Video Games

The article “Is That Video Game Programming You?” was really interesting. So far, it had been my favorite article we have read. The journalist obviously has debated the issues mentioned in the article many times and has formed his arguments well over handling the controversies facing video games.

I am a video gamer myself. There are huge varieties of different gaming systems my brother and I share. We have family games, brain games, violent video games, adventure games, etc. However, our favorite series is the Resident Evil series of video games.

After I saw the movie to the Resident Evil video games series, I was astonished at how poorly the movie depicted the gore, violence, and horror surrounding the game. The movie didn’t even give the feeling of suspense and mystery surrounding the game series. The video games were far more violent, far scarier than the movie.

The different between the movie and video game was that the audience interacts with the game. They are put in the situation of killing, protecting yourself, collecting weapons, intuition on who to trust, etc; all the senses of a marine soldier or a cop. For a moment, the audience gets a taste of what it’s like to fear for your life in dangerous situations because we don’t want our character to be eaten by zombies.

Here’s real the big controversy comes in, do these violent video games influence us when we interact with them? My answer is in most cases no. A majority of time the video game will not influence us. The video game will never provoke us to commit a violent act. Again, the video game will never be the provoking fact to commit a violent act.

However, people struggling with mental health or other issues in their life and plan on committing a violent act can get ideas from a video game. But they can also get ideas from movies, books, the news, etc. A healthy minded person does not go out and commit murder. However, a person who struggles with personal issues and has a mental predisposition may commit violent crimes and get ideas from sources around them.

If parents are worried that the violent video games may influence their children, do what the author said. Do not buy the game. Regulate the child’s gaming system and make sure they are not playing the game. It’s the parent’s jobs to take control over the controversy. They have the wallet that supports the gaming industry. Parents should not be blaming other sources for their faults in allowing their children play the game.