i was reading today about the byron report and after seeing some of the anti-gaming views i wanted to know what the gaming world thinks about whether or not a game can really be damiging to you mentally and make you do things or harm some one.

If violent video games made people go crazy i would be on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. The mistake that is drawn between them is that people who are violent and later do something are attracted to them so they can live out their fantasy or something... But regardless the games don't make people violent.

yet another thread about violence and video games

suggest you use the search function redstar alpha

I've met various violent people in my life, and not all of them play video games (heck, some of them have NEVER played video games).

Two things on this topic.

First, as others have stated, if violent games led to violent behavior, it would have been noticed quite prominently by now. With how many millions of Halo and Halflife fanatics there are, we'd have violent outbursts on every street corner and in every home. Some people love to argue that the current trend of school shootings are the result of violent games/media, but that is a baseless belief - one which was applied to D&D before video games, and rock & roll music before that.

Second, if anything, violent games may be a release for violent urges. I come home from a long day of work, ready and willing to shoot people for the annoyances they cause me, lacking only a gun to make good on this rage. I pop myself down in front of BF1942, and half an hour later I have no more urge to kill the idiots of humanity. I fear the prospect of NOT having video games to relieve the tension, for while my desire not to go to jail could bottle it up for a while, eventually I would snap.

Strangely enough, there may actually be an inverse relationship between video game and real-world violence. In any case, I don't see any solid evidence (outside of some debatable lab experiments) that indicates that games are any worse than TV, radio, or Bible stories at provoking violent behaviour.

-- Steve

It's so stupid that like 30 million people play video games, but if 1 person shoots some people then games are evil. I think a one in 30 million ratio is actually pretty good. What they never talk about is the guns that are actually murdering people. Thats probably because the gun lobby in washington is more powerful than the game lobby if that actually exists.

Guns donīt kill people, videogames do?

Load of crap, if you ask me. As Khell_Sennet pointed out almost any novelty is stigmatised in the beginning. Do you know what they said about cameras when they were invented? That they steal your soul.

"Jack Thompson: Video games bereave you of your immortal soul!" Gonna be in the news pretty soon, you just wait...

There's every possibility that a child who enjoys getting the most violent kills in Manhunt, or going for a leisurely rampage in San Andreas would grow up with a worrying take on violence. Similarly, I'm not going to want to sleep in the same house as a kid who watches the Saw trilogy with a giggle, and wants to be like Leatherface when he grows up.

It's been said a hell of a lot, but the only reason that this issue exists is that people are stupid enough to think that an 18 rating on a videogame doesn't mean anything.

Well people are inclined to violence differently, comically enough, psychologically, disciplined people are more inclined to violence than thoose who don't recognize authority. My point is that video-game violence can't make you violent because it's not actual violence, you can't feel the power in beating someone senseless or ripping them to shreds with a lawnmower because your not actually doing that, only people already inclined to violence can recreate this feeling in a game. The fact that people actually have to do so much research on video-game violences effect on people show the sad state of our times psychologist community.

we should also ban cars because people get in car accidents and cigarettes because people catch cancer and tall buildings because people fall off of them and people should wear helmets 24 hours a day.

yeah they can but it all depends on the person really. having said that, the person is just as likely to be affected by video games as he is from watching the tv, reading the newspaper, listening to the radio, listening to music and even socialising.

The thing is that this is a small %age of people who are affected by such things. but the government need their scapegoat, the media need they're newest social pariah and its video games time to shine.

but so far the government and the media groups are batting, they've swung the scapegoat bat but have missed every hit. the only people who ever cheer on the batters are the people too paranoid not to.

But thats life for ya.

I think they can, depending on the person. I think if a ten year old kid plays GTA that may affect him later in life somehow. Not immediately, though; nobody's arguing that people who play a violent game are immediately going to go out and kill someone afterwards. It's something that happens over time.

But I don't see any credible evidence condemning or supporting video games. It all just depends on the person.

I think violence in games can affect people, but it very much depends on the person and it not exclusive to video game violence.

mwhite67:
we should also ban cars because people get in car accidents and cigarettes because people catch cancer and tall buildings because people fall off of them and people should wear helmets 24 hours a day.

Don't get me going on that shit... Some dumb **** in Scotland has begun selling foam helmets for babies/toddlers so they don't damage their heads as they crawl around the world. The day babies must wear protective headgear inside their own homes is the day Natural Selection truly dies.

So back on about thickies and violent games...

If anyone is impressionable enough to go postal because of videogame violence, one must suspect the same reaction would be true to him seeing violent movies or TV shows as well. What about a gruesome book? Should we handicap all of society's entertainment because of impressionable idiots? Sad events happen when thickies do stupid things to innocent people, but the way to combat this is not to weed out possible triggers for said morons, but to find ways to identify these people and remove them from society.