Thesis Proposal
Every day after school I would plop myself down in front of the TV and play my favorite stress releasing activity, video games. Recently they have come under attack, saying many bad things about them. Videogames do not hurt our youth. Many people don’t know that video games actually can improve a person’s life. I will persuade you in a well written essay, filled with hard faces that video games are not evil, like everyone makes them out to be. I will defend this thesis: Video games have been said to be too violent and cause too many negative effects, but people never talk about the many positives that weigh out the negatives. Video games can improve people’s lives.
Outline
I introduction
A. Hook: Example of a killer made from videogames.
B. Thesis. Video games can improve peoples overall lives
C. Menu
1. Back round information on videogames
2. Back round information on video game violence
3. Negative effects of video games
4. Positive effects of video games.
II. Background information on video games
A. how video games were developed
III. Background information on video game violence
A. How the video game violence developed with controversy
IV. Negative effects of video game violence
A. Studies done on video game violence
B. Survey results
C. Peoples opinions on video game violence
V. Positive effects of video games
- Actual positive effects of video games
- Survey results
- Peoples opinions about video game violence/ parents negligence
VI. Conclusion
A. Restate thesis
B. Summary of proof
C. Final conclusion
A video game behind much controversy is a game called “Grand Theft Auto 4”. This game sold 35 million copies and made over two billion dollars. In Alabama three men were killed, two of them police officers. These men were killed by a young boy named Devin More, who had played this game for hours on end after its release. The game allows you to basically do anything you want, and encourages the player to commit violent acts. A local lawyer, Attorney Jack Thompson who brought the lawsuit said, “What we are saying is that Devin More was, in effect trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator” (Bradley). Devin bought the game as a minor, against the rating for age on the game. His victims were Ace Mealer a 911 dispatcher, James Crump and Arnold Strickland, both police officers. Young Devin had no previous criminal actions in his past, so he was the last person you would ever think to commit such a violent act. Devin was taken into the police station by Ace Mealor for suspicion of stealing a motor vehicle. While at the station Devin jumped on Ace, grabbed his gun and shot the police officer. He then walked down the hall and shot the 911 dispatcher James Crumpt and proceeded to steal a police cruiser. When captured Devin said, “Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime” (Bradley). Local reporter Ed Bradly asked “Can a video game train someone to kill” (Bradley)? A local psychologist David Walsh said that video game violence effects teens more than everyone else because teen’s brains are different than others. There are certain parts of the brain that are still under development including the decision making part, the prefrontal cortex (Ed Bradley). Was Devin’s decision to kill these people caused by the video game he had played?
Video games have been seen as too violent and they have been said to hurt the children who play them, but no one bothers to look at the benefits of video games. Video games can improve people’s lives.
Video games were developed a long time ago, intended to be a tool of fun and enjoyment. Unfortunately as the video game industry advanced more and more, so did the video game violence they developed. Playing violent video games has been said to increase a person’s violent behaviors and acts. There have been many studies conducted to test if these playful tools do cause a person to become more aggressive. As people began to think more about the negative effects of video games, so did the thought that video games could actually help a person. Like the negative effects of video games, the positive effects began being tested. To most peoples surprise video games did indeed have positive effects on its players. Another surprise was that parents were still buying the violent games for kids.
Video games made their first showing around 1970 (Kooijmans). A man named Doules came up with the first graphical computer game, “Tic Tac Toe”. William Higin Bothan developed the first video game “Tennis for two”. At the National Laboratory Oscilloscope in 1960, Steve Russell came up with “Space War” the first computer game. The next step up was when Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabhet invented the well known game of “Pong”. Later that year the same two men came up with the first home consol. It was called the Odyssey. It was programmed with twelve different games a player could enjoy with the whole family (Bellis). As the game industry grew, a hidden evil was also growing; the evil was the violence that these games produce.
