Graftark Game design enthusiast and all around nerd/geek.

My take on violence in video games and it’s effect on people

For hundreds of millenia that the human race has existed in it's current form human's lived as territorial hunter gatherers. Now when a peolpe live as such for so long there has to be behavior that the behavior becomes written as instinct. Therein lies the issue, the human race has been designed to be the most successful hunter the world has ever known. Within each person lies the potential for violence, it is our society and ethics that allow a somewhat peaceful existence.

With that said the issue of video games causing the violent behavior is not the issue. There may very well be someone out there that plays games that will commit a crime. As a society we try to look for causes to violent behavior, often times taking the quickest and easiest route to conclusion. History shows us that there have been many scapegoats for the cause of violent behavior. Movies, music (through every generation), books, theatre even the religious writings of many faiths have been cast to the flames of the violence inquistition. While it's obvious that there are people that use any or all of the scapegoats as a shield to justify their actions, whether on a conscious or subconscious level.

I believe that the true circumstances that lead to violent behavior lie in the way that the individual percieves his or her environment. This perception is formed from the beginning of the individuals life. We all know that conditioning is possible in humans, conditioning is not something that is just actively done with motive but can also occur without the conditioner(s) knowing that they are doing it. There is also the prevalent instincts that humanity has subdued through it's history of creating civilization. These instincts include defense of person, property, territory and family. There are people in every generation who have to face these instincts... even here in our civilized first world country. There are children who grow up being the punch-line to many demeaning and discouraging jokes as well as the target of attacks. The issues we should be looking at is the development of our people not video games.

I take this position because I understand that stresses faced while in the stages of development greatly effect the individuals behavior. Now some people would say that these incidents 'build character' and no doubt will, the question is what character traits are being built. It's a known fact that those who've been abused are likely to later abuse. I find it more offensive that education and social funding gets cut across the board and then the same people who cut funding for those programs wonder why there are these problems in our society.

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