Are
video games like 'Grand theft auto v' becoming increasingly violent and what
effect do they have on audiences?
"Video
games like grand theft auto have a corrosive effect on the behaviour of
players"
This game has caused so many debates in recent years that the deputy prime
minister has to get involved which shows how major the situation is. Within this investigation I will be taking 2
sides the sides of the argument and I want to try staying neutral throughout
the debate. The two sides that the whole essay will be based on will be if
violent video games are becoming increasingly violent and do they have a
negative effect on audience or if they aren’t having a negative effect on
audience. Grand theft auto has broken so many records in 2013 and this shows
how successful the franchise is. “Highest revenue generated by an entertainment
product in 24 hours”
These figures shows how big the violent gaming industry is getting and more
younger children are just going to start playing it when the next one comes out
in 3-4 years. GTA 5 was the most expensive game in history to be produced at
170 million dollars.
This has to be one of the most popular video game series ever and probably has
sold the most copies in a day of game day releases “Best-selling
action-adventure video game in 24 hours”
. Analyst’s estimate 18 to 20 million
copies of Rock star’s
GTA V will be sold worldwide by the end of March, 2014.The narrative of this
video games is very similar to the ones of the previous, however they have had
different characters in all the different games. Also the narrative in this
game is very unique and is Multi- strand as the game isn’t just focused on one
player there are 3 that you could play with and this hasn’t been done with any
other game and this just shows how far technology has gone. Grand theft auto
was the reason for change with its free open realistic world, however experts
believe that Grand theft Auto iii had the biggest impact on violence in video
games and changed the gaming industry forever. “It turned open-world games into
a real genre”
"The problems with these video games is that violence they contain."
And this is the whole problem and what my essay will be about and indeed they
do contain high amounts of violence; however does it really affect the audience
in a bad way? 2 years before release Grand theft auto 5 was the most searched
for video game and this shows the strength of the institution and how well
their marketing was for the video game
After
months of research I think that my mind has been changed and in a neutral position
because of the research. GTA V has been involved in many controversial factors
in the Media and has been blamed for many tragedies in the months that it has
been out. I believe Grand theft Auto,
the game, is a moral panic and parents are terrified of the game. Therefore
blame the game if bad events occur with their children. In one case parents
blamed the video game as an eight year old shot his grandmother and the parents
blamed the video game.
The parents blamed the game and briefed the media that their child was affected
by the game. Do we actually know if the young man played as much GTA? As the tabloids made out to. Parents are
pressurised to buy the game from their children and this is major problem and
why don’t newspapers pick up on these issues which go deeper into the headline-
which supports the blame game. No study has ever shown that violent video games
result directly in actual violence, let alone mass shootings
Games’, like grand theft auto, will always be easy to blame as children play
them massively and parents are concerned therefore want to blame the game and
it opts to an easy way out. Nevertheless
it shouldn’t even be a headline because parents shouldn’t buy over age games
for their underage children and I don’t see news outlets blaming the parents
for purchasing this game which is a concern in modern society and as a society
we want our news outlets to tell the truth and be realistic with their stories
and we don’t want them to fabricate news stories which have no support to their
points. In some cases this is a myth because worse scenes have occurred in Hollywood
movies. “Yes, GTA 5 has a torture scene, but it also shows consequences of
violence. Honestly, it's not much different from many movies”
And I think that younger children do watch these action movies which contain
scenes like this.
"Mainstream
media have never liked video games, but it's just getting silly lately,"
said Dr Vance.
And this is something that I agree with and what half of my essay is about on
how mainstream media have never like video games and they blame it for violence
and in our country the tabloids e.g. daily mirror and the sun they don’t like
the institution therefore blame their game which has had the most sales and
most views and this way they will get more media coverage which they really
want where they can make more money. [“, a psychological researcher at the
Rapture Institute for headline-inspired science, conducted a seven-year longitudinal
study that monitored the anger levels of more than a thousand volunteers from
gaming communities. The results showed statistically significant increases in
overall aggression and violent tendencies that occurred very soon after tenuous
mainstream media stories claiming video games cause violence.]
This again shows the amount of time and effort that has been put in on this
topic and shows the seriousness of the topic. Dr vance is trying to say that
the aggression was increased when they stated that the violent video game
causes the violence and don’t you blame the people who are being blamed because
I wouldn’t want to be blamed about causing crime whilst playing my hobby so I would
want to take my anger out and the way they take anger out is by playing the
game and some occasions it will be taken out in real life if they get heavily
addicted.
