Games and Violence... what do you think?

[cheat-master30]

You know all those stories saying how GTA and violent games are causing kids to become desensitised to crime/violence or the like? What do you think personally?

For me, I honestly don't think there's a connection, more that violent people would like violent games, not the other way around.

[Young Link Addict]

I don't think that causes kids to be violent. It's more about what environment you live in.

[Mr.L]

I'm pretty young yet I play violent games like TF2, Gmod, L4D, CoD WaW, but it has to do with if your mature or not. You have to remind yourself that their is a diffrence between games and life.

[Alba]

Games can spark violence, yes. But those who take games seriously probably don't have the mental age to match that of the age limit for the game their playing, so take it seriously, thus leading to violence.

That's what I believe anyway. Age ratings are there to stop stuff like this, but the mental age for the game isn't always reached by everybody playing it. It's just a shame, really that not everybody knows when to take a game seriously or not.

[NintenDan]

Games can spark violence, yes. But those who take games seriously probably don't have the mental age to match that of the age limit for the game their playing, so take it seriously, thus leading to violence.

That's what I believe anyway. Age ratings are there to stop stuff like this, but the mental age for the game isn't always reached by everybody playing it. It's just a shame, really that not everybody knows when to take a game seriously or not.
Spot on there. My thoughts exactly.

[Mario15632]

Honestly, the person playing the game should know the fine line between reality and life, and should know that these circumstances in the game should not be reflected in real life. Once again, mental age...

[Zexis]

Games can spark violence, yes. But those who take games seriously probably don't have the mental age to match that of the age limit for the game their playing, so take it seriously, thus leading to violence.

That's what I believe anyway. Age ratings are there to stop stuff like this, but the mental age for the game isn't always reached by everybody playing it. It's just a shame, really that not everybody knows when to take a game seriously or not.
I feel much the same.

To some degree, games do give me more violent thoughts, I think. When you're enjoying the violence, it's hard not to. Whether or not you act on the violent thoughts is a whole different story.

Example.

There's this little punk in my gym. Likes to insult other people in my class and is an all-around jerk. I imagined tearing into his flesh with a chainsaw bayonet (+1 for Gears of War.)

Sadly, I did not. Chainsaw bayonets are hard to come by.

[NintenDan]

Games can spark violence, yes. But those who take games seriously probably don't have the mental age to match that of the age limit for the game their playing, so take it seriously, thus leading to violence.

That's what I believe anyway. Age ratings are there to stop stuff like this, but the mental age for the game isn't always reached by everybody playing it. It's just a shame, really that not everybody knows when to take a game seriously or not.
I feel much the same.

To some degree, games do give me more violent thoughts, I think. When you're enjoying the violence, it's hard not to. Whether or not you act on the violent thoughts is a whole different story.

Example.

There's this little punk in my gym. Likes to insult other people in my class and is an all-around jerk. I imagined tearing into his flesh with a chainsaw bayonet (+1 for Gears of War.)

Sadly, I did not. Chainsaw bayonets are hard to come by.
Then there's a line between imaging violence and performing violence. A decent person probably wouldn't be able to hack somebody up right there and then. They can feel angry thoughts about harming somebody, but would they have the will power to murder that somebody in reality?

That's when the maniacs are seperated from the rest of us in my opinion.

[floof5467]

games do cause violence in people that want games to be real now most people want games to be real like i want the legend of zelda to be real but i dont want the moon to crash into the earth or ganondorf to rule the world witch means i dont want the zelda sereies to be real

[Chrisjh0223]

I believe that games have nothing to do with violence. Violent acts spawn from lifestyles, not a simple video game even if it involves going on killing sprees. It's an obvious difference between the game realm and reality.

[NintenDan]

Then there's a line between imaging violence and performing violence.

Wow, what an embarassing typo. I'd edit it, but I'm too lazy.

I agree with you also, Chris. Enviromental factors such as treatment as a child and what they were brought up to believe are the main factors.