In 1976 a company called Exide released a violent video game named “Death Race”. During the game the player would drive around in a vehicle and hit gremlins that were on the road. Because the graphics in the game were so primitive, there was only an occasional debate over it, but video game graphics began improving and with it came more realistic violence (Paprocki). In 1990 a game called “Mortal Kombat” was released. This game consisted of actors fighting one on one, with extreme amounts of gore. The game also let the player kill his opponent at the end of the fight. Parents began erupting with anger at such violence being shown in a video game, so Congress decided to hold a hearing. They demanded that the makers of the game must the violence or the game would be pulled from stores; so the game makers complied. Because of such violence being released, the first rating system for video games was created (Paprocki). Along with the rating system, a board was created; the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Gaming companies would pay the ESRB to appropriately rate there games to ensure that their game would not be pulled from store shelves (Paprocki). In 1998 the most controversial game series would begin, “Grand Theft Auto” (Paprocki).
The game had various missions that consisted of murder, robbery and illegal drugs. It was released on many systems including the Segar Dreamcast. When the next game of the series, “Gta San Andrea” was released parents and Congress were furious. The game was more realistic than its predecessors because it was at a street level point of view, and it allowed players to murder and steal anything. The game was banned from certain countries because of the violence (Paprocki). The controversy was even more ignited when a hacker found a hidden sex sequence within the game and released it to the public. The public turned their anger toward the ESRB for not rating the game adult only rating. The ESRB claimed since the sex sequence was not part of normal game play, they had never seen it. Instead of changing the rating of the game to adult only, The company who had created the game, Rockstar Games pulled all of the copies of “Gta San Andreas” off of store shelves. They then deleted the sex sequence from the game, and it was put back on store selves later that year. The game company would go on to release a number of games in the “Grand Theft Auto” series (Paprocki).
With such controversy behind the violence within video games, people began wondering what effects it had on the children who played these games. A few years ago a study was conducted at a college, were students volunteered to participate. The study was about the student’s video game usage, and how much aggression did they feel after playing them. The studies showed that if the students had played violent video games, they would act out in more violent ways then normal (Holmes)
A second study was done that looked at the effects of actual video game violence. “Subjects were college students who played either a violent video game “Wolfensten 3-D” or a non-violent game “Myst”” (Holmes).These games had been chosen in the study because they differed only in the degree of violence in the game. After the students had played the game they took some tests and participated in a “competitive reaction time task”, where they were told that they were playing against another student. They were also told that they could blast the other students with a noise if they won, and that they could vary the intensity and duration of the blast. Students in both groups blasted their opponent longer and louder following the trials when they had lost and their opponent had just blasted them. Students who had played “Wolfenstein 3-D” blasted their opponents longer and louder on such trials then students who had played “Myst”. Female students blasted their opponents longer and louder on all trials than male students. The results were published in 2000 and they showed that playing violent video games can increase a person’s aggressive thoughts, feeling and behavior (Holmes).
Another survey was given to students ages 14-19 of Rockport High School, titled “Violent Video Games”. The students answered ten questions anonymously and were told to answer truthfully. The surveys showed that the students had a higher level of aggression after playing a violent video game, most students owned more violent than non-violent video games, and that they lied to their parents about the amount of violence in the video game so that the parents would buy the game for the kids.(Mortillaro, Violent….)
So, does violence in video games have a negative effect on its players? The answer is yes it does. Video game violence can cause a user’s aggression level to increase and sometimes cause them to act out in very aggressive ways, which can end up hurting innocent people. But do video games cause all negative effects, or are there some positive ones?
Video games have been said to be anti-social, very violent and just overall bad for you, and those people are right, but only if the player plays for many hours a day. If they play like this the negative effects of video games will show; but if they play for a reasonable amount of time, the positive effects will show. Most people nowadays would rather play a video game or watch T.V with their free time, and some will watch T.V because they think video games are bad for you; but playing video game is actually better for you than watching T.V. By playing a game you are stimulating your brain, but watching T.V causes much less stimulation of the brain (Oak).
Playing video games also improves a person’s problem solving, planning and estimation skills. During video games you sometimes have to make many decisions, like when to use what and how to use different items. By doing these things the player’s “analytical estimation, resource management and quick diction making skills improve” (oak).
There are also many kids around the world that have an inferiority complex disorder (lack of self control). These children have been proven to benefit from playing video games. They also can be used as therapy for people with mental disorders. The patients with the mental disorders gain a sense of participation and achievement from playing video games, thus helping there disorders. They also gain self control from the games (oak).
