Topic proposal outline and work cited

Violent video games have been badgered and attacked because of their violent nature. As I was researching, I typed “violent video games” into a database search bar and all twenty academic journals and articles that came up on the first page discussed how violent video games are bad for children. Many parents are not in favor of these games because they are afraid their children will not only have violent actions in the video games but will also become more violent in nature in everyday life. However, after all of the research that has taken placetrying to correlate violent video games with more violent children, nothing substantial has been concluded. According to James Paul Gee, violent video games could actually be therapeutic for children with feelings of dislike because the game could be an outlet for their anger (14). Also, violent crime has decreased since the 1990’s which, interestingly enough, is when the first violent video games were introduced and produced. It seems like a conclusion such as violent video games could be beneficial to teens could be made, but the public and parents would not stand for it. Some parents believe there is absolutely no possible way a game that includes killing can be beneficial to their child. But, would you rather have your child take out his or her frustrations on fake people made out of pixels on a television, or actual human beings in the real world?

There is also another argument concerning whether violent video games make a child more violent or not. A professor from Oxford University, Dr. Andrew Przybylski did research focusing on the views of individuals with experience playing violent games and individuals who have not had any experience playing them (YouGov). He has focused all of his research since 2005 to understanding the aspects of video games that draw people in and the correlation between violent games and aggressive humans. Przbylski sent surveys to Britons asking age, sex, non-gamer or gamer and their view on whether violent games can be a cause of real-world aggression and whether the games can be an outlet for excess emotions. Keeping all of the Britons in one group, sixty-one percent believe video games can create more violence and aggression in individuals (YouGov). But, fifty-seven percent believe the games can be used as an outlet for excess emotions (YouGov). All three characteristics presented a large difference in opinion. Over seventy percent of college-aged Britons believe a video game is a great way to let off steam compared to around fifty percent of Britons aged sixty or above (YouGov). The complete opposite happens when asked about the danger of creating violent children. Only forty-two percent of college kids believe videogames make gamers violent in comparison with seventy-nine percent of individuals who are older than sixty (YouGov). More than half of experienced gamers believe games do not make children more aggressive and seventy-five percent of people who have not had experience playing them do believe the games are bad for children (YouGov). Pryzbylski reaches the conclusion that experience plays a large part in individual’s opinions.

This being said, a game that is annoyingly difficult could make people upset and throw a controller. A popular game that players have thrown fits over is Tetris. Tetris is a game in which a player has to fit shapes into an area. Once a row is filled with shapes, the row deletes. The goal is to survive as long as possible before the shapes reach the top. This game frustrates players because a player could over rotate a shape and not have it fit where the player anticipated. According to a study of Tetris, the shape given each time is the wrong shape seventy-eight percent of the time (Bennet). This statistic could make players increasingly upset with this game. I have played Tetris many times and have become very frustrated while playing. Using this information, a game as simple as Tetris could have a negative effect on gamers.

Games may be violent, butthey can display violence in a few different ways. There are two main types of violence, fantasy and military. My family members are huge fans of Star Wars and we played Star Wars Battlefront and Star Wars Battlefront II. The only activity these two games involve is trying to kill all of the enemy before they kill your team. But, we were allowed to play this game because the characters are not real and it is fantasy violence. The droids are machines and the clones are exactly like it sounds, clones. Therefore it appears like it is okay to kill these characters but a video game with military personnel in it is not okay. Military violence, like the world famous Call of Duty game series, is high on the radar of protective parents possibly because it is so popular. But, if critics take a closer look, most military games take women and children out of the equation (Brown).The enemy is only adult males and they are clearly marked. The enemy will shoot the player first and therefore bring violence upon themselves (Brown). A game such as Grand Theft Auto which makes the player hurt someone before the police come after him is not a beneficial game to play. A method that can help distinguish a quality violent game from a bad violent game is look to see if the enemy is marked, how the enemy is marked, or if the enemy attacks the player first and therefore only need to be killed to save your life.

