If video games cause disturbances in someone’s head, fine. No, seriously, it’s darwinism out there. Let’s remove all safety labels as well and see who survives. Let the dying of the dumb begin! 
I think that the tests that people do to see if video games effect people probably aren’t accurate. This is because the people that would go on mudererous rampages would probably be attracted to video games so that they can release their anger and violence easily. So that would explain the tests that say that people who play video games become violent.
I also think that some video games can have a negative effect on some immature people, just as some movies do. But as most of you have said, it would only really effect someone that is insane in the first place. I know a few people that play a lot of these types of games and they are fine people. I don’t think they would ever kill or hurt anyone in the way that some people claim they would.
I know we have plenty of opposition to the topic already, but I’m bored so here is my view
Increased aggressiveness in the players - Anything that gets your heart pumping fast increases your aggressiveness. Video games don’t increase aggressiveness anymore than running around the room several times.
80 percent of the video games young people prefered contained violence - This just means young people enjoy violent games. It doesn’t mean they prefer it in reality.
-“These are not just games anymore. These are learning machines. We’re teaching kids/incredible manner/to pull the trigger…What they’re not learning are the real-life consequences.” - I disagree. Watching a guy shooting a gun in a video game is hardly learning how to fire one. No game is so detailed that it can teach children how to successfully carjack someone, snipe someone, blow something up, etc.
Electronic games can make you more than a spectator of violence, they are designed to make you feel like a participant --Military psychologist David Grossman/claims that violence in computer games trains childrem in the same way that military training teaches soldiers to overcome their inborn resistance to killing/military discovered that it was possible to break down this reluctance in a large percentage of people in the infantry simply by replacing the normal bull’s-eye targets with man-shaped targets during shooting practice. - Getting a hold of a gun and deciding to kill someone is a much larger step in murdering someone than pulling the trigger. If a person has a gun and is determined to kill someone, this “inborn resistance” won’t be strong enough to stop them, whether they have it or not.
For the impressionable, games may blur the distinction between reality and fantasy - True to a small extent. I never heard of a sane child who had completely no idea what was reality and fantasy because of video games. I don’t think video games blur this distinction enough to cause any damage.
Like an addiction, game playing can lead to neglect of important obligations and relationships - Yeah, this has happened to me a couple of times 
Only on small things though. No one is so addicted that they would give up a huge obligation for a video game they could play the next day. Video games are fun, but not that addictive.
Games consume time that children should spend on other important activities/studying, interacting with others, and playing creatively - Kind of the same as above. Again, I’ve never heard of a child whose life was ruined because they didn’t do the above activities because of video games. Parents can easily set rules to prevent this.
Prolonged staring at the screen can cause eyestrain-Exactly how long? I’d guess several hours. Most people don’t play video games that much consecutively. Some do. It also says staring, there is a difference between staring at a screen and watching it. Watching it for several hours will do little or no damage.
lack of exercise, a possible result of game playing, can lead to obesity - Video games only contribute a small percentage to obesity. If someone quit playing video games, but continued to watch tv, eat fast food, sleep long hours, etc., they will lose hardly any weight.
games can rob you of money and time - How can it be considered robbery if you are enjoying yourself? If they mean you go out and buy and play a game and end up not liking it, any activity from watching a movie to taking a certain class at school can “rob” you of money and time.
according to research appearing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology/computer-game violence may be even more dangerous than violence shown on television/players identifies himself with the characters carrying out the violence/can make us feel like participants. - Kind of a repeat of what they’ve been saying. All of these statements are a bit general. How much more dangerous than television violence? Does a player identifying himself with a character make him a significantly more dangerous person? How is feeling like a participant dangerous?
Soooooo, in conclusion, I am bored and I felt like ranting. I’m not upset about this article or anything. Continue on
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view point of an avid video gamer…
hmm do video games make you more violent, agressive etc. Yes all the time, when i mess up big time and get killed during a game it anoys me 
but has no adverse effect on the RW.
Do violent games make people commit violence? NO. The only time that an adult would do such a thing is if he or she was not of sound mind, or was easily influenced. I found it interesting to note that 4 in 10 people suffer from psychopathy (a mental disorder that can cause agression - only 1 in 3 serial killers & murderers are actually psychopaths) and strangely enough about 3-10 people have killed or maimed because of a video game… i don’t suppose those 3 in 10 also suffer from psychopathy?
