Violence in Video Games

Video games are very near and dear to my heart. I've been playing them since I was very young. In fact, my very first video game was the original Mortal Kombat, and I remember being absolutely fascinated with the animations when I wasn't busy freezing all of my opponents with Sub-Zero. I've grown up with video games, and they've provided the backdrop to my entire life. Some of my fondest memories have taken place with a controller in my hand. They've told me incredible stories, shown me rich and vibrant new worlds, forced me to make impactful choices, and even introduced me to some of my best friends in real life. Since those first days in Mortal Kombat to the moments yesterday when I beat Far Cry 3 and gaped at the screen, to the many, many more years I will be playing them, video games have had their hand in shaping my life.

Eleven days before Christmas, 20 children and 6 adults were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary. The event shook the country in a way that it hasn't seen since the Columbine shootings. As the country recovers from the shock, we look for places to point the fingers. For whatever reason, we are not satisfied by blaming the person who walked into the school and actually pulled the trigger. In our minds, there has to be something more, something more to blame and some sort of action that needs to be taken to prevent this from happening in the future. The deaths need to mean something.

I'm always surprised at this reaction, though I know I shouldn't be. It fits in with the need we have as a culture to have purpose and for every action we take, including our deaths, to mean something. While that is mostly the topic for another blog, it is relevant to this post insofar as it becomes the root of what I find myself needing to write about. As we look for places to point the finger, my dear and beloved video games become the focus of the debate. It's always something, mind you, whether it be guns or movies or video games or books, something is always to blame outside the person who took the action.Within the last decade or so, video games have come under fire for their content pretty much any time a child turns to violence. I do not want to understate the general horror I feel any time I see a story to that effect on the news, but the point of this article is not the act, but the causes for it.

So now the debate is whether violence in video games is causing our children to act out violently in turn. This argument has always led to the debate to ban or censor games, and has gone to rather extreme lengths in this debate in the post Sandy Hook world. If the logic is that violent video games beget violent actions from children in real life, clearly the solution should be to ban violence in those games, which will lead to normal, happy kids again, right?

Let's look at really the only argument that has any logical relevance to the topic:

Kids are influenced by the media that they are immersed in.

Let's get one thing straight. I absolutely believe that the media we partake in influences our thoughts and to some degree our actions as well. In my own personal experience, I watch the wonderful Sherlock on BBC and try to find ways to be more observant. There is a fairly massive difference between something like that and something like, say, watching somebody get killed on screen, in a game, or reading about it in a book, and deciding you want to try that our IRL. It takes a certain, already unbalanced mentality to even begin to have those thoughts. You only take it one step further when you actually go out and do it.

Does that mean I think we need to ban violence in video games? Hell no. My reasons for this are many.

There is no evidence to support that there is any relation between violence in the real world and playing violent video games. In other words, playing violent video games does not make you any more likely to walk into a school and shoot your fellow students than not playing them. A quick Google search for research into the behavioral affections of playing violent video games shows any number of studies, funded both privately and federally that show no link between the two.

But let's break out the hypothetical here and say we removed violence from video games. Check, done, every video game is rainbows and kittens. Keep in mind that if you remove violence from video games, we are talking all violence. Even something as simple as Mario jumping on a Goomba is violent. The same people arguing that these games make violence OK in children's minds can just as easily argue, and have on occasion, that even implied violence can subliminally suggest the moral ambiguity of real life violent actions. So, no Mario, no Call of Duty, the video game industry becomes Peggle and checkers variants.

Sarcasm aside here, clearly violence won't stop, as it existed looooong before the idea of a video game even existed. So, what else could be influencing our children that violence is cool? Movies and TV. Ban the violence there. Music. No violent lyrics or suggestive lyrics. Where else do we see violence every day. Maybe we can start censoring the news, as it always reports on the violent stuff.

I realize I tread dangerously close to slippery slope territory here, but history has set many precedents that can reliably be used to show that societies tend to go to extreme lengths to snuff out what they perceive to be a threat to their way of life (Salem, the Crusades, the Patriot Act, so on).

A more minor argument to this point is that video games are worse offenders because it involves some level of role play - people playing these games are, in some respect, directly responsible for the on screen deaths. This is certainly true, and it has some merit, even in my mind - the interactive element of video games provides a more visceral and real experience.I can belabor the point that people far smarter than myself have conducted research that shows there is still no relation between video game violence and IRL violence, but I'm not much for repeating myself. Instead, I'll link you to the 2011 Supreme Court decision indicating that California's 2005 law banning the sale of certain games to minors was "unprecedented and mistaken", noting that "[...] parents who care about the matter can readily evaluate the games their children bring home. Filling the remaining modest gap in concerned-parents’ control can hardly be a compelling state interest."

While nothing I write here is likely to change anybody's mind about the impact of violence in video games, we can all definitely agree on one point: not all games are meant for all audiences. While video games as a form of entertainment were marketed at actual kids 30 years ago, that is no longer the case and hasn't been for a very long time. Now there are a wide variety of audiences and an equally wide variety of games for those audiences. Simply put, if  parents are of the mindset that their child might be improperly influenced by playing certain games, don't let them play it. Parents can easily be  involved in their children's free time and what they are doing when they're sitting in front of the TV with a controller in their hands. What are they playing? Who are they playing with? It is the parents' responsibility to monitor their own children - not the government's, not mine, not the video game industry's. That being said, the video game industry has made it incredibly easy for parents. Parents can simply look at the letter in the obvious white and black box on the front and back of every video game package that tells them what audience the game is meant for.

Clearly, a game like Grand Theft Auto is not a game kids should be playing. I am not denying that fact, and in fact, it is an idea that I support fully. Children need to grow up understanding that their choices and actions have real consequences - allowing them to grow up playing a game where mugging a cop or exploding random people on the street is rewarded with money and reputation instead of punishment is sending the wrong message. Again, I readily acknowledge that the media we partake in impacts how we view and act in the world. That being said, it is not my responsibility to take action or have it taken against me because somebody may try to replicate the GTA experience in the real world. It is my responsibility to take control of my own actions and prevent myself from running over every pedestrian I see when I am behind the wheel of my car. Each person, individually, has that same responsibility. In the case of children, it is and always has been the parents' responsibility to take control of what they allow their kids to experience in video games, the same as they should be taking control of what their children can watch on TV, what movies they can see, and what books they can read. It is not the government's responsibility, nor can the video game industry be held responsible for parents not living up to that obligation.

And this is exactly the opposite of what all these ridiculous calls for censoring video games are trying to accomplish. By asking the government to censor games, parents are effectively saying that they don't have the time or the care to take that responsibility for their own kids. In fact, it goes a step beyond that and tries to force their individual morals and opinions on the rest of society, effectively punishing the larger society as a whole for the sins of a very small few.

So, to the folks out there that think taking direct action against the video game industry is the correct way to deal with the problem, I tell you it is not. It is not your place, nor is it the government's to tell me what I can and cannot play in a video game, any more than you can tell me what to read or what to watch or how to vote. It is your place to take responsibility for you and your family to change your own lives based on the philosophies and principles in which you place value. Furthermore, in the case of an event like the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary, if you look to place blame, place it on the person or people who committed the act. Despite any outside influences that may or may not have existed, it was ultimately their choice to commit the act. Stop trying to figure out "why," and stop thinking that you somehow have the power to prevent it from happening ever again. While that's a really great dream, and I can't fault you for your hopes, the simple, cold fact of the matter is you do not have that power. Attempting to infringe upon the way the entire rest of the country is allowed to experience games is not the way to go about dealing with your grief.