Research proves that video games don’t cause
violence in the long term and research has been done to prove this
Lots of research has been put in to prove the outcome and find a final outcome
on this line- does it cause violence. I have been during research over the last
4 months and I have found statistics which prove differ on what mainstream
outlets think. I think that research is
the only way to find the conclusion do this topic. “Other studies suggest that
computer games have little or no effect on children’s aggressive”
this is the first part of the research which is about other studies conducted
about this topic which shows how much time and cost has been put in and this
shows that it doesn’t affect them and this is the research that I’ve done which
has made me change my mind on this case and made me think deeper into the whole
newspaper articles and the main question on why these games are being blamed-
then came to the conclusion that parents blame the game and mainstream outlets
start the blame game. Jessica Harris
does put some positive about playing video games in her research saying Video
games positive outcomes: Relaxation, High self-esteem, Education, sociability. Evidence
is sparse, various studies
this shows that there are some positive effects of video games which never get
brought up with the newspaper outlets and they are quick to blame the game and
parents blame the game and they never seek the positives about the game- especially
tabloids outlets. Overall I think some
mainstream media need to bring up the positives as well as the negatives
because video games may have helped younger children with anti-social behaviour
However, research has been done in
broadsheet newspapers which back the video game Grand theft Auto. Video games
are not making us more violent, study shows
this report, which was published in the guardian in 2013, shows that not
everyone in our country is playing the blame game. The guardian as a whole is backing the video
game grand theft auto more than blaming it on the violence. You could link this
to Marxist and pluralist as the whole topic has 2 parts and some believe that
the game is blamed and the others believe it’s the own children’s fault and different
people believe the different views and that’s why this topic has gone big over
the last few years and has dragged on because this is a problem in society
which people have different theories to.
Marxist will believe that the game does have a negative effect on the
consumers and the big mainstream players ideologies will be believed by their
readers as they maintain the control. However a pluralist has a group of people
trying to prove them wrong with their own research and have supporters and
there theory is valuable to the topic. “Major new research into the effects of
violent movies and video games has found no long-term links with real-life
violence”
which show that people will think
mainstream media are just playing the blame game and the question could be know
why are they blaming the game? I assume that it is quite easy to peg the blame
on a violent video game. “In the second study, consumption of violent video
games was measured against youth violence rates in the previous 20 years. The
study concluded that playing video games coincided with a fall in violent crime
perpetrated by those in the 12-17 age groups”
this shows that violent games can help younger audiences as they can take their
anger out on video games. Children exhibit addictive behaviour towards computer
game playing
this goes to the point that most of these children take out their anger in the
video game and on people in the virtual world and is this a positive? From the institution because they help
children and anti-social behaviour as what you cannot do outside you can do it
in the game and we will not see mainstream media bring up these arguments
against.
Many cases, reported in mainstream media,
have been reported about violence in video games involving younger children. Nick
Clegg stated "Video games like grand theft auto have a corrosive effect on
the behaviour of players"
and as a neutral I will have to agree on some children it does have a corrosive
effect which is really bad for them at a young age and the point I’m trying to
make is that is really this really the fault of the institution as they have
age warnings for the game, why do the parents buy the game for their children? Then this exposed the children to explicit
viewings and when they see something they would want to do it and act it out in
real life and produce moments in school and this exposes other children to the
game and then they want to go on and buy and pressure their parents and parents
can’t say no on some occasions which is tough- even though i am not a
parent. I believe the game reputation is
the way parents seek insurances to the game. Breaking world records over 7and
this way the institution have built up their reputation to persuade parents.
However children see this game as thrill seekers and escapism and parents don’t
know there are becoming victims of the hypodermic needle theory as there are
other affects which parents and children don’t know but it gets injected that
they aren’t problems.
One the biggest scene and one of the biggest
parts of the game sparked a row in the media. The first scene was the torture
scene which sparked rows in the media and mainstream media outlets and the
institution and teachers were calling for the game to be banned. GTA 5 torture
row: Teacher slams scene of extreme violence in most expensive game ever.
