But are video games really that bad?
Violence:
Violence within video games is very widely known and can be very widely found within them. By many, it is considered that all this violence is causing the teenagers to do things like commit crimes, or even worse, kill others. A lot of media's, especially national TV news channels like to pick on video games a lot whenever something bad or controversial happens. In many games, violence is the very base of the game, in slash&hack games, in FPS games, etc, it can practically be found in one or another form in practically every game in existence. Many people love to play violent games as stress reliefs after a stressful day in a job/school, and many find these games a nice evening escape after the hardships of life. Many people, especially parents, or older people who haven't experienced video games in their youths, want to ban video games and not allow the young people play them, as they think it causes bad influence and will spoil them.
There has been a lot of research done by various institutes on this matter, and practically all of it states, quite the opposite to the belief of many older people and parents, that violent games do not cause violence, they actually reduce it.
Christopher Ferguson, a researcher from Stetson University, as well as countless many other researchers, such as researchers from Villanova and Rutgers, prove that violent video games do not cause violence, to the point where it is actually clearly visible that the crime rates have decreased as the popularity of video games rose.
http://videogames.procon.org/
The studies say that indeed, violent video games allow the teenagers to ventilate any violent emotions that they have into a video game, rather than on someone's face in real life. They also are an escape-goat for them when they are depressed or are hard-pressed in life. It helps them get back on their feet and find their balance.
Violence can be found in all the media, TV, video games, films, books, magazines, newspapers, everywhere. If a certain individual is unstable mentally, then he/she will find that killing inspiration in any of these media's, and then that individual will go out and do horrible things such as shootings etc. To prevent that, would mean to restrict the entire media, that would mean lack of innovation, fresh ideas and thus no progress for anyone in anything.
The fact that lately its video games that got picked by other medias as the causes of violence is simply not true, it's just an escape-goat made by other media sources to try to crush down on the growing video game industry. It's been the same when television was first appearing in homesteads, back then however, it was the newspaper that tried to crack down the television, saying that it causes violence and addictions. Newspapers did that because they were afraid they would ultimately be considered obsolete and therefore many people would lose their piggy bank.
It is the same with television, a lot of young people do not watch any TV whatsoever and rather choose to watch everything via independent producers on the internet. This means that if the TV doesn't try to do something, they will be out of business in 20-30 years. It is a simple blame game since every media piece is trying to stay afloat, and any new innovative competition is considered a serious threat and being cracked down on.
Explicit Sexual Content:
Explicit sexual content is another thing that has been very present within the video gaming industry. It is very visible in many big games, especially in a game franchise made by Rockstar games - Grand Theft Auto (GTA), the most recent addition to the franchise, GTA 5, make use of a lot of female characters, dressed in skimpy clothes, being used as 'toys' by the male characters within the game. There are also a lot of prostitutes etc. This has been done since the target audience for GTA is mostly males and therefore things are done within that game that will please that audience.
In modern gaming industry, the numbers of males and females playing video games is fairly even, so controversial material is more and more rarely seen. However, still a lot of controversy is sparked whenever such a material appears, especially within the parent and older generations circles. They think that this is very unethical and it makes the teenagers that play such games savages who will later on assault some woman on the street sexually.
As stated above in this blog, about the violence, it is the same here, of course, there will be mentally challenged people who after experiencing certain things in a piece of media can turn crazy, but that doesn't happen just with video games, it happens with any media text, TV's, books, magazines, anything really.
In my opinion, no media piece should over exaggerate with using women as prostitutes etc. However, it shouldn't be disallowed either, because if it is, then it will block the creativity of any producer of any media, whether it would be television, video games etc. It shouldn't be over done either. By allowing the producers to create these harsh or controversial scenarios, we can teach people that it is wrong to do them ourselves in real life. Both genders are in fact controversially used in those media pieces, females can be used as prostitutes, but many males will also be stereotyped as dirty bandits in those games as well, or presenting every male as a muscular, perfect guy.
It helps creativity, to create a world exactly as the authors want it without restricting them, and as long as they don't overdo it, it can help teach children of what not to do, contrary to popular belief. At the end of the day, this stuff is happening in real life, and it is better for a teenager to learn about it via a video game and then think it's wrong, than learn it in real life.
Abusive/Inappropriate Language:
Abusive and inappropriate language has been another widely discussed topic within the gaming industry, and ever since the rise of the internet it has become of an even more present issue. A lot of parents/grandparents and other people worry that abusive and inappropriate language will spoil their children and teenagers while gaming online.
