Setting the Record Straight: Videogames Do NOT Cause Violence!
- Dean Willms
- Aug 23, 2019
- 10 min read
Updated: Sep 11, 2019
Videogames are an amazing tool for education, emotional connection, therapy, and of course for fun times. However, people are being butts claiming videogames are evil and bad influences for people...again. Most of you probably heard about the tragic shooting that happened at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas a couple weeks ago. A man armed with an AK-47 shot up a Walmart killing 22 people and injuring 24 others. It was truly a tragic and awful incident.
With mass shootings unfortunately becoming more and more commonplace in the US, the government and it’s political figures are pressed for a solution to this ongoing dilemma. So, what do they do? Well they point the finger at videogames, of course. According to Republicans, including President Trump, videogames are to blame for the increase of mass shootings across the United States, despite there being very little evidence connecting videogame violence to gun violence.
This isn’t the first time games have been held responsible as the cause for violent acts of terrorism. Games have always been given a bad rep ever since they were introduced into the home as consoles. Videogames have been said they rot the brain, make players antisocial, and cause violence in people who play them. When in fact, games can actually educate people and improve cognitive abilities, form relationships through online gaming and enhanced social interaction, and be a great way to relieve stress and work out pent up aggression.
When I heard that games were, once again, being blamed for causing violent tendencies in people, I kind of got sick of it. Videogames have been under fire for a bunch of issues for most of my life and I’ve always got frustrated hearing people blame videogames for problems they don’t cause. So, I wanted to set the record straight and write an article explaining why videogames don’t cause violence and most certainly don’t cause mass shootings.
Videogames Don’t Just Exist in the U.S.
Videogames have a huge market in the U.S. As of 2018, the United States revenue for games was 32 billion dollars and is continuously growing. 70% of Americans play games on one or more platforms, most commonly on their mobile devices. Not only that, but 90% of the games that are played contain some sort of violence.
By themselves, these statistics could be enough to make the correlation between violent videogames and violence in the U.S plausible. However, it’s a good reminder that the United States is not the only country in the world who has access to games.
While the U.S has a huge market in gaming, China is the leading country when it comes down to videogame revenue at 37 billion dollars as of 2018. Also, the whole world plays the same kind of games that America plays and for roughly the same amount of time. On average, gamers play about 6 hours a week all over the world.
Games are played by people all over the world and yet, the U.S seems to be the only country with a mass shooting issue and claiming that videogames are the problem. The chart below shows the sales of games and the amount of gun related violence in different countries. Japan and South Korea top U.S on per person gaming revenue and yet does not nearly have as much gun related violence as the United States does.
What is the Connection Between Violence and Violent Videogames?
Republicans and disgruntled parents have come to the conclusion that violent videogames instill violence in people who play them. More specificaly, they target games that are rated M for Mature, such as Call of Duty, in which players are able to take control of a gun shooter and kill people. However, there have been numerous studies on video games and violence that debunk these kinds of claims.
For instance, in 2017 only been 13% of games were assigned the ESRB rating of Mature. Over 50% of games in that same year were given an ESRB rating of E and E10+ for games. We’re talking about games like Hello Kitty and Pokemon here folks. It’s hard to believe that only a little over 10% of the games produced can have such a devastating effect on people, influencing them to commit mass murders.
Several studies have been conducted to determine if games and violence have any correlation with one another for almost 30 years. Many studies from the Department of Education, have found that since 1980, when the studies were first conducted, that violent behavior in youth between the ages of 12-17 years old have actually gone down over the years. This includes fights as schools, juvenile arrests, and violent crimes committed by this demographic group. All much lower now than they were 20-30 years ago.
One study in particular is very interesting as it compares videogame revenue and the amount of violent crimes committed between the years 1998-2015. Videogame sales have gone up tremendously since 1998 and interestingly enough, violent crimes have gone down as well. This isn’t to say that games have necessarily lessened crime, but it does completely debunk the claims that violence and videogames are connected. If videogames really did instill violence as many people claim, wouldn’t the amount of violent crimes go up with videogame sales?
The Ridiculous Claims Made by People about Videogames
Just because there happens to be violence in a videogame, doesn’t mean real life violence will follow. Politicians make the claim that violent videogames allow players to kill and inflict physical harm on NPC’s and other online players without consequences, making players believe that acting out in violence is appropriate and risk free. Some of the extreme opinions of these Republicans, say that videogames are teaching people to kill.
However, and I know this might come as a shock to you guys, videogames are not made for the sole purpose to encourage violence in the people who are playing them. They’re definitely not made to teach people how to kill either (which is just a wildly absurd conclusion to make). Game designers are not some wicked people thinking “You know what would be cool? What if we created a game that made people want to kill one another in cold blood?” No, of course they’re not thinking that. They just want to make fun games, but it's hard to do that when the public believes games are evil.
I mentioned before that some Republicans think violent videogames are bad because they encourage players to commit violence in the game without any consequences, which can translate into real life. However, a lot of the games that are being crucified as evil and teaching people how to kill, actually have boundaries set in place to discourage people from killing indiscriminately.
Take Call of Duty, for example. Call of Duty is one of the top games that is under fire because it most closely resembles the player committing gun violence. If people actually looked more into the game instead of making face judgments, they would know that those games don’t encourage indiscriminate violence.
If you play a modern Call of Duty game, you’ll typically see citizens running around in a frenzy when enemies are shooting up their hometown. If the player shoots too many citizens the mission that they are playing will fail and they will have to restart the mission from the last checkpoint. Consequences for their actions. The player knows that killing citizens produces a negative outcome, so they don’t do it and focus on killing the enemies.
