AFH PHOTO//GILFORD MURPHY
Video games have been phenomenal since the 1970s. Games such as “Ping Pong,” “Space Invaders,” “Asteroids,” “Atari Football,” and “Lunar Lancer” have been putting smiles on the faces of players for years.
Recently, violent video games have taken over the gaming world. Games such as “Diablo 3,” “Mortal Kombat X,” “Fallout 4” and the “Call of Duty” franchise influence our everyday lives in a negative way. In “Grand Theft Auto V” (GTA), players are able to kill people, steal cars and rob banks. This sparked a huge controversy about whether these types of games are bad for kids.
Despite the controversy, many teens play hours of video games a day. DJ Camera, 15, of Dorchester, said he loves video games and plays both E rated (for everyone) and M rated (for mature) games. He likes E rated games like “FIFA,” and M rated games like “GTA 5,” but leans more toward the M rated side.
Erick Garcia, 16, of Dorchester, said he prefers M rated games because of all the violence.
How does participating in violence through video games affect its players? The fact that the military uses video games to help train soldiers might clue us in. It's a scary thought to think that teens have access to the same type of software as soldiers. According to the Atlantic, the military has used video games “at every organizational level for a broad array of purposes… to recruit soldiers, to train them, and, most recently, to treat their psychological disorders such as PTSD.” While the games used to train soldiers and those available in any gaming store may be different, simulating this type of violence can have an impact.
The American Psychological Association (APA) lists violent video games as one risk factor among many for aggressive behavior. In a CBS report, Dr. Craig Anderson, Director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University, said, “Playing a violent video game isn't going to take a healthy kid who has few other risk factors and turn him into a school shooter, but it is a risk factor that does drive the odds for aggression up significantly.”