Violent video games do not cause people to be violent in real life

By BRIAN SWEENEY

Staff Writer

Video games are a great means to escape the real world and reality. Delving into a game’s world, visiting different worlds to explore, and following through stories in games that requires either saving the world from a meteor that’s capable of destroying life or taking down monsters to ensure the safety for people to live in harmony can be a fun getaway from real life. But, the real question is: Do violent video games really encourage violence in real life?

Violent video games tend to raise more interest to other players to try out and experience things that normally people wouldn’t do in real life, whether it be stealing cars and causing destruction to people and property in games like Grand Theft Auto or progressing through the story while killing nightmarish creatures using guns or knives like in Resident Evil or Dead Rising.

These violent video games are fun for some people, but given how good the graphics in games are today, seeing realistic blood and gore and how detailed and character deaths could be sickening and wrong to some players. Gamers who play violent video games know  and recreating certain actions in games into real life can harm or kill a person, and they don’t plan on doing these things. In addition, gamers have enough common sense not to do these things in real life and still continue to play violent video games, while maintaining the divide between what is real and what is made up.

Senior Robert Klink is a gamer himself and plays violent video games sometimes during his spare time.

“[Arguments about violence in video games] are majorly false, for the most part,” said Klink. “[I don’t] see video games promoting violence, even though there are violence in video games. Like from my experience, from my friends, who copes with stress in life… [playing video games] helps prevents them from causing violence, if they didn’t have anything else in life to vent their frustration when they have troubles.” In his response to having the urges to be violent in real life, he simply answered “no”.

Playing video games to help cope with stress or to handle one’s frustrations is a good way to do so, but is playing a violent video game to handle stress and frustration a healthy way to relieve stress?

Jacqueline Huppuch, a senior, is also a gamer who plays violent video games, but for a different reason. In her response to whether video games encourage violence in real life, she answered, “It really depends on the person, on a case-by-case basis, and, definitely not. I feel that people ‘poke’ at it as a scapegoat for people who assume that ‘people who do these kinds of things in violent video games are a bad person’ or ‘that [he or she] does those things in games would do these things in real life’ but in actuality, violent video games doesn’t really affect one’s psychology.”

Huppuch continued, “studies have shown that playing video games are a great way to relieve stress, instead of encourages violence. Again, it is based on [each] different individual’s view on violent video games. Playing video games, in general, helps relieve my stress other than cause it and hurt others. In fact, the video games I play are about saving people and making a difference.”

In her own views, playing video games is a form of escapism that doesn’t hurt one’s mental health and mostly brings in people as a community. As more violent video games come out and grow in popularity in years to come, they will continue to be a way to “escape” the real world and be in a place where one can do whatever he or she wishes.