Violence in Video Games

[ Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/ea-no-link-between-games-and-violence-6403237 ]

Electronic Arts has responded to the assertion that there is a possible link between violence and video games by stating that there is no link, but that there is a "perception problem". Some politicians have been quick to point out how video games "glorify" violence. EA CEO John Riccitiello has stated that "there has been an enormous amount of research done in the entertainment field about looking for linkages between entertainment content and actual violence, and they haven't found any."

The video game industry has been plagued with a perception problem for years, and there are lots of reasons for that. Looking back, There have been lots of controversies surrounding our industry, like the Grand Theft Auto "Hot Coffee" scandal, and complaints about nudity in The Sims. These were not complaints of violence but they were negative complaints which may have hurt the video game industry's perception as a whole. There have been many politicians and groups taking shots at the video game industry in one form or another, and it tends to get a lot of press.

Another part of this perception problem is the games themselves. Games have gotten more violent, with first-person shooters taking off as a genre in a big way, with games like Halo, Call of Duty, and Gears of War. These games are very violent at their core, because the idea of the game is to kill your enemies with guns. These games are plentiful now because of technological factors and also because they're popular.

The reasons people enjoy violent games aren't sinister or shocking. People enjoy fighting a war without any actual danger. Does the behavior of shooting a zombie translate into real life and cause someone to shoot a person? No, it doesn't. People who commit crimes either have a motive or are mentally unbalanced. The question is: Will a mentally unbalanced person choose to commit a crime because of a video game they played? That is a silly question, because at the end of the day, nothing in the game is ever telling you to go commit crimes or hurt people.

In Grand Theft Auto games, we shoot rival gangsters, sell drugs, speed, steal and crash cars, and commit as many crimes as is humanly possible, but there is no evidence to support that doing these actions in a game causes people to go out and sell drugs and shoot random people and steal cars in reality. There's no evidence because it doesn't make sense.

Games are not reality, and if you think everyone might do in real life what they see in video games, then watch out for kids playing Mario games who are going to go jump on random turtle's heads. Games encourage and may somewhat glorify violence, but only within the game. Games are an entertaining illusion and almost all gamers understand this.

-Mark Johnsen