Grand Theft Auto is a violent video game but there are other games as bad or worse. A game such as Counterstrike allows players to play as a terrorist versus the police officers (Lt.). Counterstrike awards the gamer for killing innocent people. Obviously everyone wants to win and therefore, gamers who play this game aim to kill the most people in the most efficient way. Also in Counterstrike, along with other shooting games, the player is awarded points for headshots (Lt.). There is a higher chance that the victim is killed with one headshot than one shot anywhere else. Therefore, gamers practice shooting at the heads of innocent people to win the game. This is not the type of violent video game children should be playing. Teaching children to kill innocent people is not ethical or helpful to their emotional well-being. If the player had to eliminate an opponent because the opposition will kill them, then the kill is more understandable and necessary. There is never a reason why innocent people should be killed and children should learn morals and have values that correspond with that belief.There are numerous game choices that are much more beneficial to a child.

It can be extremely difficult to know how to choose a video game because there are so many options. Since 2010, the video game industry has made over 10 billion dollars each year.All of this revenue goes to employees and towards developing new games and gaming systems. This can lead to so many games that when a person goes to Best Buy, the buyer can become so overwhelmed, he or she stares at the huge wall of games so long that nothing is purchased. Instead of going through every game and explaining what games are better than others, comparing arguably the two most popular video game series ever created would be more beneficial; Call of Duty created by Activision and Assassin’s Creed created by Ubisoft.

I have personally played at least three games in each series and I will say that Assassin’s Creed started like no other game I have ever played. In the first scene of the game, the words,“This game was developed by a multicultural team of various faiths and beliefs” appeared on the screen.Each game is set up so a character in modern time travels back in time and plays as one of his ancestors. This is an interesting concept for a video game because it appears most games made today take place in modern time or in the future. In school, history is a subject all students are required to take so it seems like video games could be created to teach history to students in another more interesting way.

Each and every Assassin’s Creed game developed is based off a certain time in history. The premise of the series of games is the struggle between two groups, the Assassins and the Knights Templar. The original Assassin’s Creed takes place during the Third Crusade. Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations are all during the Renaissance and Assassin’s Creed III, Black Flag, and Creed Rogue are during the Colonial Era. The newest game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Unity is set in the early modern period. During the Renaissance era in the Assassin’s Creed II game, the four main cities of Venice, Florence, Flori and San Gimignano are all created historically accurate (Assassin’s). Coincidentally, I have been to Venice and Florence and it is fairly impressive that I recognized places in the video game that I have been to in real life. Obviously, since each of these games are based in a separate time in history and are historically accurate, there is much to learn while playing these games.

There is some history presented in the Call of Duty games but not nearly as much. The first three games are based during World War II and the later games are set during the Cold War, modern times, and in the future, year 2025 (Call). Now, I realize these games are based in different time eras and therefore people would assume there is much to learn in these games, just like the Assassin’s Creed games, but that is not the case. There is not much a person can learn from any Call of Duty game. The weapons and armor might be based from the different eras of wars, but none of the missions or maps are historically accurate to anything that actually happened or are accurate with any battle scenes (Call). Most of them are placed in a town, factory or in an industrial area. It is nearly impossible to learn anything about the wars if no part of the game takes place in a setting correlating to the actual war.

Assassin’s Creed is set up into many different areas and gamers can learn history or actually practice their critical thinking and problem solving skills. The main character is an assassin and his job is to take down the corrupt leaders in Italy, so the people of Italy can live better lives. Many missions include saving civilians, killing corrupt leaders, and helping civilians who will help you as the game progresses (Assassin’s). Many of these missions are difficult and will require many tries if they are tried too quickly without much planning or reconnaissance. Most of the time, the leader the assassin is trying to kill is shown to the player. The struggle is getting past the guards without being seen. The game reveals methods of sneaking past the guards to complete the mission but it is difficult. This teaches players to plan and organize themselves before proceeding with action.

