XD Talk

**eric_t12** · 06-12-2007, 12:48 PM

I hesitate to call games like grand theft Auto realistic, but some people seem to think just because the graphics look real you can really just go into an alley and find body armor and a 20 firebomb bottles.

my question is -

do games like these make people violent?

i dont want to ask if they make people act like they are in the games, because as soon as it happens then the answer is invariably yes, but do you think they really make people violent like the 'woe-is-me'ers' say? i say no, no more than movies, or books, or the news. there will always be a nut who thinks the book is about real life, or the news is showing how far crime goes/pays. I just watched a CSI Miami about it, and it brought up the post in my head.

matchstick · 06-12-2007, 12:56 PM

I don't think they have much effect. To be specific, I don't think playing any game like that will induce a CHANGE in a person or child's behavior.

I do think that children with violent tendencies are drawn to violent games. But they would be violent with or without the games.

I also think that children who DO NOT have violent tendencies, and can separate fantasy from reality also enjoy violent games.

But I think the way the child is raised and what the child is taught, and how the child is disciplined are what will CHANGE a child.

lobster_roboto · 06-12-2007, 12:59 PM

I played pinball the other day... it didn't make me want me to curl up in a ball and start ramming into everything.

jtkratzer · 06-12-2007, 01:07 PM

i don't think so at all. i think playing games is just that, a game, it's not the game that makes someone violent. i think someone that has issues with separating the game from reality would be more likely to act on the game, but as far as normal people go, i just don't see a connection.

Ishpeck · 06-12-2007, 01:11 PM

Being someone who's probably played more hours of DooM than any of the rest of you combined and having never commit homocide or done anything physically violent in my adult life, I can say with confidence: Video games don't make me violent.

CopeyXD · 06-12-2007, 01:32 PM

I don't believe so either.

I must say, after playing Need for Speed and then getting in my car, I want to go faster and pass on the wrong side of the road, But I don't

jtkratzer · 06-12-2007, 02:26 PM

playing any video game that involves sniping (I love it, I'm good at it, and it pisses people off, making me laugh at them when playing the games where you can talk to your opponents) does not make me want to start sniping my neighbors, even if I do suspect them of drug trafficking.