Violence In Video Games example essay topic

Is There a High Degree of Violence in Video Games? Ever since their conception, video games have contained violence, violence being to cause pain or death onto other beings. From the earliest games to most advanced modern 1st person shooter violence plays an important role in games. Determining that violence is present in video games is easy and the answer is yes. The early games like Wonder Boy and Space Invaders contain violence, the later involves the player shooting and killing and many aliens as possible in wave after wave of attack. Wonder Boy contains violence in the form of the hero killing monsters that vanish upon death, the hero himself is subject to violence enemies shoot arrows, throw rocks and swing swords at him.

Upon death, the hero himself falls off the screen and the enemies disappear in a small explosion or puff of smoke. This is a common depiction of early video games is it violent, yes, is it a high degree of violence, that is a little harder to answer. The answer to this question is based very much on personal preference. Some people would argue that any violence at all is more then is acceptable, while others may argue that due to the lack of gore and the obvious 'cartoon' like appearance of the charters the violence is not a high degree at all. But what where to happen if gore was added and the cartoon appearance were to become much more realistic, with the passing of time new hardware and programming techniques this is just what has happened. In the modern popular game Goldeneye 007 bad guys no longer disappear in a cloud of smoke when killed, instead they perform an elaborate maneuver when killed.

Since Goldeneye 007 is a shooting game, maneuvers performed by dying enemy solders varies depending on where they get shot. Those shot in the foot hop around holding there feet while those shot in the neck fall to their knees and then face while clutching at their throats thus adding to the realism of the game. Lacking in this game is gore but this is more then covered in other popular games such as Unreal Tournament and Half-Life. In these games when characters get shot there is a large spray of blood that covers the walls and floor near the character, also on the occasions in which explosives are used characters burst into small but recognizable body parts. Now ask the same question about their being a high degree of violence in video games and almost every one would agree that yes there is. Even thought the level of realism and gore have increased it is harder to say that video games have become more violent over time, since the basic goal behind most games from any time is the kill everything and anything which get in your way.

Therefor one would have to conclude that video games have always contained a high degree of violence, but just now are the realism and gore levels catching up to the level of violence in games. With the exception of most sports games and educational games, video games have a high degree of violence but not all include the high levels of realism and gore that are possible. The violent video games are also the more popular games on the market. The reasons for the inclusion of violent content in many video or varied, but there seem to be two main ones. First is that games centered are easily to designed, for the designer all that has do be created is the situation in which to put the hero, since it is all ready known that it is kill or be killed, this is easily done. Another reason for the violence is market demand, as long as violent video games are being bought producers are going to keep on making them.

As girls, who tend to stay away from violent games, enter the video game market there will be a corresponding trend in the increase of non-violent games as game designers try to capture this new market. As long as boys stay the dominate audience for video games violence will be continue to be present. Having a high degree of violence does not necessary mean anything, the nightly news is filled with violence and very few people are concerned about its affects. What is important to look at the is the relation between video games players and there social interaction to see if the violence in video games affect players in any way.