Do video games make children behave violently (Doom, Grand Theft Auto) Free Essay Example, 1250 words

In Grand theft auto (GTA) the player is supposed to be a criminal in a big city and is given tasks to perform by the various kingpins in the city and by completing the tasks the player can rise through the ranks in the criminal organization. There are other games like ‘Hitman’ where the player is an assassin. All these games involve extremely violent situations with tasks that range from shooting people to bombing buildings. For example, in ‘Hitman’ the player even has to hide the dead body of the person he killed in order to avoid detection. Each version of these games is more graphic, progressively more violent and is expected to be so. One of the first incidents that drew attention to the fact that video games can have an effect on the mind set of children was the Columbine high school tragedy that occurred in the US. Two teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Keebold shot dead 12 students and one teacher and injured 21 students in a heinous massacre and finall y committed suicide. Even though a school massacre in the United States was not a new phenomenon, what made this case different was that both the killers were gamers and fans of the violent video game ‘Doom’. We will write a custom essay sample on Do video games make children behave violently (Doom, Grand Theft Auto) or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Even though there are many people who disagree that video games were responsible for the attack, it must be looked at from another point of view. â€Å"How do two adolescent boys not only come up with the idea for a paramilitary attack on their high school but also maintain interest, plot a strategy, field test their weaponry and carry out the attack with a precision not usually associated with teenagers? † (Larkin) These teenagers had taken this game very seriously. In his website Harris had even created add-on levels on his website and posted instructional files. The frustration that these boys faced in real life was given an outlet by playing these games. â€Å"Certainly the long hours playing Doom and Quake allowed Harris and Klebold fantasy outlets in which their masculine prowess was unchallenged† (Larkin). A sawed off gun that one of the boys carried was named â€Å"Arlene† after one of the characters in Doom (BBC) The im plicit message in all of these games is that in order to progress to the next level the player has to kill anything that comes in front of him and the only way to do that is by collecting firepower. Another message that is propagated is that the player is always on the right side and his actions are always justified. These children are more sensitive to what goes on in the cyber world than what happens in real life.