Tons of inappropriate language is used in online gaming every day and there are even more abuses coming in as well. Many games have banning systems implemented in to fix this issue but it is still present because of just the sheer scale of how many do it daily.
http://pikdit.com/i/rgaming-this-past-week/
For a parent to crack down on this issue, to not expose their child/teenager to this, they can use language filtering option, which can be found in most modern online games, or just ban online gaming and only allow them to game on single player games.
Parents can also direct themselves by looking at game reviews and PEGI markings.
Addiction:
Addiction is yet another common issue discussed within the gaming industry, parents blaming video game companies that their child is sitting on their computer constantly, doing nothing but playing the video game, even ending in some extreme circumstances of a person actually dying or being injured from the addiction. Addiction is of course a serious matter, it can cause injuries, health problems, lack of productivity, bad grades at school/getting fired from your job, or in the worst cases can even lead to deaths.
Anything that's enjoyable to us can make us become addicted, or sometimes even if we do not enjoy something, we can still get addicted due to special addicting chemicals being within that product. As such, we can get addicted not only from video games, but from smoking, drinking, doing drugs, or anything other that we might enjoy, such as watching a TV series or eating something that tastes really good in your opinion.
http://matstar102.deviantart.com/art/Gaming-Addiction-Wallpaper-206423271
It is a proven fact that some people will get addicted easier than others, it is entirely dependent on how mentally strong we are, and if we are able to say 'stop' to something or not. For example, when trying to quit smoking, some people have enough of a strong will to do it on their own, but other people might need help to quit by using some kind of medicine.
While the gaming industry can't really do much about addiction, it is up to the individual to deal with their addictions.
Stereotyping and Representation:
Stereotyping can be found around everything in this world. Every nation has some sort of stereotype, users of certain devices have stereotypes surrounding them, people with certain skins colors have stereotypes, the stereotypes about certain things even change from location to location, it is really all around, and the gaming industry is no different, it also gets its share of stereotypes.
There are many stereotypes surrounding the gaming industry and the people that are enjoying the gaming hobby as well. That games are for children some say, or 'Get a life' others say (hinting at the fact that you sit in front of a monitor all day and do nothing else). A lot of people, when asked to imagine a typical gamer in their head, will imagine an obese person, uneducated and unhygienic. While it is true with some extreme examples, all of these stereotypes are in fact completely wrong and are just a produce of common urban myths, lack of research or thought put into a specific conclusion about someone/something.
Back in 1990, gaming perhaps, just maybe, was for children. But nowadays, in 2014, it is a hobby that everyone does, around the world, at all ages, it is an industry that is bigger than the movie and music industry combined. And when it comes to stereotyping, it is also completely untrue to most people. Most people who game in fact treat is a a healthy hobby, are educated, and have more of a social life than those people who actually go out to parties, because when you game online you get to meet people from different cultures all around the world, learn languages, meet new friends. People who also dedicate themselves to gaming, can start earning a lot of cash, by doing things like streaming, doing YouTube or even do something like design content for their favorite game and get paid for it if it gets into the game. Even more, with the recent rise of E-sports, gaming proves to be a valid competitive scene for many skilled people to prove themselves.
Representation is also important, as they say, first impressions are very important, and when it comes to psychology of human beings, it is quite interesting. For example, if someone from Germany will meet a Polish person, and that Polish person happens to be a rude person, that German person will most likely think the same of every Pole he meets from now on. This is how stereotyping is born, and this is also why good representation of yourself and your values is important.
A ton of stereotyping is happening in online games, combine that with inappropriate language and you can find yourself some very toxic environments. That is why a lot of parents and older people are against online play, but at the end of the day, it is very easy to deal with toxic people online, just like you deal with toxic people in real life, you ignore them. There are also counter-measures against toxic people in most online games.
Censorship:
For the topics mentioned above, a lot of people want to censor many gaming related things,censor this, censor that they say. At the end of the day, you can't censor everything.
There are however, some games that got censored for being too extreme, that is, they were being either disgusting/racist/propaganda-like. Some games created by indie developers even recreated some horrible events, but putting YOU as the person that did these events. These games have no right of existence, and the creators should be apprehended and jailed for what they did.
The gaming industry tries their best at censoring games that never should have seen the light of the day, there are many companies that take care of such things, and they catch most offensive games and punish their creators.
In my opinion, cracking down on very offensive games is a must, in order to not give the gaming industry a negative image, I do not like however people trying to for example censor the internet, when they clearly have no idea what they're talking about and that clearly haven't done their research in that regard. For example when the American Congress tried to limit the internet. Or most recently, when the Hungarian government tried to tax the internet.
http://rt.com/news/200315-hungary-internet-tax-protest/
- One of the Hungarian protests against internet taxation.
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