There is plenty of action in the Call of Duty games as well, but for the most part, it is not set up for people to intellectually benefit. The campaign modes include fighting for strategic positions to end up winning the battle by killing the entire other team (Call). But, these positions are already given to the player. The gamer does not have to pick the positions. All the player has to do is run in guns a blazing and spray down every bad guy at the post with a machine gun. There is no intellectual thinking involved. For the online versions mostly available in the newer Call of Duty games there is even less intellectual thinking. There is a set limit of how many points a team has to score before they win the battle (Call). But, guess how a team scores points; by killing players on the other team. One team has to kill each player on the other team many times before the round is over. In the online version, gamers run around and seek out another player and hope that they have the better hand eye coordination and faster reflexes than the other player so you can kill their team. The whole idea is just an enormous game of Whack-a-mole.

Assassin’s Creed has many other aspects that help pull everything together for maximum intellectual learning. The main character has an uncle that owns a small village named Monteriggioni that is very poor (Assassin’s). Since the main character is an assassin, he gets paid for each of the missions he completes. If the player upgrades buildings and buys items from shops, some of the wealth of the village will go to the assassin for helping boost the economy (Assassin’s). This teaches teenagers to help others in need and that helping individuals will pay off in the end.

Assassin’s Creed has a few other subtle instances where it is trying to teach lessons to gamers. Around each town, there are groups of people who will help you in need. If the guards are chasing you with swords and horses, you can pay either for prostitutes to distract the guards or for homeless men with weapons to attack and fight the guards (Assassin’s). These people are willing to help the assassin because he helped repair the “whore house” and the homeless men help the assassin because he is helping their community (Assassin’s). Once again this game is teaching gamers that if you help others, they will help you.

Finally in Assassin’s Creed II, many of the characters that are the assassin’s friends and enemies are people who actually lived during the Renaissance. The Medici family ruled the city of Florence and continued to have an impact from the 14th to the 18th century (Assassin’s). Their wealth guided their power and their dynasty. The people of Florence did not like the Medici family and that is why the Assassin is trying to eliminate them (Assassin’s). Also, Leonardo Da Vinci is a well-known artist and inventor and he invents and makes weapons for the assassin (Assassin’s). There are also drawings of other inventions of Leonardo’s which are not made in the game, but resemble drawings of helicopters and tanks that were actually drawn by Leonardo Da Vinci in his lifetime. He is one of the most important men during the Renaissance and Assassin’s Creed II makes sure that fact isknown.

When hearing about a mission in Assassin’s Creed II that was narrated earlier, parents may just think it is a murder mission. But, there is significantly more to the mission and to the game than that stereotype. Violent video games have given cautious parents and society a bad taste in their mouth ever since they became arguably the most popular type of video game. There are violent video games that are not beneficial to anyone because of the type of violence. But, there are better violent video games that can teach morals, develop critical thinking and teach history and involve way more than just killing. So if your children are getting to an age where they want a violent video game, remember the facts and take a walk through the video game isle. You may end up buying a game everyone will enjoy.

Works Cited

Assassin’s Creed II. Dev. Ubisoft. 2009. Video game.

Bennett, Drake. “Violent Video Games Don’t Make You Aggresssive (but Tetris Might).” BusinessWeek.com (2014): 1-1. EBSCO MegaFILE. Web. 20 November 2014.

Brown, Harry J. Videogames and Education. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 2008. Print.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Dev. Activision. 2012. Video game.

Lt. Col. David Grossman. Interview by Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Executive Intelligence Review. 17 March 2000. Web. 28 Nov. 2014.

“Video Game History Timeline.” Museumofplay.org.The Strong, 2014. Web. 19 November 2014.

YouGov. “Gamers less worried about Violence in Video Games.” YouGov UK, 23 September 2014. Web. 26 Nov. 2014.