A study was conducted by a man named Butch Rosser about how well surgeons preformed if they had played video games. The results showed an amazing thing, that surgeons who had played video games operated better than those who hadn’t plated video games (Oak).
Another survey was conducted in Gloucester Ma on March 11 2010; it was to see how aware parents were in the games their children played. The survey titled “Are Parents aware”, asked the parents to play one of their children’s games and report back how violent it was. The results showed that parents thought that most of their children’s games were way more violent than the parents first thought. One parent left a comment on the survey saying “I can’t believe I bought this game for my child, I played it for ten minutes, and I was shocked to see all of the blood and carnage and the strong language with in it.” Another comment said “I asked my son if the game was violent before I bought it for him, and he claimed it wasn’t, so I bought it for him, and now I find out he lied to me. This game is very violent”(Mortillaro, “Are…”).
Parents all around the world have been blaming the video game creators for the violent games they have been releasing, but is it really their fault? Many kids are getting these games from their own parents! A Facebook user (who asked to remain anonymous), when asked about the topic said “Why would you buy a game that violent for your kids, and then complain the game is too violent” (Dell Mart)? Parents are complaining that their kids are playing violent video games, but they should be blaming themselves. They should talk to their kids about these topics of violence, but they don’t. You lie to your kids constantly about Santa and the tooth fairy, things that you don’t think is a big deal, but it is to them. This will create a barrier between you, and your child will never come to you and ask about the violence in the video games they see, then when you ask them if the game they want is violent, they will think it’s not a big deal and lie right back to you (Rujinx Ero).
There are cases, like the one with Devin Moore that people go on a rampage after playing a violent videogame and end up killing innocent people. Most of the people that do these things have some sort of a mental disorder. These are the people who should be kept away from violent video games, but not the mentally stable people. Parents seem to want to get rid of all the violent video games, but that’s not the solution. The solution is for the parents to watch how their children act and behave and then decide if their children can handle playing these violent games, and parents will find most people can handle playing them.
Video games have been seen as too violent, and they have been said to hurt the children who play them, but no one bothers to look at the benefits of video games. Video games can improve people’s lives.
Video games were developed a long time ago, intended to be a tool of fun and enjoyment. Unfortunately as the video game industry advanced more and more, so did the video game violence they developed. Playing violent video games has been said to increase a person’s violent behaviors and acts. There have been many studies conducted to test if these playful tools do cause a person to become more aggressive. As people began to think more about the negative effects of videogames, so did the thought that video games could actually help a person. Like the negative effects of video games, the positive effects began being tested. To most people’s surprise video games did indeed have positive effects on its players. Another surprise was that parents were still buying the violent games for kids.
Video games have been around for a very long time. There has been much controversy carried with them through the years about many different things, but no matter what they are said to do or cause; video games will never go away.
Works Cited
Bellis, Mary. “ Computer and Video Game History.” About.com. Web. 15 March 2010
Bradley, Ed. “Can a Video Game Lead to Murder?” 60 minutes. Web. 2 February, 2010 .
Dell Mart. Interview by Thomas Mortillaro. Facebook chat Room. 03 March, 2010 .
Holmes, Leonard. “Violent Video Games Produce Violent Behavior.” About.com. 09 November, 2005. Web. 3 February, 2010 <5http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/a/vidgameviolence.htm>.
Kooijmans,Thomas. “Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors During Development.” personalityresearch.org. December 2004. Web. 8 March, 2010 <2http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html>.
Mortillaro, Thomas. “Are Parents Aware?” Survey. 3 April, 2010. Print
Mortillaro, Thomas. “Violent video Games.” Survey. 28 March, 2010. Print
Oak, Manali. “Positive Effects of Video Games.” Buzzle.com. Web. 4 February, 2010 .
Paprocki,Matt. “Video Game Violence: A History”. GoogoBits.com. GoogoBits.com. 01 August, 2005. Web. 12 March, 2010 <1 http://www.googobits.com/articles/1854-video-game-violence-a-history.html>.
Rujinx Ero. “Video Game Violence.” Google. 09 May, 2008. 18 March, 2010 .
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