video game. You've got to die sometime."

 In 1974, theorists; Blumler J.G. and Katz, E. came up with the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The theory outlines different thoughts on why the individuals choose to seek out different types of media. It could be due to arousal, challenge, diversion, social interaction, fantasy or competition. 

Due to releases of software, such as Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, gaming for social purposes has become much more popular. Both of these pieces of software allow you to connect to the internet and play games with people from across the globe. 
There is a well known dispute of whether Xbox or PlayStation are the better console, some people tend to sway more towards PlayStation. The main factor of this is due to the online services for the PlayStation are free of charge on the PS3 Console, not on the newest (PS4) console.

Looking at the other elements of this theory, all seem to have a great argument as to why people play games. Starting with arousal, a lot of people play games to activate and stimulate their emotions. Which, also could link to the challenge of a game. Games are becoming more and more challenging, allowing the player to expand their skills as they play, often to escape their responsibilities or simply relax. This is where the division element of theory comes in to play.  All of the above link together, but also stick out as individuals also.

Reception Theory is the reaction to how a piece of media is received, in this case; how well a game is received. "There are two aspects of reception: the ways a person or event was portrayed (by the "multipliers" and makers of public opinion), and the ways those portrayals were perceived (by the populace at large). The portrayals are easiest to determine--they make up the historical record. However, we usually only have indirect indications of how those portrayals were perceived by individuals, and even more rarely how groups perceived them."

There are many ways to know how well a game has been received, the most popular way would be through reviews. Companies, such as IGN reviews every game and place the review on their website, which acts as a game review database.  Resources like this can also be reviewed by the general public giving an even greater vision into the reception of a game. Within the reviews on the sight you can see a verbal response of people who have played the games. Here gives you an insight into what people do and don't like about a game. 

Reception Study Theory is the theory of how the player will interpret the message of the game that they are playing. Some people may interpret different things in different ways, this could be why a player reacts to a certain situation in the way that they do. The reception and/or reaction to various aspects of a game can be seen as a healthy or an unhealthy reaction, dependent on the individual.

“An active consumption is when the audience will engage and discuss media messages that comes across to them and sometimes question the media messages through life experiences.”

“A passive consumption is when the audience doesn’t engage or question the media message but just accepts it, this what media outlets want to achieve when making a film or show as they want to view to except and not question.”

The above statements highlight the different aspects of active and passive consumption. Active consumption is when the player engages with the game and will discuss and question why the developers of the game would make the game play go in the direction that they took it in. Where as, passive consumption is when the player doesn't engage with the reasoning's behind certain decisions within the game. Putting this into context within the violent sectors of a game, some people would question the scenes that are put into the game. But on the other hand, it wont bother other people and they will accept it and not mention anything about it.

Effects Debate:

The effects of violence and obscene imagery within any form of media has been a big part of the industry for many years. There has been many different high press stories within the media from the last ten-fifth-teen years. As i previously mentioned, one of the most high profile crimes was the Devin Moore shootings in 2003 after the release of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.  Other high profile shootings such as a 15 year old, Nehemiah Griego, from New Mexico shooting dead his parents and three siblings before confessing to his actions.

"Nehemiah Griego did not elaborate on a motive for the shocking crime, but he had plenty to say about his love for video games, including "Modern Warfare" and "Grand Theft Auto," authorities said."

It is widely thought that video games are the reason that people who play them commit violent and obscene acts, however it isn't scientifically proven that the violence witnessed within a game is the cause of unruly behavior. None the less there is a vast range of research into how exposure to explicit content, whether violent or sexual, can effect a person. 
There are multiple effects that are said to influence the lives of children and young adults. Some of these include; 
- De-Sensitizing Killing
- Disrespect towards women. 
- Resolving Conflicts through Violence.
Where as these may be the case, not each of the outcomes are going to happen. There are many arguments stating that by exposing youths to this behavior will encourage them to copy the behavior and commit unruly crimes such as murder, or inappropriate actions towards other people. With this being said, there is no solid evidence that people such as Devin Moore and Nehemiah Griego committed their crimes solely due to what they witnessed playing games with elements of violence within them.

