My Position Paper to graduate

[jebbers]

Violence is everywhere we look now. It’s in movies, video games, real life, newspapers, and everywhere else. The public has seen so much, that is has desensitized most adults and many children. Violence has really made a boom in the video game industry. More and more it is becoming widely popular amongst young teenagers. This boom in violence has led to some young teens to act out violently against their friends, family, and even people they don’t know.

 

Most violent games get in the hands of under aged players through their parents. The parents buy the video games and don’t bother to ask or read what they are about. They buy them to keep their children busy and don’t teach them the consequences of acting out their gruesome tendencies. Parents should be involved in their child’s life and keep a watchful eye on their video games and what they watch on television. A recent study has shown that the average American child will witness two hundred thousand acts of violence on television, this includes sixteen thousand murders, by the age of eighteen.

 

On February 25, 2004, police in the United Kingdom found the body of fourteen year-old Stefan Pakeerah. He was beaten to death by a claw hammer and stabbed, it was later discovered that Stefan was murdered by his best friend, seventeen year-old Warren LeBlanc. The two had been playing a video game called “Manhunt”, in which both the claw hammer and knife are used to kill enemies. The game is Stefan’s father, Patrick Pakeerah calls for a ban on this game because of the death of his son Police believed that the two were acting out a scene in the game and it went too far.

 

Another violent act was committed on October 2, 2002. Influenced by the violence in video games was Lee Boyd Malvo,17, and John Allen Muhammad,41, better known as the Beltway Snipers, went on a three-week shooting spree. The two killed 10 people in the Washington, D.C. suburban area. They used the video game “Halo” to practice and improve their sniping skills. Their victims weren’t planned, they were random targets.

 

The ages of video game players ranges from 7 on up. The younger the player is and the more violent the game is, the more the young child will have violent outbursts. At such a young age, children imitate what they seen and hear. Seeing such violence will lead them to believe that, that is how life is meant to be lived. Age plays a big role in video games.

 

Though not all of America’s youth are easily warped by the violence in video games, there is a bonus to the violence. In the article The Problem of Video Game Violence Is Exaggerated, Greg Costikyan, game developer and author of four novels, states “However, violence is only part of the whole aesthetic in most games...first-person shooter games actually benefit society because they allow players to express their violent impulses in ways that are not antisocial.” He and others believe that the violence in video games only influence the “weak minded” and not those who can tell the difference between real life and fiction.

 

The violence in video games does lead to violence among teenagers and adults. Parents don’t monitor their children’s games, which causes them to act out in violent ways. The age of the video game players can effect their outbursts. The court cases that involve rampages sparked by violent video games are proof enough, that minds are profoundly affected by the graphic killings in games.

 

 

 

 

this is my position paper on the violence in video games and its corruption on youth. i know you guys will say it should go in the Senate Chambers, but i want to hear your opinions on my paper... what else should i add/remove or mention?

 

lemme get your opinions...its not totally done yet so ill post the rest when its finished!

 

EDIT- i finished and posted the final

[IG-64]

Must.. resist.. arguing...

 

XP

 

Well, although I disagree with it completely, it's pretty well written and has some nice material.

[El Sitherino]

Violent media can't be blamed for people acting out violently.

[Samuel Dravis]

Originally posted by IG-64

Must.. resist.. arguing...

x2.

 

But I think it's fine if that's the way you feel about it...

[jebbers]

i forgot to add that this, personally, isnt my take on violence in video games. i chose it because it was easier than something i didnt know. there was much more facts to back this up than there was to say that violence in gmaes doesnt cause violence amongst youth.

 

and dont hold back let me hear your arguements/opinions

[TK-8252]

People who act violently because of media/games are already mentally unstable. Parents should concentrate on raising mentally-stable children instead of blaming the media and gaming industries.

 

But it is well-written and impressive, with support to back it up.

[Vikinor]

Mostly it is the parents fault. I saw a kid in Wal-Mart get Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and he was only about 6 or 7 possibly even 5. I have some M rated games that are violent but I can tell that you can't go out and do that stuff in real life. My dad buys me basically all my games. I think he lets me get M rated games because I am mature enough to handle them and know that I can't run around outside on a killing spree.

[IG-64]

the point about Halo, that could've easily been a shooting range, or even cans set up outside.

[ET Warrior]

Your paper doesn't have a strong thesis statement in the first paragraph. (doesn't really have ANY thesis statement) Your thesis should be the basis around which your entire essay is written, especially since it's a position paper and therefore argumentative.

