Are video games evil?

[Racoon]

Glitch!

[Racoon]

OK here it is again... Hate when that happens..

They did study with the Violent Video Game Wolfenstein 3D, an older game yes.
Subjects were put in Cubicles and paired with an opponent. If they won the level, or beat something, they could administer an electric shock!! (or so they thought)

The other group played a non-violent Tetris like game, and the shock option was also available.

The result was those playing the Violent video game administered significantly more shocks to their opponents.
Especially the Female gamers!

I will try and find the research on this in my back files of papers and research assignments.

[Drip Curl Magic]

i spent a little too much time palying sonic the hedgehog as a kid... and as a teen, I've spent quite a bit of time playing CS.

my opinion... life is a balance. If you let video games take over your life.... then sure, they are bad. But as long as you balance out your life. Moderation, my friend.

Parents must teach their kids moderation.... and if done properly, no video game will ruin any kids life.

[Kriminal99]

IMO Video games will only get more and more like addictive drugs without the physically harmful side effects as they get more and more sophisticated.

I believe in life there are things that you want to experience, because when you experience them your brain gives you a chemical that makes you feel good. Normally, if for instance, you like seeing an attractive female smile, you might have to go to rediculous lengths in order to achieve it. You might think you have to get alot of money which in turn means being a shrewd investor or having a succesful career which in turn means doing good work etc.

But then come drugs... you take drugs and you get the chemical. That simple. People who don't do drugs look at a doped up homeless person on the side of the street and think, wow what a loser. Probably noone likes or cares about him. But what does it matter if people like or care about you? IMO such a statement boils down to "Theyre not getting their happy chemical".. But they ARE! They take a drug, and they get everything out of life that you do when you say go on a date with a hot girl and she comes home with you.

Video games are slightly different. The end result is, you can experience whatever you want to. Weather its real or not real, possible in the world we exist in or not possible. Video games are basically designed to show you things that get you your happy chemical.

Now I think there is a complicating element of this, but in general this is how I see video games. And I think it raises serious problems because if someone is getting everything out of life from a video game they could possibly want then how can you get them to stop? Do you have the right to get them to stop if they are happy? Etc etc.

We could quite possibly evolve into a race where the only production was life support to support our usage of some AI computer program designed for entertainment... Much more entertainment then soemone typically gets out of life...

[Racoon]

Originally Posted by Racoon

OK here it is again... Hate when that happens..

They did study with the Violent Video Game Wolfenstein 3D, an older game yes.
Subjects were put in Cubicles and paired with an opponent. If they won the level, or beat something, they could administer an electric shock!! (or so they thought)

The other group played a non-violent Tetris like game, and the shock option was also available.

The result was those playing the Violent video game administered significantly more shocks to their opponents.
Especially the Female gamers!

I will try and find the research on this in my back files of papers and research assignments.

Don't like quoting my own stuff, but I am!
Nice ideas presented by Kriminal...

To the question at hand....
Evil?? No.
Violent Video Games Do however Increase Aggressiveness.
Have you ever Went from watching a Documentary, to Playing Madden NFL??
You get More Aggressive!
Again I would allude to study I (and the class) spent 2 weeks in Psych 101..
sorry, blowing my own horn here

PS. Since Video Game Technology is relatively New, there is still no evidence of Long Term effects Yet.

[Jay-qu]

Yeah I sure dont believe it is - but it keeps getting blamed for it. My mum encourages me to both buy and play sport games rather than shoot and kill ones.. but like I said encourages me, and I do sometimes but not because of what she says just because I love amped 2

[cwes99_03]

Had an interesting quote from a magazine to post, but for some reason this thread has been dead to new posts.

Guess it is back up.

Basically it was a quote from a guy who wrote about training the millitary and how today's violent video games taught the skill and the will to kill better than any target practice at a shooting range.

Another article pointed out that violent video games are much more harmful to children than say watching a violent movie, largely because a child will play a video game for 60-100 hours to master it, while the same child will only watch a violent movie once or twice for and hour and half each time.

[Kriminal99]

Playing basketball makes you more aggresive when you are playing it. I don't understand what the point is about games which make you angry. The only thing I can figure is that real sports exhaust you as well and video games don't so in a video game you are more likely to feel like, "I am god and you dare defy me???" Where as in a real life sport you are more likely to pass out than beat someone up for using what you thought was a cheap trick. ALso your opponent is right htere so there is a force stopping you from getting angry... whereas a computer controlled or internet player controlled video game cannot react to your outbursts.

But still, the same thing about it that makes you more prone to getting angry makes it so you cannot do anything, you can't actually harm someone if they are not a person or a million miles away...

[arkain101]

my opinion would tell me that unresponsible parenting is what allows the games to become evil. When kids are not in a more structured enviroment that offers them more options and a sound opinion and reality towards games it can get really ugly... Before you know it kids spend so much time doing these games that it really does become a chunk of their reality. Now, I think the results vary to each kid alot and it cant be so cut and dry. If people have a reality check enought video games are harmless and honestly kind of boring when you are out there living up real things like that in the games.

The technology world was originated to help assist our lives. Now it has become the opposite and somehow enslaves so many of us, in our jobs, dailey life, free time... The big evil is thinking that our monkey brains can keep up with this high speed computing/processing world..

anyhow, there is so much that is not 'evil' .... but rather the human being is again the culprit to their reality.. kinda like guns dont kill people , people do..

heh.. they can be fun though once and awhile.

[cwes99_03]

I've played basketball all my life and never once gotten angry to the point of hitting or trying to kill someone. I don't pick up the basketball and whip it at someone's head hoping to break their neck or crush their skull.

Now, I have seen kids play cops and robbers with BB guns where someone gets shot.
I have seen paintballers (every single game in fact) get into a verbal and physical pushing battle hit each other. In those same games I have seen players say they just wished they had a real gun to blow the opponents head off because they disagreed with the way they were playing. Or cheering and laughing about hitting someone in the face or head with one of their shots. Seems to me that is a lot more evil than perhaps cheering that you made a three point shot at the buzzer.