Mortal Kombat Argumentative Essay

Thousands of teens in the United States play violent video games everyday, for hours on end. Teens and children playing violent games are now accepted as a part of life. They sit in front of a screen and watch blood and gore, with no emotions and without cringing. The games become increasingly more violent, as the age that children begin to play these games drops, from twelve to ten to eight. Now, we have six or seven-year-old children playing games rated M, for 17 and older. Teens should not be allowed to play violent role-playing games because it teaches them that violence is acceptable, that it is fun to be violent, as well as desensitizing them to violence.

Not all video games are the same, but that’s doesn’t matter because the violent one only receives attention from the media. For example, CNN covered a story on an 18-year-old gunman in Germany, they proceeded to accuse violent video games because the kid was a fan of first person shooter games. They then proceeded to talk about why they are bad and how there is a significant link between violence and video games. “Overall, the academy's summary of the results from more than 400 studies revealed a "significant" link between being exposed to violent media (in general) and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts and angry feelings” (Scutti par.6). They then proceeded to failing to defend why video games are bad by saying “He discovered that playing video games, no matter how

Being a person who plays video games some being violent and others being strategy based, I personally do not think that violent video games make or cause people to act violently. Yeah I will say that some games could be quite graphic but even before games came out, people were violent and acted aggressively towards each other they would fight or bully each other even kill one another they did not even need or have to play games to do such things. People tend to have violent tendencies even without playing a violent video game, just imagine the time you were so angry at somebody that you wanted to harm them be it punching, slapping, or beating them up a game did not influence you to think that way. You thought about hurting that person because you were upset with them or something they did.

As humans, we are prone to evaluating everything, from the way our hair looks to the food that we eat. Evaluation also implies when reading literature books, novels and in this case short stories. According to the Dictionary of Literary Terms, a short story is, “A relatively short narrative (under 1,000 words) which is designed to produce a single dominant effect and which contains the elements of drama” (Shaw 343). When reading I tend to let my imagination take over and place me in the book with the characters. That is why I chose “Mortal Kombat” and “Grand Stand-In” by Kevin Wilson’s Tunneling to the center to the Earth to evaluate. With these two stories I will use the exposition, conflict, and resolution to help critique which one was more worth reading.

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

Video games in their entirety do not cause violence. When you look at the games that are out now, most depict events in life past or present. Others go on a fairy tale ride that most people can discern the difference.

A video game is “an electronic game in which players control images on a television or computer screen” (Merriam-Webster). Video games have been entertaining and challenging gamers since the Game Boy to modern console games. Despite the simplicity of the definition of video games, a video game, especially ones containing violence can have a large effect on the gamer. Because of the realism and advancements in the video game industry, video games can influence the player, and can make the gamer more aggressive, even if the game is not a violent video game. Even though video games have grown in popularity over the past decade, some have not been too popular with parents, for the reason that they are too violent. Violent video games affect

There weren’t any problems seen with games or gamer behaviour until 1976 when the company Exidy released the game Death Race, due to the gremlins human-like appearance, the context of its inspiration Death Race 2000 (1975), and the game’s working title being Pedestrian. The uproar around the game actually promoted sales and sparked the release of its sequel Super Death Race in 1977, and Atari’s release of the 2600 home console. In the following years there was great success with games that weren’t thought to be particularly violent like Pac- man and Space Invaders, however rising concerns came with public success. In 1982 the combination of a warning from C. Everett Koop-- the U.S. general surgeon at the time-- that video games contributed to family violence and the release of Custer’s Revenge (1982) by Mystique created astigmatism against games made and marketed for adults. There was a short break before the Mortal Kombat (1992) series reopened the discussion on violent video games with it’s gory and brutal “Fatality” scenes that included: decapitation, ripping the organs or skeletal structure, and incinerating or freezing your opponent. At the same time the less popular Night

In this age of technology, it's very safe to say that a large majority of the world's population has played at least one video game. This can vary from playing games on console, like Xbox-One, Playstation 4, and for the older generation, the NES to playing mobile games like Tetris. There are many consoles that span from the creation of video games. This has opened opportunities to make several kind of games. These can vary from side-scrollers like Super Mario Bros. on the NES, to Role-playing games (RPG) like Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation 1. While this has caused some great games to surface, it has also allowed intense violence to be let into games. Parents and anti-gaming communities state that this is why kids can become violent. This is false, because violent games can be avoided to prevent this issue, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has even made various precautions to make sure parents know what they're purchasing. Comprehensible symbols, detailed lists, and age restrictions prevents children from "becoming violent".

In the 90’s there was even enough media attention to video game violence that the United States Congress had a hearing on issuing age appropriate labels, much like in movies, to video games to warn parents of the contents of a game. Each of these matters have only helped further tarnish the reputation of video games, and draw worse misconceptions about them.

First, I’d like to tell you about the evolution of violent video games. According to a user on ng4.com named ABizzel1 In 1986 a game called Chiller was released and it was heavily influenced by the popular horror movies of the time such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Chiller was extremely gory for its time and due to its gore and violence, it was one of the first games to be banned. In 1992 another game shared a similar fate, Mortal Kombat was released in 1992 and rivaled the famed Street Fighter and became an instant success due to its gore and iconic finishing moves and it was the first game to cause political backlash in the US, during a congressional hearing on December 9th, 1993 Mortal Kombat was mentioned, and was banned in several countries. Video games will continue to increase in graphics quality which will promote higher

The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games were invented so that we could see through the eyes of the player, as if we were really experiencing it. Society wanted better graphics and games as time went on new technology was invented and society matured in electronics. This meant that for game creators would have to come up with something better selling than the last. Creators would make the games more violent and more realistic each time so that way they can keep the interest of their consumers. Each game would increase in blood or gore slowly, but what really got consumers to buy their games would be the update of graphics in the consoles or games. This is due to the drastic changing of technology and the maturing of consumers wanting better and newer violent video games. Violent video games can cause children to behave violently if not correctly supervised.

Gunshot says in his article that, video games are very violent. Gamers are emotionally connected to the game. When they have a choice to act violent towards opponents and when they choses do so they feel guilty and emotionally responsible. Gunshot interviewed a game designer named Will Wright agrees with Gunshot’s theory.

Video games are also another form of entertainment that can promote violence. Many children spent most of their time in front of a TV playing video games. Video games have become a more recent trend. Many games consist of cursing, shooting, beating, and killing humans and monsters. The most games played are games that include killing and slaughtering other creatures and sports games that also have aggressive behavior. Video games have a stronger effect on children than watching television because the players take a direct and active task in the violence. The violence in these games can give them the idea that violence is an acceptable way to deal with problems.

Most parents, when buying games for their children, either do not know what games they are buying or if they do know they do not know the content that is on that game. The games that children want are mostly violent games because those types of games seem to be the ones that are the most appealing to them.