Dylan Larsen
Natalie Patterson
WR 121
2/14/2022
The Supposed Epidemic of Violent Video Games
Video games are increasingly becoming more and more impressive, with each generation of console and passing decade. The games of today overshadow the humble beginnings of pong, or the arcade cabinets of the past. Modern games have the ability to convey complex stories in a style comparable to any tv series or movie. However with the evolution of video games and gaming as a whole, one issue seems to persist in the conversation on video games and culture. The connection being drawn from playing violent video games to real world violence and violent behavior is something that actually goes much further back then one would think.
One of the earliest controversies around video game violence, would be from the arcade cabinet Death Race released in 1976. The goal of the game was to run over as many goblins on the screen with your car, while avoiding the tombstones. This game caused enough of a stir to appear on headlines from papers such as the New York Times exclaiming “For a quarter, a player gets a minute to chase and run down all the symbolic pedestrians he can” (Blumenthal page 12).
The author later espouses on how the game is making a joke out of automobile accidents, and deaths of pedestrians. Now I would hope any individual living in the year 2022, would recognize this as being nowhere near violent by today’s standards. But that simply goes to show how this conversation has existed for a longer time than most people would think.
This discussion around video games and violence has been prevalent enough to merit the governments of countries’ attention. For example here in the US there were the landmark hearings regarding the game Mortal Kombat released in 1992. For those that are unaware in the game Mortal Kombat you play as a chosen fighter, against some other fighter in the game. The main feature of the game is the fatalities, where if you win you could kill your opponent in gory, violent, and sometimes funny ways.
The game was able to cause enough of a stir not just among parents, but now it came to the attention of legislators. There were two congressional hearings on the subject, one In 1993 and another in 1994. These two meetings would result in the creation of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board otherwise known as the ESRB at the end of 1994. The ESRB is the group that designates ratings for video games here in the US. Before the ESRB there wasn’t any defined system to sort appropriate content for audiences. Think about how movies are rated, where you have PG, PG-13, and R ratings. Now games would now have age groups associated with the content of the respective game. Where E is for everyone, T is for Teen, M is for maure 17+, and A is for Adults only. The rating system was put in place with the hope that this would help parents to recognize appropriate content for their children. Allowing for the parents to better manage the media their children were to consume, and enabling an educated parenting judgment. The rating system would never fully restrict the content acquired by youth, but make it to where you couldn’t simply grab it off the shelf.
Video games and their purported effects on real world violence wouldn’t be center stage once again until the year 1999. That year was marked by the Columbine High School Shooting. Immediately after the event, special attention was placed on what media the perpetrators were involved in. Among the films, music, and other media consumed, special attention was placed on the fact they enjoyed playing violent video games such as Doom. Doom is a famous game that popularized the genre of FPS’s (first person shooter) games. Where you are going room to room, clearing enemies left and right until you complete that level or section.
Famous anti-video game attorney Jack Thompson would go on to say that games like Doom, or Grand Theft Auto are “murder simulators” where they train future criminals to commit violent acts. This pressure would continue to build and build, until the then President of the US Bill Clinton would call for the government to investigate the connection between school shootings and video games. That report by the US Secret Service and Department of Education wouldn’t be fully released until 2004. The report found that among the 37 cases examined only “one eighth of the attackers exhibited interest in video games” (Vossekuil page 11). The sample size of the report may not give us the full picture, in terms of correlation to video games and elevated levels of violence. Even with that statistic, the talking point remains that violent video games are in some way related to violent people and acts of violence.
Get Dylan Larsen’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
One of the controversies around violence in video games that gets brought up, and one that I can remember hearing about was in the game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Call of Duty is the third best selling video game franchise of all time, which continues to release new entries into the series as recently as 2021 with Call of Duty: Vanguard. However in the year 2009 Modern Warfare 2 received heavy backlash due to a mission known as “No Russian”.
