Writing Assignment About Video Games And Violence (Essay Sample)

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Video Games and Violence
Introduction
Video games have typically changed a lot over the past few years: a revolution that has seen the gaming devices change from 2D arcade machines to the realistic 3D graphics that children play at home in front of a large TV set and a surround system that provides sound, an aspect that immerses the full attention of gamers. The current crop of video games allow the players to interact heavily with objects and characters in ways that were previously unavailable, thus giving the gamers a choice to engage more players and at an immersive playing style. This paper, therefore, seeks to undertake a study on violence in gaming through the examination of two images provided with the aim of understanding if the results are blurring for the real world within the gaming environment.
Thesis
According to the American Psychological Association, there are consistent relationships between video games and violence, an aspect that results in an increase in aggressive cognitions, aggressive behaviors, aggressive effects, and a decrease in pro-social behaviors, sensitivity, and empathy to aggression: an aspect that this paper seeks to delve into though an analysis of the relationship between the two provided images and how these visual arguments reflect the concerns of the stakeholder.
Stakeholder Background
The American Psychological Association is a body that addresses issues that concern the society. The organization has prompted several research studies on video games and the rationale behind the allegations that they stem the violence. According to APA Task Force on Violent Media, playing violent video games is linked to the increase in aggression and decreases in pro-social behaviors and sensitivity to aggression in as much as limited evidence support this notion. The stakeholders demonstrate a consistent relationship between violent video games as the primary cause of aggressive behaviors, aggressive effects, and a decrease in pro-social behaviors, sensitivity, and empathy to aggression (Greitemeyer et al. 122). While some variations are notably evident among the studies conducted by the APA Task Force on Violent Media, a robust and consistent pattern has emerged from several years of research that saw the stakeholders draft a resolution that required the Entertainment Software Rating Board to refine the nature of their video games in a bid to design games that are appropriate to the users psychological development and age.
Rhetoric Analysis
Early childhood is considered as an important step in every child’s life and development. During this period, whatever a child learns is continued into the future life, hence the negative impact that children consumer in their early years is likely to impact their future. Undoubtedly, the first image presented portrays a child of a younger age as evident by the size of the head seated in front of a TV set assumingly playing a video game. It is arguably important to consider that the child is likely to be addicted to this sort of lifestyle if not controlled, an aspect that would typically be terrible since the child may not find joy in engaging in any productive activities whenever at home. This indicates that the child would never study or socialize with the family when at home. Possibly, it is more likely that the video game would have an adverse impact on the child’s behavior, an aspect that would result in aggressive behaviors and a decrease in pro-social behaviors, sensitivity, and empathy to aggressions (Cunningham et al. 1248). On the second image, two children are depicted holding gaming pads playing a video game. The image typifies the addiction in playing video games that result when the teens spend most of their time playing violent video games. In this case, it is easy to presume that the mode of socialization and bonding among children as depicted in the image is found in the playing of video games, a contributor to unethical and violent behaviors in the society. In as much as the images show minimal negative results of video games, it is imperative to consider that the effects of playing violent video games are more adverse and uncalled for.
According to APA, children begin to develop bad habits from video games, with the result of this habits leading to aggression and the practice of violence as depicted in the gaming consoles. First and foremost, violent games are known to cause psychological problems among children this age. When the children engage in playing violent video games, their interaction with their families and friends is limited, an aspect that results in psychological isolation. During this period, the child believes the gamers presented in the game are his role models and adopt behaviors likened to the character in the video games, with this leading to aggressive behaviors, obscene languages and other behavioral issues. Twose alludes to the fact that playing violent video games enhances aggressive behaviors which result in aggressive responses among children (2). Children are therefore exposed to risks that would cause long-term psychological effects that are produced through exposures to violent video games due to the age factor.
Secondly, violent video games have the capacity to cause mental disturbances among children. According to an observation made by Jia-Kun et al., violent video games makes children barbital by diverting their attention and concentration from their purposeful missions to gain an education in a bid to solve societal issues, with the results of this leading to poor performances. In other words, the measure of time spent by children in playing video games has adverse effects and correlation with their academic performances. Additionally, children are likely to acquire the use of obscene and obsessive languages and violent behaviors from these games which disturb their mental stature. The contents of the video games, therefore, play a significant role in the development of the child’s mind, thus if the content is good, then this may help the child learn new skills. However, if the content displayed in the video games is that of violence, then this will lead to adverse mental effects (1748). However, recent content analysis of video games typically establishes that close to 90% of video games content some level of violence in them, with 50 % of the games showing serious violent actions on the game characters, thus depicting the negative impact of these games on a children mental development.
Given this, it is important to consider that some researchers believe that the effects of violent video games have been immensely overstated. According to Weinreich et al., findings indicate that violent video games such as Mortal Combat and Halo have no effects on...