Bagley 1

Brandon Bagley
Mrs. Allison
Period 1
December 9th, 2014

Video Games Are Never Going To Be The Cause Of Massacres

Video games? The main cause for violent acts? Nope. First of all, as you can see, many people
play violent video games, right? Do they commit mass murders? Secondly, there is a fine line between
fantasy and reality. Lastly, it will never be just one thing but a combination of things. Video games
have never been the cause of violence acts, and they never will be.
To begin, in paragraph six of,Do Violent Video Games Lead To Real Violence? Kathy Royer
states, Nothing is ever just one thing. Its a combination of things. Which can lead to the conclusion
of how we could blame such as, what kind of environment the man or woman was in? We could also
blame the family or friends for their actions that might have influenced the person to commit these
wrongdoings. Another quote from Kathy Royer in paragraph 3 it says, when someone shoots like
that theres mental illness and then theres evil. You could relate to the Sandy Hook Massacre,
when Adam Lanza shot those people, was there evil, or was there mental illness? If you look at that
same paragraph it states that there is some research to prove that video games can lead to aggressive
behavior. Then read the next paragraph. It says, But assigning blame solely to video games is a
mistake, according to Royer. There is very little data that can prove that video games can lead to
aggressive behavior or violent acts. They have enough data to prove that Adam Lanza has had some
mental illness encounters during his lifetime. Now you know violent acts will be mainly caused by
mental illness or just plain evil.

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Secondly, there is a fine line between virtual worlds and reality. For example, in article one Do
Violent Video Games Lead To Real Violence? it states, One of the most violent video games is Call
Of Duty. Seriously? A 3D first-person shooter should not be the cause of a real-life situation.
Additionally, in article two, Do Violent Video Games Lead To Real Violence? paragraph 5 it says,
16 year-old Evan Ramsey brought a shotgun to his Alaska high school and shot four people, killing
two. to add onto that, He played a lot of the sci-fi horror game Doom in which you have to shoot a
character many times before he dies. So now if you shoot someone multiple times in a video game it
automatically makes you a suggestion to possible murders. Last example, in article 2 paragraph 10 it
states, Even an obvious relationship between virtual aggression and real-life aggression, like acting
out the specific behaviors in Grand Theft Auto isnt necessarily one of cause and effect. Ok, so now
playing video games is a crime? That is ridiculous. To conclude this paragraph, video games are good
for boys and girls, they allow them to let out anger they cant let out in real life. Imagine taking that
away, that could lead to terrible things.

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Thirdly, if video games are causing a little bit of violence does that matter? You can not give
video games all of the blame, think of the mans/womans environment they live in. First of all, in
article 2, paragraph 16 it says, In the 1960s, rocknroll made kids do drugs. to add onto that, in the
80s, heavy metal music was causing teens to commit suicide. Still think video games are the only
reason for these massacres? If so, maybe this will convince you, in article two, paragraph 17 it states,
A 2000 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology had college students play
video games and then engage in a competition that ended with the winner punishing the loser with a
loud audio blast. Does that allow us to blame music now? That is not enough evidence to blame
music either. Last piece of evidence, article 2 paragraph 18 it says, A meta-analysis reported in the
journal Psychological Science in 2001 noted several common conclusions among previous video-game
studies, notably reports of a fight or flight response in children playing video games. Which leads
to the conclusion of, Their heart rates and blood pressures increased, and their adrenaline glands
released adrenaline. So apparently whenever your heart rate or blood pressure everyone thinks youre
going to go kill someone now. Of course not. Your heart rate increases rapidly when finishing a
workout, and your blood pressure increases when you smoke or when you get older. All in all, you can
not solely blame video games for mass murders or massacres, but blame multiple things.
To counter your negative thoughts about video games, there is definitely some evidence that
video games have caused a tad bit of violence. If you look at a modern-day teenage boy or girl playing
a game such as Call Of Duty or Battlefield you will see them getting angry or screaming things
such as, I shot him in the head! or, You are going to die! Yes, the video games are very violent
nowadays, but it is very rare if it effects you outside of the simulation. There has been research on
people punishing others with a blast of music if they lost and such. There is also research that has
shown that in the 80s there was a lot of young teenagers committing suicide because of heavy metal

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music, to add onto that, in the 60s, rocknroll made teens do drugs, so music is also suspect to
violence. There have also been studies shown that the environment has effected people in some
situations. To conclude, there is enough research to blame video games for a very tiny amount of
violence, but other issues contribute much more.
Lastly, video games are never going to be the main problem for violence. Dont forget about how
many young men and young women play video games and dont go on committing mass murders, or
that there is a fine line between virtual worlds and reality, lastly dont forget about its never just one
problem, but multiple problems. Before you ever consider blaming video games for violence, research
a little deeper or just read this article a few times to understand why they are not the main cause of
violence.

Works Cited

1. "Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence?" Www.ohio.com. Web. 07 Jan.
2015. <http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-real-violence-

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1.375519>.

2. "Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence? - HowStuffWorks." HowStuffWorks. Web.
04 Jan. 2015. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-violence.htm>.