Why Are Video Games Considered Too Violent And/Or Sexists?

Video games and their impacts have been hotly debated for a number of years, particularly violent video games. Games such as Grand Theft Auto appear to promote everything from carjacking to randomly murdering an innocent bystander just because you can, sparking debate that seems to renew itself every time a new game is released in the series. The most general form of this argument simply asks if video games are good or bad for their players. On one side, there is the belief that video games, and particularly those that are violent, are bad, especially for children. On the other, it is believed that video games are relatively harmless in the long run, and potentially even beneficial. The importance

The video games of today take many forms, ranging from immersive fantasy worlds, to simple point and click programs with little, to no plot. Some games aim only to demonstrate an educational concept in a fun and interactive way, while others allow the player to step out of reality and enjoy a world of their own making. It is this wide variety of game types that makes it impossible to judge "video games" as a whole. For this purpose of this essay, I will acknowledge video games as belonging to one of two camps - violent, nonviolent, or educational.

Video games have become as pervasive an aspect of our society as television, with many people spending more time playing video games than watching television. There are many perspectives with which to gauge videos games’ effect on society, from a functionalist, conflict or interactionist perspective. (Schaefer, 2011) Each of these sociological theories can provide a different view of video games, how they affect society and the subcultures that develop around them.

Author A.B. Harris declares a call to action in his article “Average Gamers Please Step Forward” published in 2012 as he talks about the how gamers shouldn’t settle for how the Entertainment Software Association put the average gamer into a box, Harris (2017) declares that the average gamers are far more credible and intelligent than the perceived demographics suggest (pg.503). He starts to build a bond between himself and the reader by connecting himself with the audience and asserting himself as one of them who all want the same thing, to “change the mainstream” (Harris, 2012, p.506) and show non-gamers they are more than over-sexed male adolescents with a penchant for violence (Harris, 2012, p.504). Harris uses his personal values and experiences

Though gaming has its drawbacks, it also has many benefits to cover them. If controlled, gaming is extremely useful and with the amount of gamers in the world today, it proves that it is not just for children or for teenagers. There are millions of adult gamers that understand the importance of gaming in the under the existing circumstances of the world. Individuals that have studied gamers believe that gaming in today’s

As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than 50% of games have violence. (Procon.org) Video games that have violence have been blamed to have caused bullying, mass shootings, and violence towards women. (Procon.org) An estimated four out of five US households with a male child own a video game system and worldwide series of video games are predicted to reach $102.9 billion in 2017. (Procon.org) Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence and it rewards players for simulating violence . (Procon.org)

Video games are generally played for amusement and entertainment; also, they can go about as a support in mitigating anxiety. Because of progressing innovation, feature diversions have developed and developed into an expansive realm affecting those inside this domain. Consequently numerous moral issues are brought to our consideration because of this improvement. Subsequently, we ought to distinguish how new feature recreations are morally influencing individuals who play them. The moral issues of feature gaming that impacts numerous individuals incorporate: viciousness, rating, training, stereotyping against ladies, group and enslavement. Eventually, every point is connected to brutality included in feature recreations. It is

According to several sources around 42% of the American population plays video games, and around 1.2 billion people worldwide play video games today. Gaming has become an increasingly more popular hobby since its creation. As such the medium has obviously attracted a multitude of different people and groups, all consisting of diverse backgrounds, body types, sexes, races, nationalities and the like. However, contrary to the numerous demographics video games have come to attract, it is very evident the vast majority of them do not seem to be marketed toward many of them via game characters, and their importance, if any, in a game. Video games show an overwhelming amount of white male characters, despite the many demographics they reach. Of the characters that are not white, or male, that are represented, are often represented poorly. For example, many black characters represented in video games are often characterized as vulgar, and violent. Women represented in games are often characterized as support characters, or objects of sexual desire. Considering forms of sexism, racism, and other such types of prejudices are still prominent in modern society, and these representations obviously do not help how people see these marginalized groups. Ultimately, these representations, or lack thereof, affect people in society in a number of ways, by perpetuating prejudice and harmful stereotypes.

The author defends main rising arguments feuding over the fact that parents are complaining videogames are just too violent. For one to say that video games are violent one would have to conclude this from a period of evaluation on how people interact and use this technology. In contrast to parents gamers in general such as Master Chief have had a lot of positive comments to

The first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of videogames is often thoughts of individuals classified as nerds or geeks. At this point in time that is the general consensus regarding this specific subculture. However videogames have become a large part of society and is steadily growing. But for the purposes of this paper people generally think of video gamers as shut-ins and introverts. To the outside world this classification and stereotype is supported at face value.

Source B claims that video games encourage or tolerate violent behavior in the game, probably leading to negative, violent side effects in both children and adults in real life. Source C provides evidence for the opposite, stating that laparoscopic surgeons actually made fewer errors in surgery after playing video games regularly. Source D debunks common video game myths with little-known facts that illuminate some of the negative side effects of violent video games. By comparing the video game producers and consumers with Doctor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster, Source E uses a picture instead of words to illustrate the reality of the video game industry. Source F explores the moral side of the issue, using Grand Theft Auto as an example of how players decide for themselves if they will behave morally or

Unfortunately, many are only aware of the negative stereotypes associated with gaming. Gender inequality is one such topic. Historically, gaming has mostly been marketed toward the male demographic. It makes less sense for this to still be the case today when females play video games at roughly the same rate males do. Many see gaming as a male dominated hobby despite such statistics. Kowert et al (2015) finds that, in general, male children are socially enforced to engage in gaming while females are more discouraged. As a result, females taking part of the hobby are less likely to feel the same level of inclusion as males. Furthermore, portrayal of females in video games is often criticized due to a disproportionate amount of female protagonists and over-sexualization of female characters. Another negative perspective of gaming on society involves media portrayal of violent video games. For decades, video games have continued to be a scapegoat for deviant behavior of a violent nature. Overall, studies persist on the potentially adverse effects of video games to find conclusive

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

Breuer et al. (2015) conducted their study in Germany to see if sexist video games produced sexist gamers. Unlike some of the previous studies, this study had a very large sample size and was conducted in three separate 'waves' (wave 1 = 4,500 gamers; wave 2 = 2,199 gamers; wave 3 = 902 gamers). Like other studies, they used a survey to measure the degree of sexism of gamers; they had utilized computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) in the study. The results of the study found that there was little to no evidence that perceived sexist video games contributed to sexist attitudes among gamers, contrary to previous studies in this field. The authors concluded there was no cultivation effect of sexist attitudes present in video games.

Video Games have come a long way since their first introduction into the main stream. With video games becoming more sophisticated and using advanced technology, it seems as if video games are closing in on the gap between games and reality. However, as video games become ever so life-like it brings up the question of if the violence associated with video games is having a negative consequence. There have been many accusations over the years over the harm video games are causing children and teenagers. Experiments have been conducted trying to associate a link between video games and aggressive behavior. Even the media has been known to point fingers at video games for the cause of children