In my personal case i do enjoy fighting and violent games as a release of anger and tension. Yes that’s right, i use it to calm me down. I mean i could go out into the street and bludgeon someone and do it that way but that would be really stupid wouldn’t it? So i use the game as a “safe” release.
just thought i would add my 2 cents worth
Gaming causes as much violence as selling ice cream causes people drowning. The mechanism of function is also similar, which in this case means bullshit.
If you meant that literally, I’ll point out that’s really bullshit. 4 in 10 people suffer from psychopathy? About 5% do in some extent, but most of them not enough to be considered actual psychopaths. Psychopathy cannot be described as a “disorder that can cause aggression”. It’s a disorder which involves lack of emotions. A psychopath only cares about others if they’re useful to him. He treats people as tools and immeaditely “discards” them when they’re not of benefit anymore.
If there are 3-10 people in the world who killed or maimes because of video games, well… Where did that 3 in 10 come from?
yep everytime i play a violent game i go out and kill somebody 
Rape,Physical Violence,Mental Abuse,ect are what causes people to have mental problems and can turn them into doing violent acts.
Also the claim that it causes kids to not get out and do other things and get fat,That is due to poor parenting and nothing else.Parents don’t want to take responsbility for anything anymore and this junk is trying to give poor parents another excuse of why there kids are acting out violence.
This article is garbage simple as that.
Well, that one’s pretty obvious to me. Anything that comes outta that “religion” is. I could say ‘no offense’, but don’t actually want to avoid offending those parties. I’ll rather concentrate on warning others. When we’re dealing with those things 
, we’re dealing with pure evil. Keep distance & watch your back. 
I think you people are making too strong opposites here.
To say that a video game affects a person’s mind is not the same as saying “video games make people crazy”.
I know what I’m talking about, since I have been playing them since 1988… Not so much anymore though, since I have started to detest escapism quite a lot lately.
I think that we should strive to create a good “real” life instead of escape our (& worlds) problems. But this is only a personal opinion of course.
I certainly notice that the computer-induced trance leaves my head like full of “stuffing”. The thoughts aren’t flowing very well, and I feel low in energy. By trance I mean that if you are staring at a screen for 10 hours (or more) in a row (you know, the way the reeaally good games grab you), the brain does goe into a trance, very much like in a meditation. And the brain IS suspectible (is that a real word? my english fails me) to influences then.
Everything we experience affects us. That’s a fact. There is no “undo” in the brain circuit…
I’m not saying here that computer games are bad. Just that they DO have an effect on everybody.
Computer games give the brain a new way to interpret experiences and thoughts, just like watching movies, travelling to different places and meeting people give brains material to throw at us in our dreams. (and what’s in our dreams, is DEFINITELY there in our subconscious affecting us when we are awake…)
And even though I very rarely play games anymore, I still have “computer game” dreams occasionally. On of the most common is the Ultima-like “exploring the wilderness”-dream. They are often quite interesting, but the isometric top-perspective is just a bit dull 
I much prefer the dreams which my brains interpret from my personal human point of perspective.
I think video games should be used with some caution. I regret all of the hours that I dumped into games when I was a bit younger, because I have gotten nothing out of that now. I think one of the biggest problems with games is that they give the appearance of learning, of achieving - the more you play, the better you get, which gives you a sense of accomplishment. But what has been accomplished? The majority of games that I got hooked on (and I’ll admit, there are some exceptions) only taught me to switch off. I got better because the more I played, the less I thought about what I was doing, and the more automatic my reactions became. I don’t want to sound like a total bore, but I got into playing chess quite a bit recently - and I found that it was sharpening up my thinking, not just during the game but in RL too. My thinking has become clearer when solving problems, and I’m much better at planning things. I’m not completely anti-video games - I had some great fun playing games, especialy with other people. All I’m saying is that I regret all of those hours sitting trance-like, by myself, in front of a screen, with my brain switched off.
It looks as if you’re expecting something from video games other than plain fun and escapism. Chess is great, and it does train you to approach situations with a more active problem-solving state of mind. However, don’t play video games with the intention of learning anything or bettering your skills at something relative to real life. Play them with the simple intention to have some fun for a few hours.
What is wrong with people who think that everything is useless if it doesn’t somehow improve your physique or mental capacity? When you’re laying there at age 80, about to die, you’ll only wish you had MORE fun back when you were able to. From my point of view, everything you ever did to help yourself is absolutely useless when you’re facing death. Why did you spend all that time learning about obscure nonsense when everyone else was out having fun?
Life is short, pointless and very, very cruel. When you die, that’s it. Your lifetime of problem solving and physical work-outs is all gone, and it never even had any real purpose while you were alive.
