Video Game Violence

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Josh Atkins                                                                                                              

English 1302

9 October 2006
Professor Austin
Video Games Taking The Heat For Parents And Politicians Everywhere
Video games have come a long way since they first made an appearance in the 1970's. As the years come and go, technology becomes faster, cheaper and more powerful which causes video game technology to become more visually impressive and easier to mass-produce to the public on a global scale. Games today are capable of unimaginable feats of unprecedented realism and a complete presentation almost perfectly resembling real life. It is the extreme realism of today's games that scares parents and politicians to fear that video games are slowly affecting those who play by causing short-term cases of aggression, especially in children and/or teens. Parents and politicians accuse games for some instances of violent behavior in children and critics deem video game developers and publishers responsible for releasing such untamed, mature content to children. With the increasingly overwhelming criticism of the public, many states have attempted, and in some cases have actually passed, certain restrictions on certain kinds of games. Many bills have been proposed to congress passing new restrictions on game content and the way games are sold with acts like the Truth in Video Game Rating Act, the Family Entertainment Protection Act and the Video Game Decency Act. However, the fault does not lie with the gaming industry and the rating system, but with the consumers, themselves, for not understanding that the variation of content in games is parallel to that of movies, music or television, and must be treated with the delicate knowledge that some content is not suitable for certain people or certain age groups.

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Almost identical to any other form of media out there, whether it is movies, music or television,... [continues]

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