Take GTA as another example. If the player kills people or commits any crimes like stealing a car, the cops will come after them and arrest or kill them depending on the severity of their crimes. This lets the players know that committing crimes will have negative effects, so they have to weigh those outcomes whenever they decide to commit a crime. Again, consequences for their actions.
This is simple programming in games to make sure players stay on task and complete in-game goals set up for them. But, it’s enough to teach players the common sense that actions do indeed have consequences and just because they’re playing a game in a fictional world doesn’t mean they can do whatever they want.
The game designers have a clear goal set for the players and the most basic goal they have for them is just simply have fun. That’s all games are at the end of the day. They are a form of entertainment. Not a tool for violent destruction. Maybe instead of the government pointing the finger at videogames for causing violence, they actually take the time to understand them and see the positive potential they have for people.
Am I a Killer for Playing Videogames? Are You?
Let’s take a personal testimony to prove this “theory” of violent games begetting violence. I for one have played and regularly play violent games. I’ve played Call of Duty, God of War, Skyrim, Devil May Cry, Bioshock, and GTA to name a few. These are just some of the games, people are claiming are the cause of violence in people.
However, I have played these games a hundred times over and I have not gone out to hurt anybody physically in an act of violence let alone kill someone because of my “exposure” to these “violent influences”. And of course I’m not the only one who is like this.
Thousands upon Millions of people play these same games and they’re not going out hurting people either. If someone is arrested for shooting someone and the cops find out he was playing Call of Duty or GTA that doesn’t automatically mean that those games caused his/her violent behavior.
Most people are pretty intelligent and know that games are not based in reality at all. A lot of people play games precisely because they are not grounded in reality. So, when a person kills an NPC or another person across the world on a game they have the sense to know they didn’t actually kill them nor do they believe that since they killed someone in a game they feel like they can do it real life.
Even if they do believe it’s ok to kill someone in real life because they did it a game, that doesn’t fall back on the game itself at all. The person, most likely, has bigger issues that contribute to this kind of mindset. They probably have delusional mental issues which make them believe something like violence or murder is ok.
A Severe Lack of Evidence!
The craziest thing about this absurd tie to gun violence and violent videogames is the severe lack of evidence to support this claim! According to psychologist, Patrick Markey, 80% of mass shooters showed no interest in violent videogames. 80%!
It makes sense to think that games or movies that show violence can have a negative affect on children and can influence people to create violent acts themselves. When news stations or politicians present this theory to people while showing videos of a person playing Call of Duty it's easy to connect violence and violent videogames together. This is especially true when they show clips of players handling guns similar to those used in common acts of gun violence and mass shootings.
Violence in these forms of media has always been a concern, especially to parents, because they are afraid of how these violent images will influence their children. I for one understand. I don't have children, but if I did I wouldn't want my 8 year old playing Call of Duty until I felt he/she was ready. Not because I'm afraid they'll turn violent by playing it, but because of the same reason why parents don't let their kids watch anything to sexual on TV. They want to make sure they are ready for this kind of stuff. Markey, for one, understands the connection and concern with parents and videogames, but he goes on saying “The problem is just the science, the data, does not back up that they actually have an affect.”
Markey is not the only one to say this. If you look up on google if games cause mass shootings or violence, you will find a ton of other sources, including reports from the Entertainment Software Association, saying there is no connection between the two and that data just simply doesn’t support the claim.
Check out this short news segment by CBS on violence in videogames!
Why do Videogames Still Get Attacked?
If the connection between mass shootings and violent games isn’t there, then why do videogames continue to get the blame? It seems like whenever a tragic string of violent crimes happens, somebody blames videogames on it, gets push back by legitimate science saying there’s no connection, and then it appears as the top story of the day on CNN 6 months later when another tragic event happens, like some kind of crazy passing of blame cycle.
I think when you have something as tragic and upsetting as the El Paso shooting, people are desperate for answers. They would rather blame something rather than nothing, or to just simply say “I don’t know”. People want something to blame and videogames have just always been a good scapegoat to use because its easy to present information in a way that makes videogames, and really any from of entertainment, seem like a liable culprit for all the insanity that goes on this country.
Television has been despised for numbing our kids’ brains , Pokemon has been convicted of being satanic, and games have been crucified for causing violence. All crazy and untrue statements made by people who don’t understand the media they’re seeing and looking for something to direct their anger, fear, and uncertainty at, in hopes of some sort of resolution.
It’s sad really. Games have such great potential for positive outcomes and it just gets dragged through the dirt by the news and social media. I know games are perfect and they have their flaws. But, they are far from being a danger to society.
Look, I’m not here to make some grand political stance on mass shootings. I’m not here to advocate gun control or anything like that. Honestly, I’m not sure what the best course of action is to handle the ongoing shootings that happen throughout the U.S.
What I do know, however, is that videogames have no connection to creating a wild, violent fire in shooter’s hearts and shouldn’t be blamed for our country’s debilitating problem of mass shootings. Videogames have been blamed for too long for all the wrong problems and need to stop being made out to be the devil.
So do me a favor, go out and share this post and let people know that games are not to blame and let’s take the conversation further in the comments! I’m looking forward to it!
Dean Willms
~Gamer. Designer. Friend
By the way, here's the links to all the information I gathered in the post, so you don't think I'm just pulling this stuff out of my butt:
Also, here's a few infographics showing facts of all the positive effects videogames have that is not talked about nearly enough on the news as this "videogames cause violence" crap is:
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