For the last time, video games don’t cause violence in real life. Countless news channels and media want us to think otherwise, with all the times they’ve tried to associate increased violence with the number of video game hours played, but it never churns out anything remotely conclusive.
Notwithstanding the myriads of inconclusive scientific literature on the matter, media outlets persistently nudge this fallacious idea into the minds of their audience. Some take the bait and actually start to believe the regurgitated nonsense. And then the cycle continues, with more research dollars squandered, and researchers in labs wasting would-be productive hours on pointless experiments hoping to find some tangible connection between virtual violence and real world crime. When in reality, the answer is as simple as this: virtual reality does not equate to reality, even when it feels real.
Yes, video games do trigger and elicit a wide spectrum of real emotions from the player. Ethereal landscapes from fantasy genres dazzle the more sensuous players (the Final Fantasy series immediately come to mind), while other players are more moved by touching, sentimental cutscenes between video game characters based more in reality (Red Dead Redemption or The Last of Us, anyone?). Some video game lovers get a thrill from the horrific imagery and unsettling mood of the survival / horror genres (I have to say, the Resident Evil 4 Remake has done a fantastic job at instilling fear and dread in me throughout the playthrough, and oddly enough, I love it). The widespread emotions generated while playing these video games are very real to us. But does this ever extend into our real lives in any significant way?
Unless you’re a competitive gamer whose entire livelihood depends on your performance in a singular video game, then probably not. The scientific research on video game violence translating to real-world violence remains inconclusive, for one, because there are too many covariates not factored into the equation when performing such research, and for another, because the preponderance of asinine ideas such as this is a common theme in human nature.
There are plenty of examples of other nonsensical allegations against similar modes of entertainment. Television shows such Beavis and Butthead faced unreasonable backlash against the character Beavis’ alter-ego, Cornholio, and his “overuse” of the word fire. When five-year-old Austin Messner burned down his mother’s mobile home and killed his toddler sister, Beavis and Butthead—not parental negligence—took the blame, only further proving the absurdity of human nature.
Why blame Beavis and Butthead over parental negligence for what happened in the Messner household? It’s more convenient and easier to accept. Rather than take responsibility for one’s parental mistakes, it’s more expedient (and profitable) to place the blame on an object separate from oneself. Messner’s mother stood to gain a lot from the situation, anyway, via a large settlement out of court, had she been able to cleverly pull the stunt off (spoiler: she wasn’t very clever).
It’s also easier for outsiders to side with the mother. It’s cozier on the conscience to offer a single mother the benefit of the doubt, while assuming the worst for a well-established company even loosely associated with the wealthy elitists of Hollywood. Instead of focusing on the mother’s lack of attention to her child and the cigarette lighter in his hand, it’s more convenient to lend her support. Even when she blames a TV show about dumb teenagers doing dumb things for her (dumb) child’s behavior.
Make no mistake, this Beavis and Butthead incident is no different from how the “video games cause violence” spiel is panning out—fruitless and a waste of thousands of legal and empirical dollars. But due to its expediency in distracting the public eye from focusing on the real issues, the spiel is overplayed. The sharp increase in recent school shootings, for example, soon finds a scapegoat in first-person shooter (FPS) video games, for the same reasons mentioned earlier. It’s simply easier and more politically beneficial to blame FPS games over personal responsibility to the public to address the real issues with school shootings.
It is simply too costly in time and money to give second thought to providing these statistically suicidal and depressed shooters with some sort of outlet—be it psychological assistance, group activities that form healthier social bonds with others and build social-emotional learning, dietary recommendations for a healthy mind and body, medication when all else fails, or a combination of these. It’s much more profitable instead for the media to exploit the victims of school shootings on the news for views. This of course sensationalizes the shooters to all would-be shooters watching, too. Sensationalized suicides are and have been a thing for a while now. School shootings are the newly evolved form of sensationalized suicides.
But, once again, the need for in-depth analysis on this very complex issue is never addressed. The same spiel on video games and violence continues to spin its tale. Non-entities and NPCs in digital space become the reason that breathing entities cloaked in human flesh kill irl. The true reasons are never found among all the white noise. Yet the covariates to this video game-violence theory do exist. Let’s resurface all of these forgotten factors contributing to increased rates of violent crime (primarily in the form of school shootings) that have been happening of late.
It may not be the content consumed that leads to such violent behavior, so much as it is the context from which you’re trying to escape. It isn’t the video games they choose but the environment a gamer grows up in that dictates how they will behave in society. The video games are simply a distraction, a form of escapism, from a bigger issue at home behind closed doors. Abusive, controlling, authoritarian parenting leaves the children with little else to enjoy but video games. Or, video games provide a distraction from troubles at school and with problematic classmates and bullies. Being singled out by other classmates from group activities forces an individual to seek solace in video games instead. And if these gamers grew up in the ghettos, with the statistically highest rates of crime and violence, all of these problems are exacerbated. Ghettos have a serious lead poisoning issue by the way, from the pipes and walls of outdated infrastructure willfully neglected. Lead poisoning has been virtually proven by multitudes of studies to increase aggression and violence in those affected (among a plethora of other serious afflictions), further widening the pool of factors contributing to violent crime today.
In all of these examples, video games are a result, not cause, of a troubled individual. A troubled upbringing in high-crime neighborhoods increases the chance of violent, criminal activity. Said individual may just happen to enjoy violent, FPS video games as much as the real stuff. Yet FPS games, and any video game detracting precious moments from “the nuclear family,” take most of the heat when that troubled individual is involved in the next school shooting or violent crime.