Researchers at The University of Texas, Austin, have said that "Embedding advertisements in violent video games leads to lower brand recall and negative brand attitudes suggesting advertisers should think twice about including such ads in a media campaign."  This is more about advertising within a game, things such as product placement can enhance the gaming experience.  As you can see on the right, the advertisement within the game has no significance to the play itself, therefore, in no way affecting the player in a violent manner. However, it is good marketing for big companies such as McDonald's and Pepsi to get their logos placed in as many locations possible within various games.

In terms of advertising the game itself, the games companies have to limit the amount of violence and sexual scenes within the trailer. This is mainly due to the trailer being accessible by a wider range of people, whether as a advert on the television or an advertisement on a website, or on the website of the game itself.  However some companies choose to make two different trailers, one being a more moderated version and the other having the full content within it. Usually, the full contented trailer would either just be placed on the games website or sites such as YouTube, or only shown on television after 9PM, when it is deemed appropriate to show more violent natured imagery.

There is a big debate over how healthy video games are for you as a whole, however there is now concerns on violence within the games becoming increasingly harmful. There are many things that can affect your health that are seen to be caused by video games, things such as obesity, sleep deprivation and attention problems all being causes for concern within the sector. There is also the most common concern of the increase of anger issues, "Experts have long debated whether violent video games desensitize young people to violence. Some studies have disputed this while others, indicate that young people who show more rapid desensitization to violent pictures are going to be more accepting of violence, which is dangerous to the community at large." Where this may be the case in some people it isn't a proven fact that video games will desensitize the player indefinitely. 

Above you can see the difference in brain activity from a non violent video game player as opposed to a gamer who plays more violent titles. Regardless of all the negativity surrounding video games, there are many elements of gaming that give the brain a good workout. Things such as Map Skills and Navigation are elements within the majority of games, other things such as memory skills can also be developed through games.

"The Videogame industry has come under fire for including graphic content relating to sex and violence.  Lawmakers, Politicians and Family Values Groups have pushed legislation restricting the sale of certain videogames.  Game developers have been sued by victims of violence and sexual misconduct." There is an increase in demand for games with violent, sexual and obscene elements to be censored by the developers. It is thought to believe that by censoring the violence and other obscenities it will decrease the amount of criminal acts committed in connection to video games.

By censoring any obscenities within games it would change the face of the whole sector. Some games have limited violence, these games would have limited censored imagery. However, in a game such as Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty there is a lot of violent and sexual scenes which would cause for the majority of the games being censored. This has opened up the debate for censorship being an unnecessary measure to tone down the violence with the games being developed and published.

Responses:

People interpret games in their own ways, when the player takes what has been presented to them within the game a processes it in their mind in a way in which they understand. For example, if a character dies then the individual would have a different response to another individual. It would vary on how the player feels about a certain element of the game and how they deal with what changes within the story. This could lead someone to change what happens in their own mind to help them situate what happened, even if it never happened within the game. In other circumstances the player may just accept what is being portrayed to them and not have any queries about why it is happening. On a very different note, it is also known that the player would understand what is happening but refuse to accept the situation and go into a state of denial and has a different opinion on what has, or what should have, happened.
Gaming in itself is the individual taking part in the story that is being portrayed. Some games have a more complex level of understanding, most games will use basic English to portray what is being said or shown in text. However, it may also be shown with signs or symbols, generating a higher level of difficulty and understanding.  

Another huge part of the gaming community is the fan base a game can generate. This could be portrayed in people making modifications to a game and sharing it online, or people getting so involved in the game that it becomes part of their everyday lives.

Personally, I think violence effects people in games dependent on the individual. Some people aren’t affected at all, whereas others can be deeply affected. In my opinion it is dependent on the player as to whether their actions can be seen as violent due to the games that they may play.