Video violence influence on kids?

As you open this post alot of you will be thinking...

Oh god here we go... kids into violence bad for society blah blah blah.

But its not about that.

I have played on first person shooters since a young age and dont realy care if other people follow in my path. But unlike most others i was also introduced into guns at a early age. I couldnt care less if some kid is playing a game, but the realisticness of the game can be missleading.

If you ask any kid what there favorate gun is they will judge that by the guns they have used in games. And walking around hearing kids insults 'im gonna shoot you with my AK-47'. I'm not at all arguing that the games shouldnt be there. But does any kid who playes these games understand how the guns work? As far as many of them are concerned you pull the trigger and the bullet flies. If this is a advantage or not i havn't decided. Because if the kid ever decides to hold up a bank one day he would just get owned because he cant understand why he keep missing.

But since most kids dont understand how the gun works they become comfortable with talking about it. And the realisticness of the game says that if you shoot someone takes about 3 shots for them to die. You can imagine it some day cant you. 'Hahaha im going to shoot you with my P90 but dont worry you wont die'. Of course you will die.

Please post your thoughts.

People who cannot discern between fantasy and reality have problems.

The games and game content are not to blame... simple people are.

Originally posted by fooffstarr
People who cannot discern between fantasy and reality have problems.

the only problem is that these games seem so realistic that alot of people belive they are.

Originally posted by fooffstarr
People who cannot discern between fantasy and reality have problems.

The games and game content are not to blame... simple people are.

You are my new favorite person, finally someone with a brain.
Games don't make people snap and kill others.
Things they experience in real life do, whether it be trauma, anger, hate or jealousy.

reply to post by ivzm


Yay people like me!

Seriously though, this whole violence-due-to-entertainment debate has always frustrated me so much.

It is like one of those falsities that becomes truth in many people's minds because they have been told it so many times.

The media states it as truth too.

Like how they hype game-related violence. Hell, they even hype it when there was no violence.

Like that boy (I think it was the US) who was kicked out of his school and faced criminal charges for making a map of his school to use in a first-person shooter.

Hell, myself and 2 friends made one of our schools into a counter-strike level back in the late 90's simply because we thought it had a cool layout and would be fun to play... we weren't deranged psychopaths that were using it to prepare for a massacre.

And I love how every time someone that has played a shooter video game does something violent, the media always finds a way to construct the cause and effect to make the game look like the persons problems... not their actual mental ability... or lack there of.

/Rant done... time to go get some pizza, eat, then shoot some Nazi Zombies. (OMG it must be real life too! *sigh*)

[edit on 28-3-2009 by fooffstarr]

When I was younger my parents taught me that what happens in a video game isn't real, and that trying to emulate such behaviour is wrong and potentially dangerous.

I wonder how many parents actually explain this to their kids. Like this kid who killed himself reenacting a scene in 'Halo':

www.oxm.co.uk...

Like that boy (I think it was the US) who was kicked out of his school and faced criminal charges for making a map of his school to use in a first-person shooter.

Uh oh. I was planning on making maps of locations in my city using Valve's SDK. :S

People saying that video games, movies, and music are to blame for violence among kids is just giving those kids something to blame for their violence.

They know whats real and whats not... they aren't stupid. That's just their cop out... "Well I didn't know any better... you see on this one game... yea! It's the games fault!"

reply to post by fooffstarr


I remember once that my mum made me watch a documentary she saw advertised because it was about video games. She though along the lines of "games rot the mind and violent games breeds violence".

I was surprised because the doco examined the case where rampages and stuff had been blamed on games and showed that unhinged insane people do unhinged insane things what ever they are exposed to. It went to discuss the real side effects. Side effects like helping unwind people when they're stressed, exercising the logic and visual parts of the brain, increasing heart rate among others.

It concluded that there is nothing really wrong with violent video games.
>> mum was a bit embarrassed but it made her change her tune.

It is just another side affect of this age. No one is responsible for anything anymore.

Murderers, rapists, pedophiles; they all cry victim these days.

"Oh, my dad beat me"

"Society made me what I am"

Bla bla bla.

Toughen the **** up and take some damn responsibility for your actions.

Nothing and nobody makes you what you are. You make yourself.