Further Argument

Further research has led me to this little tidbit about people who say video games are evil. This essay notes the publication bias effect, where media tends to completely rip into external problems instead of analyzing the perpetrator's morality itself when dealing with violence. Furthermore, they note that media tends to overblow the effects of video games on violence, claiming that minor statistical changes result in people becoming Stabby McStabberton. Scientists have to be careful not to let pre-existing assumptions get in the way of factual, unbiased research.

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178907000055

Debunking The Opposing Argument

No argument would be complete without taking the other position into account. Some people believe that violent video games do cause real-life violence. The article by Anderson and Bushman has a couple of key problems with it. The main one that sticks out at me is that they go on about how all types of violent media causes aggression in real life. However, that leads me to ask a simple question - how do you know it's video games in particular? Did you guys test out people who watched violent cartoons or read violent literature? Or did you have them watch (acted) violence in real life? If they provided similar increases in aggression to those you claim video games causes, wouldn't that imply that the problem lies with media in general? This, of course, would lead a rabid anti-video game crusader to imply that all media with any sort of violence or aggression should be banned. Everyone knows that some sort of meaningful conflict is the key to entertainment. Remove that, and you end up with meaningless bilge that goes nowhere. I know the example below is a bit... extreme, but do you really want to risk it?

Sources: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/sapp/VideoGames1.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtznjorbLLQ

Columbine

For my first (real) post, I have decided to show a basic structure of my arguments against "person + violent video games = Freddy Krueger", using the infamous Columbine shooting as a starting point and example. On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 13 and wounded 23 in the most violent school shooting in history. Critics immediately jumped on the opportunity and blamed the shooting on a combination of violent video games and bullying. Harris even created his own custom levels for the then-popular shooter game Doom. However, they were not created by video games. Little is actually known about why they did it, but several materials show that there were signs of them having narcissism and psychopathy. Furthermore, despite them playing video games and committing murders, very few people actually go on rampages like the ones sensationalized in the media. The most likely reason was that they were deranged maniacs who first lived out their violent fantasies through video games, and then in real life.

Sources: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90981-Ten-Years-Later-Videogames-Not-Responsible-for-Columbine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Harris_and_Dylan_Klebold

Welcome!

Hello, everybody! This blog is dedicated to figuring out whether video games cause people to become dangerous psychopaths, as many people claim. I intend to analyze several violent outbursts that were blamed on video games as well as several anti-video game spokesmen. Stay tuned!