In the level you take part directly in a terrorist attack at an airport, where you aren’t actually forced to shoot anyone. Either way many audiences were taken aback by the fact “The player can take part in the bloodshed or simply walk alongside the cold-blooded killers as they execute hundreds of innocents. Either way, the scene is powerful” (Mustrappa). The imagery and subject matter is something that could offend, but it all comes down at least to me how it is presented to the audience. In the game you may also skip this level entirely without any penalty, in this case the choice is in the hands of whomever has the controller in that moment. The mission caused a crazy amount of controversy and backlash from gaming publications, and again major news publications. Many question if video games could, or should address issues and real life like events. I personally would say that video games are like movies in they are artforms, where you are free to express and portray events of such magnitude. But at the same exact time you may be criticized for how you address or portray events or subjects. Events such as mass murder, and terrorism are definite spots to take a moment to think about the weight those subjects hold. What I personally find interesting is how many people that distinctly remember playing through that mission. All these later when my friends and I mention that one mission called “No Russian” We can all remember that one level.
I believe that violent video games do not create violent people or actions. I can acknowledge that those who play violent video games, can exhibit higher levels of aggression. But I cannot say video games influence people to go out and commit acts of violence, or become violent individuals. I personally believe that violent individuals will seek out violent media, as it’s something that they are likely to enjoy. I still don’t think that it’s a sole reason or cause for those individuals to be violent. I would also put the responsibility of catering what media youth interact with on the parents of those children, not the government body of the US to parent for you. Another aspect to look at in modern day is to see how the increased access to video games has affected or hasn’t increased violent crime. According to the Scientific American Mind the answer is that “higher rates of violent game sales actually coincided with a drop in crimes, especially violent crimes” (Toppo page 45). To me this makes sense as people with violent tendencies, have some outlet to vent those feelings without actually hurting someone in real life.
In the case of violent acts brought about by troubled individuals, I would assert that the real issue becomes not the controller in the hand of the person, but the weapon in the hand. Although this opens many more issues around topics such as gun control which are complex in their own right. Many times what we the populace want is the why? How could someone be driven to do these acts of violence? Video games have been used as a scapegoat for the real issues behind modern acts of terror, and violence. The media does a great job at sensationalizing stories and facts for a headline. Just recently Inside Edition published a video in which they said the perpetrator in the Oxford Shooting quoted a “gory video game” When he tweeted out “I am become death destroyer of worlds.” A very simple google search would show that the quote is credited to the famous Nuclear Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer when talking about the atom bomb. This is just one example of how the media can have tunnel vision, with a desired talking point to further sensationalize to attract headlines from the public.
Whether or not violent video games actively contribute to individuals becoming violent, or cause them to do violence on to others is generally impossible to prove or fully disprove. Because of that fact video games will probably still continue to be talking points, in the wake of acts of violence. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. In my research I found that this topic goes much farther back than I ever expected. In 2019 in response to the shooting in Dayton, Ohio President Donald Trump called for the end of “the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.” Even after the report already conducted in 2004, we still go back to the potential of video games corrupting the youth of America. I would say that the overwhelming majority of people who play video games aren’t violent people, they are just like any other person on the street that pose no greater threat to society than anybody else. It’s truly remarkable to me that the issue becomes video games, rather than the actual means to how the person acquired a weapon. But I suppose actually doing something that would cause meaningful change, or even a split second of thought is too hard. Some things I suppose will never change, the history is simply just one big circle.
Work Cited
Blumenthal, Ralph. “‘Death Race’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Dec. 1976, www.nytimes.com/1976/12/28/archives/death-race-game-gains-favor-but-not-with-the-safety-council.html.
Leung, Rebecca. “Can a Video Game Lead to Murder?” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 5 Mar. 2005, www.cbsnews.com/news/can-a-video-game-lead-to-murder-04-03-2005/.
Toppo, Greg. “How Violent Video Games Really Affect Kids.” Scientific American Mind, vol. 26, no. 4, Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc., 2015, pp. 40–45, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24946323.
Vossekuil, Bryan. The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School … — Ed. June 2004, www2.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport.pdf.
Mastrapa, Gus. “‘Modern Warfare 2’ Terrorism Hits Close to Home.” CNN, Cable News Network, 11 Nov. 2009, https://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/11/wired.modern.warfare.xbox.360/index.html.
Staff, Inside Edition. “‘I Am Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds’ Posted by Accused School Shooter Online.” Inside Edition, Inside Edition, 2 Dec. 2021, https://www.insideedition.com/media/videos/i-am-become-death-destroyer-of-worlds-posted-by-accused-school-shooter-online-71679.