Again this game is so big and caused so much that even school teachers are
getting involved and this wouldn’t of happened in 2005 because it wasn’t as big
the whole violent topic. I believe that the
teacher does have point because it may be effecting her school and her lessons
and she wanted to talk about it to tabloids who will make a big thing and it
will gain media coverage. “The 18-rated violent crime game’s most shocking
scene yet, the player is instructed to pull out his victim’s teeth with a pair
of pliers”
and I have to agree with the teacher as this is one of the most shocking scene I
have ever seen in a video game and it was disturbing, however this is the game equilibrium
and by completing this part and this will start the new equilibrium. However somebody who is against video games
causing violence will say that there have been more shocking scenes in movies
and they have and this doesn’t get brought up in the mainstream news. However
this was a very bad scene and I understand why it caused rows because imagine
if students, who’ve played the game, have fights in schools they will try to
repeat the actions. This could lead to bad moments and potentially death
Overall they are many media debates with dr.
and critics about this video game and they all have a different opinion to what
the effects are really. Media outlets have their own view that the game does
harm society and the children of society and that the game should be banned as
the corrosive effects that it causes and the game has held responsible for the
problems in society. However researchers
believe otherwise that the game doesn’t have an effect on children and that the
game is just being blamed because mainstream outlets don’t like the game
does this show that people in society are variable to the media texts by media giants? The uses and gratifications theory suggest that
audience believe the big players ideologies and are parents victims to their ideology
and having a bad effect on society? However many researchers and critics
suggest that a virtual word is good for younger children as what they do isn’t real
and they can take their actions out in a virtual world.
By doing this essay and research overall my
prospective of violence in video game has changed dramatically. At the start of
the project I was going along and believe the mainstream outlets ideologies without
thinking deeper in the whole situation. When I did start going in deeper into
the situation and the topic this changed dramatically as I believed it was
common sense some of the articles and that the parents were blaming the video
game. However I still do believe there are some showings that it could affect
younger children as the children might repeat some of the action produced that
they tend to like in the game. Also I firmly
believe that technology developments over the years had a part to play in the
video game part as some of the viewing in the latest game are only possible
because of the development that has taken place in the video game sector. “Not
so long ago video games were just a fad with simple physics-based games like
Pong. But as video game technology has progressed, so too has the popularity
and limits that are associated with games in today's society”
and this backs my point about some of the footage that is in grand theft auto
which is absolutely incredible and the reason why rows have been sparked in the
media. Grand Theft Auto 5 breaks 6 sales world records
This just shows the development and this leads to the realism that is blamed
for violence caused by younger people in society and I believe Grand theft auto
is the pinnacle of the problems caused by video games in society.
Newspaper articles
(n.d.). Grand Theft Auto 5 Smashes 7
Guinness World Records. (tags: none | edit tags)
Bagot, M. (2013, September 17). Torture Row.
(tags: none | edit tags)
Gimpel, D. (2013). Death and video games. In
Violence in video games (p. 8). Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub. (tags: none | edit
tags)
Gimpel, D. (2013). Games and tragedy. In
Violence in video games. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub. (tags: none | edit tags)
Gimpel, D. (2013). Death and video games. In
Violence in video games (p. 10). Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub. (tags: none | edit
tags)
Hern, A. (2013, September 20). Nick Clegg
warns corrosive. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/20/nick-clegg-warns-of-corrosive-effect-of-grand-theft-auto
(tags: none | edit tags)
Leung, R. (2004, March 4). Can A Video Game
Lead To Murder? Retrieved from
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/can-a-video-game-lead-to-murder-04-03-2005/ (tags:
none | edit tags)
Marczely, D. (n.d.). Death and Video games.
In Violence in video games (p. 5). Hot topics in media. (tags: none | edit
tags)
Morris, J. (2013, December 31). Anyone
claiming Grand Theft Auto 5 is just violence for violence's sake hasn't played
it. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/31/grand-theft-auto-5-torture-violence-video-games
(tags: none | edit tags)
Rodenberg, C. (2013, December 27). Grand
Theft Auto V makes it cool to pick up – even kill – prostitutes. Retrieved
December 10, 2014, from
http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/staying-in/video-games/gta-5-torture-row-teachers-2278689
(tags: none | edit tags)
Rush, J. (n.d.). Model pupil,15, robbed bank
with gun as if he was in a real-life video game. Retrieved from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430643/Liverpool-pupil-15-robbed-bank-gun-real-life-Call-Of-Duty-Resident-Evil-video-game.html
(tags: none | edit tags)
Journals used to help
