Literature Review first draft

Literature Review

Daily Mail 2005 (Unknown writer) reports that violent video games damage the brains of young people. It stated scientific research conducted with a study in young people showing that violence causes damage to the frontal cortex that is linked to decision making and self control. The Daily Mail 2008 also reports about the game ‘MadWorld’ being released for Nintendo Wii onto a child friendly console. John Beyer 2008 states ‘This game sounds very unsavoury. 'I hope the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) will view this with concern and decide it should not be granted a classification.’ However, gamers themselves disagree. Luigi 2008 states ‘As a fan of Nintendo and Sega from the start, I think that MadWorld is a perfectly acceptable game and I'm positive that thousands of people share this opinion. ‘He continues: ‘Games are rated for a reason and if parents think a game is violent, they shouldn't buy it for their children.’

Robertson2007 writes: ‘If you're spending a lot of time with a game, it becomes your mental screen-saver, popping up when your brain isn't occupied. What if my screen dreams aren't of something as patently harmless as Puzzle Quest? What if they're of the stealth kills in Manhunt? I know that, if I've spent an entire weekend playing Halo and you stick me behind a crowd of slow-moving tourists, there's a split second when I wish I had my pistol.’

There are numerous opinions on this topic across the gaming industry. Gamers themselves are hugely against the way the media hold video games responsible for violence. Some statistics are used comparing the USA with Japan. DogEater008 2005 says ‘Japan is the biggest game industiral country, but yet, their crime rate relating to violence is much lower than ours (United States)’. Goldtupac 2005 adds more to this by saying ‘Yes people sometimes think that the world and video games is the same or whatever. But i know that video games don’t lead to violence. How? I know how because I have been playing video games since a youngster (5) but i have always been violent because of the way I was raised not how many video games I played. These studies are just false. In no way has video games made me more aggressive toward other people.’

The opinions in this debate range from one extreme to the other. The gamers are very much on the side of the videogames, saying that they have control over their actions and that games do not influence them. However at the other end of the scale we have those such as the media, constantly blaming games for violence.