 

Your opening paragraph should introduce your argument through your thesis statement, and also give a basic outline of where you are going in your paper. Then in subsequent paragraphs you can really start the argument.

 

 

Edit - you also need some sources to cite, otherwise it looks like you're making up your facts

[Mike Windu]

The Columbine shooting was influenced by Doom so they say.

[ET Warrior]

Originally posted by Mike Windu

The Columbine shooting was influenced by Doom so they say.

 

I have a hard time believing those kids decided to shoot up their school while playing a shooter game that involved shooting demons from hell. Now if their high school was actually the portal to hell, and those students they killed were the spawn the erupted from said portal....THEN I might buy that argument.

[Vikinor]

Hey maybe they got high before they did it and they saw demons and stuff. And I dont think jebbers needs any sources because I have heard about the violent content in video games before on the news.

[TK-8252]

Originally posted by VikingLarz

Hey maybe they got high before they did it and they saw demons and stuff.

 

Then the problem was the intoxication, not the game. Think.

[Vikinor]

Think what?

[Acrylic]

Originally posted by VikingLarz

Think what?

 

Think before you speak.

 

If someone got high and intoxicated to the point of where they didn't know what they were doing , they shouldn't have had a violent weapon around in the first place.

 

Again, it's definately not the games' faults.

[Tyrion]

Originally posted by Acrylic

Think before you speak.

 

If someone got high and intoxicated to the point of where they didn't know what they were doing , they shouldn't have had a violent weapon around in the first place.

 

Again, it's definately not the games' faults.

 

Eh, I really don't see how games inspire violence. You don't exactly see teenagers saving up thier lunch money to buy an ak-47 to gun down the school, nor do you see brilliant-nerds creating lightsabers only so that they can act out thier Sith fantisies.(not to be confused with Sith Fantasies, which are InsaneSith's unusual hentai fantasies)

[wassup]

What are you graduating from with this paper?

 

Like ET said, most essays in high school and all essays in college require a recognizable thesis statment that you would base your arguments on in the body paragraphs. Here's some tips to kind of illustrate what I'm talking about.

 

Please don't take this as an implication that your essay sucks. Far from it, your essay brings up valid, clear points and has credible references, you just need to tie it together into a proper essay format.

[Mike Windu]

Whoa whoa whoa. What's everybod jumping on Mikey for.

 

Not that I don't enjoy that, but *ahem*

 

I remember the killers claiming that their influence came from Doom.

 

Although I disagree and think that violence in video games does not result in violence in the world, it would be useful in his paper because it is such a well known incident.

 

And uh... I just guessed that it wasn't a high school paper. No MLA/APA format, parenthetical citations, etc...

 

>_>

[Rogue15]

I say it's a good paper...only to graduate with though, hopefully your teachers are anti-gamers and agree with it.

 

as for the halo to practice sniping..

 

you've never fired a rifle, have you?

 

I think there's some truth to the violent gaming making for violent youth. But you have to take into consideration the age at which they're playing the game. Which is why there is the ESRB, that parents SHOULD follow. heh I only started playing violent games (starting with Turok: dinosaur hunter) at age 15. imo any age younger than that...the parents shouldn't allow them to play those kinds of games.

 

 

@TY: i'm saving up money to buy an M16A2. But only to practice for weapons qualification before i go back to basic.

[GothiX]

Games don't teach you how to fight. games don't teach you how to shoot a gun. Games don't show you where to get a gun. games don't tell you to shoot your neighbour, friends or classmates. Games are a way to unleash your anger WITHOUT actually hurting anyone, thus, games are good.

[El Sitherino]

Originally posted by Tyrion

(not to be confused with Sith Fantasies, which are InsaneSith's unusual hentai fantasies)

Pffft.

 

Anyway, teen violence has always been around. Video Games are meant to entertain, anyone that cannot draw a line between reality and fantasy is mentally unstable and if the parents hadn't seen it by the time the person was 12, the parents should have equal punishment in the matter. Noticing your kid is on a path that could lead to destruction and ignoring it is not a good thing. We've had violent entertainment for a while, only recently (late 70's) have we gotten a more realistic type violence, as in no characters come back to life suddenly. (cartoons, as they are the most often attacked)

 

There is no credible evidence to support the theory that violent media can attribute to violent behaviour. Most studies claiming to are influenced. I've partaken in many studies, myself, my case was left out of a (few) study(s) because I didn't exhibit violent behaviour after playing a game, whereas some of the other kids (ranging from 9 to 18) did. Most of the kids acting violently were under the age of 15. Only 2 out of the 20, 17-18 year olds acted out. And before we even played you could tell they were mentally unbalanced.