Their backstory and upbringing and current financial circumstances are never investigated. Their lack of familial bonds, of friends, of opportunities, are only apparent in hindsight. If they lack the necessary resilience to overcome these self-trials, and if society reduces their needs to a mere nuisance not to be bothered with, a criminal will almost inevitably emerge from the shadows of despair. It is the troubled individual who cannot overcome the odds who poses one of the greatest dangers to society. Video games may just have been the last coping mechanism for them before they went off the deep end.
In fact, there are many ignored educational benefits video games provide which most educators and parental figures would prefer not to acknowledge for whatever reason. FPS games themselves provide a useful skill-building platform for improving real shooting accuracy, hand-eye coordination, spatial cognition and mental rotation, among plenty others. Cooking games can teach you how to create real dishes (like in Cooking Simulator). Puzzle lovers can improve their skills with video games incorporating puzzles into the gameplay (think the popular Portal games or the beloved Japanese Okami). Minecraft, the mother of all video games today, teaches you architecture, pixel art, and computer programming all through experimentation and helpful YouTube videos from other players.
There is also a therapeutic component to video games. From Tetris with its well-established calming effects on anxiety, to bespoke games that touch individuals on a more personal level, video games provide a healthy outlet for those struggling with mental disorders or enduring difficult times. For those who grew up in abusive, neglectful, or authoritarian households, video games fill an emotional void. They distract from the ugly reality of their lives and take the players on a voyage of free exploration and discovery. This virtual journey allows players to hone their skills quietly away from others and pursue new missions without fear of embarrassment should they fail. It is a journey where learning skills is exciting and non-threatening, a direct contrast to the strict rigidity of public educational curricula, or the controlling environment back at home.
For poor families, video games provide a substitution for exhilarating real-world experiences that are not easily affordable. Children from these poor households can virtually experience the vibrant landscapes, cities, and wonders of the world by admiring the rendered high-definition graphics of such places depicted in modern-day games. Or, if these financially disadvantaged children wish to improve on a game skill for free, such as with chess, they can play such Free to Play games online and, all else being equal, be no further behind in skill than their wealthier counterparts.
Even for those without apparent family or poverty issues, video games still provide respite from stress, depression, and anxiety. For everyone, they provide the opportunity to extend connection with loved ones online. In today’s age, they even provide players with the opportunity to make thousands of dollars each month to excel in a specific competitive video game, or to entertain viewers while playing online alone or with others. Video games have opened the doors of opportunity for people of every background.
Video games are not a panacea for every single issue in life. They can even cause certain issues to arise if they’re played unchecked. They have the potential to distract someone from addressing real-life issues that need to be resolved. There requires a certain level of discipline and self-control, therefore, when playing games that are programmed to be as entertaining as humanly possible. And they can reinforce severely unhealthy habits, such as sitting for hours on end (which is considered the new cigarette smoking of public health issues) and missing out on outdoor activities, sunshine, and fresh air. These behaviors alone can exacerbate mental health issues, which is perhaps why some professional video game players in the industry are known to suffer from mental illness.
But to say that all video gamers are one way or another is complete and utter lunacy. To accuse all video gamers of violent and aggressive behavior is no different from assuming every person who drinks alcohol is an alcoholic, or every partygoer a degenerate. In all other contexts, such an assumption would be immediately dismissed. Yet the elderly mentality on video games equating to brain rot and violence (ironic, considering their brains are the violent, decaying ones) still persists in the news and papers.
When will it end? What will be required to end the futile research on video games leading to violence? How must us gamers prove that what we do in video games to NPCs is not indicative at all to our behaviors and reactions in real life to real people? Sure, in the Grand Theft Auto series, you can refuse to pay a stripper for a lap dance and shoot her and her pimp dead, but will this really translate to a real life scenario of the same kind? Will the player replicate their video game persona irl and endanger real lives? How many strippers are actually shot dead each day by clients? How many of those (selectively) few deaths were due to someone playing Grand Theft Auto? Common sense tells me that something much deeper than a video game plays a role in that type of erratic behavior.
As for the desensitization argument where video games continuously expose players to graphic violence until they are desensitized to it, potentially increasing the risk for desensitization to graphic material in the real world? I’m afraid that ship has already sailed. Want to see a Chinese worker’s organs spaghettified before your eyes in horrific fashion by unregulated machinery? Websites like 4chan have anonymous videos showcasing real-world work-related deaths and even murders. Livestreams from the President of Ukraine himself are constantly showing the graphic imagery of real life violence and warfare. We’re already becoming desensitized to violent imagery because of our exposure to it from all areas of the internet. With video games, we’re at least provided free rein to meander through these trying situations ourselves.
Despite all the talk of desensitization, video gamers truly do feel vivid emotions when they play certain games. The immersiveness of modern video games makes it rather easy these days to suspend disbelief and feel like you’re actually the main character going through every tear-jerking or life-threatening experience. Video gamers feel the fear and adrenaline that the main character should feel as they navigate through dangerous war zones or mobs of flesh-eating zombies. Their heart races as the video game character rushes to safety or fights for their lives. Fear and panic are instilled in players of the horror / survival series from the onset. With time, players adjust to the zombies and enemies chasing after them (whoops, their playable character), and learn how to better manage their emotions and reactions when shooting them down. What was once deemed frightening becomes habitual, almost second nature, to the player.
Sure, when I’m shooting parasite-infected zombies in Resident Evil 4, I first feel dread, and then fear, and then disgust at the bloody scene before me. With enough exposure to the same types of enemies, I become desensitized to their grisly forms and gory antics . Does that mean I would callously shoot down and murder any innocent zombie civilians in real life because of this “desensitization?” The way the “research” on video game violence is unfolding, it’s probably best just to wait for the irl zombie apocalypse and test my reactions then.