If you’re not having fun, then you’re wasting your limited time on this earth.
You’re absolutely right Atheist - having a good time with your life while you still can is damn important. And I had good times playing games, and still do - with, as you say, the simple intention to have some fun for a few hours. What I was lamenting in my previous post was the many more hours when I played games compulsively - because they were an easy option, because I didn’t have to think or interact with anyone else. I just wish now that I’d spent that same precious time having fun in other ways rather than mindlessly escaping.
I used to play a game called Counter-Strike for hours on end of the day. The only harm it did me was how addictive I got to it. It’s basically a game where you kill the other team and you win. I don’t ever have violent dreams and the game hasn’t made me any more violent than before when I never played it so I would say video games do nothing more really than take up time. 
L4tEr,
J05h
i think lucid dreams are much more dangerous than computer games… in dreams (lucid ones at least) if you count or sing etc. those exact brain parts get activated, if you just imagine something those brain parts remain inactive. In that regard dreams are very much like real life, as a lot of us have experienced. We know that computer games arent real, but with dreams that is often not the case. So someone who has violent dreams and enjoys them is much more dangerous than someone who only watches things on a screen…
i hope that made any sense…
I think the proof is in the pudding…lots of kids who play video games are highly anti-social and a little demented-seeming.
Like anything, I don’t think games are a problem in and of themselves, but when you become obsessed, that’s when we see the negative effects come out.
PS. Action games reached their apex with Contra…it was all downhill from there.
Please… People are just looking for an answer to there problems…
Ive been playing videogames since i was 4. I played games from Mario to GTA, and i have yet to kill someone, steal, rob, beat, main, or injure another person. Now, i do play these things for hours on end, but im not obese. Infact, im quite fit and healthy, i also make straight As. I dont like to fight, not have i fought. So has my friend, he hasent killed or anything like that. And also, where the hell are the parents huh? The parents allow there kids to play this crap, but do not teach them that its wrong. Thats where crap like that happens. When i played, i was told it was wrong to do that, and i never did. And when my brother picked up on them, i told him not to do it. It all depends on many things, but it mainly depends on your parents.
Sorry that its all jumbled up… just a stream of thought.
What really interests me is what makes these ultra-violent video games so gratifying to play? Is it because we would really like to go out and kill everybody that has ever pissed us off?
If so, then it is possible that these games have actually prevented murders by meeting this need vicariously.
What do you think?
I don’t think the problem with videogames is they cause violence, they probably don’t. The problem I have is with people getting obsessed with them. If you do ANYTHING THAT ISN’T PRODUCTIVE, including videogames, too much it’ll affect your psyche.
So go ahead and play videogames (though like I said I think most of them suck nowadays…good old Nintendo) but just don’t waste your entire life doing it.
so if you know what is NOT the meaning of life, then what IS the meaning of life. you can’t answer that question. maybe the meaning of life is to play computer games. 
it’s like god… can’t prove it, can’t disprove it.
Fabi
(just rambling 
)
This is way off the topic, but I do know the meaning of (my) life, and that is
- To stay alive
- To understand the truth about everything possible
- To act accordingly
Videogames do little to nothing to perpetuate life and little to nothing to understand the world, so therefore I can safely say that playing computer games is not the meaning of life. Not mine at least.
Your little “you can’t prove or disprove it” thing is pathetic. Why even live if you don’t believe in your own ability to rationalize?
YOU are pathetic if you don’t realize that we always have to rely upon possibilities and probabilities. We can be tricked. Just look at how our dreams can trick us. What if ‘reality’ is just a bigger dream, where it also doesn’t matter whether you are playing computer or whatnot.
YOUR meaning of YOUR life is just an interpretation. One, that of course suits you very well, but that nevertheless is not reliable simply because it is not objective but subjective. YOU want to know things and live and stuff, but that doesn’ necessarily mean that that IS the meaning of even your life.
Besides that I agree that too much time spent in front of a computer playing games could be considered a waste of time, but not because it doesn’t tie in with some bigger meaning of life, but because it SEEMS both boring and egoistic. I do not claim, however, that my opinion is right… It is of course based upon my beliefs and is not objective.
Oh well, I think you know what I mean. There are so many different layers to this question/problem that it is hard to discuss.
If we’re only talking ‘what you see and feel is real’, then of course computer games could be considered a waste of time. but if we were to discuss other layers of this question, then I would have to say, as I’ve already done, that your assumption cannot be proven.
Sorry to be such a fucking smartass. I hope you have a sense of humor and an open mind. I am sure you do. 
Fabi