 

The thing is certain people have a pre-disposition towards violence. But all people have a pre-disposition toward aggression. The key is how we handle our aggression, and how we keep the violence in line.

 

If violent media creates violence, why doesn't sugar coated bubblegum media create peace? Because media only influences those with a mind already on the border of those feelings. People leading toward violence, tend to act out violently. And on occassion violent media can push them over. Sugar coated happy people will see a sugar coated happy media and feel "inspired" to do good? Perhaps, perhaps not.

 

It's about individual human behaviour, not entire human behaviour.

[jebbers]

nicely said Sithy...i agree with you

 

@ET- I cited my work

 

@wassup- im graduating form high school and this is one of many essays i have to do, and thats for the link

 

@Rouge 15- if the rifle question was directed at me..then yes i have fired many, many rifles

 

to everyone else...thanks for your helpful critism

[toms]

It reminded me of the style of a lot of articles i've seen in the press.

 

It's very innacurate, but I'm not clear whether the purpose is to be accurate, or to argue a position (in which case it does the later fairly well, though it does deviate from the facts).

 

If it is designed to be accurate, or show both sides then you might want to mention:

- The copy of manhunt in the UK belonged to the victim, not the killer.

His parents knew he had it, but didn't stop him playing.

The police concluded it had nothing to do with the killing.

The killing was a robbery to pay off drug debts.

The press made a big fuss about it when it could be linked to the game, campaigning to have it taken off shelves etc.. they made no mention whent he game was cleared. Would make a good subject for an essay on press practices.

The game was cert 18 anyway, and none of this fuss is made about other adult media such as film.

 

- The majority of computer game players are over 18 these days.

 

- The US army has released a free "learn to shoot and kill" demo to recruit people... are they encouraging kids to kill?

 

[Kurgan]

Originally posted by ET Warrior

I have a hard time believing those kids decided to shoot up their school while playing a shooter game that involved shooting demons from hell. Now if their high school was actually the portal to hell, and those students they killed were the spawn the erupted from said portal....THEN I might buy that argument.

 

They played Doom and made a video of themselves before the shooting where they said "It'll be just like f***ing Doom!"

 

One (or both) of them also released custom made Doom maps (which sucked, from the reviews I've read, just lots of monsters crammed into some bland hallways).

 

The argument against the idea that Doom causes violence is that while the Columbine killers had a tie to Doom, Doom is an old game. It came out in 1993-4 (Doom2, various expansions). Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have played that game on some platform or another. Are they all also killers?

 

Likewise there are far more violent and "realistic" games made since then, and are being played by far more people.

 

Who many people played Doom at the time of Columbine's massacre? A good number, but very few compared to modern games. Doom was already a "forgotten classic" by that time. What was keeping it alive was the release of the Source code by ID Software so people could make mods of it that would work and look better on modern systems (but still inferior to modern games).

 

So right there statistically you could say that out of the millions who played a game, only a small number became murderers.

 

Then there's the issue of correleation (he killed somebody and played a game) does not equal causation.

 

There may have been other reasons why the deed was done. We could try to blame the clothes he wore, the food he ate, what religion he practiced, what political philosophy he aspired to, people who hung out with, his parents. Or maybe he was on drugs or just crazy. There's lots of things.

 

Perhaps a crazy person will play a violent game and "get ideas." That's entirely possible.

 

Likewise studies have shown that young children who play lots of video games and watch lots of TV have shorter attention spans. This could mean that these media exposure CAUSES shorter attention spans at early stages of child development. OR it could be that people who already have shorter attention spans are ATTRACTED to those sorts of things.

 

Likewise studies have shown that children who play violent video games and consume violent media are "more aggressive." Of course being aggressive and committing violent crimes are different things (it's a matter of degree). Likewise, when does a "child" stop being a "child" and become an adult, who can control their aggression and thus safely consume violent media that might increase aggressive tendencies?

 

Some people perhaps "never grow up." People who start bar room brawls and do other stupid things like that haven't learned to control themselves or they simply don't care. There is something wrong with them, even when there are serious consequences of their actions, they still do the stuff and get in trouble.

 

Then there's the question of freedom. Can artists sell art that might inspire certain people to abuse it? Anyway, fascinating topic. Good luck with your paper....

[Rogue15]

how could halo help someone become a sniper?