Quality work is needed in 24 hours. No additional time.

Name: Marlene Petreaus

Course: IFSM 304

Professor:

Case Study on Violence in Games and related ethical issues

Synopsis

Today, playing video games has become part and parcel to our daily activities in the world today. Video games are somehow part of our lives today as it brings joy, excitement, happiness and also a touch of relaxation after the day’s strenuous activity. Moreover, advancement in technology has changed completely the meaning of fun via video games. Long ago, the only games out in the market were games such as super Mario and snakes and ladder. It was a series if games created by Nintendo in which its aim was to rescue the Princess Toadstool from a villain Bowser in a magical kingdom. The in game character is portrayed by two brothers named Mario and Luigi, the main player controls Mario while if there is a second player controls Luigi. While Snakes and ladder was an ancient Indian board game in which a number of snakes and ladders are pictured on a board game whereby each connecting to two specific board squares. The objective of the game is to navigate one’s game piece, through the use of die rolls, from the start (bottom square) to the finish (top square) helped or hindered by ladders and snakes respectively. The game was a classic and a fan favorite among young children today. I played and also enjoyed the game as a young child. Whereas now, we play games such as God of War to avenge or defend our family.

One clear or distinct difference in violence video games and what we see is that in movies, we watch violence but in video games, we cause violence because of the decisions we make such as shooting people, stabbing people, robbing banks like in GTA 5 and as a result, it all adds up thereby influencing young children to act out.

Today Technology allows us to enjoy video games in real life i.e. that is as if we are the character playing the game. A game which feels life like is Call of Duty or GTA 5. In Call of Duty, one gets to save the country and go on dangerous missions which in real life one would not partake in unless he or she is in the military. One thing I did not mention about playing Call of Duty is that the missions can be played with lots of people be it friends, or other individuals who are online, with the use of a controller to play and a headset to communicate with other people. Same thing occurs in GTA 5 but violence is increased to the maximum here because, in GTA 5 for you to finish the game and make at least $2.1billion you have to kill, and rob banks. Violence is imminent because of all the shooting, killing stabbing and profanity that is spoken

Excessive playing of video games can have adverse effects on children and adults who call themselves hard-core gamers i.e. individuals who play video game for extended hours without putting breaks into consideration. Increased hours of gaming causes inactivity, and health problems such as obesity. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, says that “children who watch five or more hours of TV per day or children who play video games for five or more hours a day, have a four-and –a half times greater risk of being overweight than those who watch or play video game for less than two hours a day or less”. In fact, video game companies such as Nintendo even have warnings on the games that basically say that one should take breaks every hour to stop harm to the eyes, and even seizures due to overexposure (Nintendo).The following text, tries to put forward ethical issues linked with the violence in the video games and possible implications associated to the issues.

Violence in Games

Before I go further into the discussions about Violence in the Gaming today, lets define what violence in video games is. The California law defines “violent video game” in 150 words as, in part, as “a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being”. It’s a topic of controversial debate that whether this act actually has any impact on young individuals who are playing the games, but there exist scientific researches that proves that it can affect the young community widespread.

Associated Ethical Issues

Freedom of Speech can be considered as the main ethical issue linked to violence in video games. The Law of freedom of speech allows one to express their feeling as long as those those feelings are not hurting others and in terms violence in video games, it is not violence until something bad happens to someone. If the intensity of violence in video games was restricted then it will actually be a violation of freedom of speech. It is not ethical or lawfully correct to declare video game violence against the law or to hold developers or companies responsible for violent acts committed by their customers in computer games. Could something be done? I personally feel that an effective rating system should be put in place to monitor the level of violence in games so as to help retailers in regards to the huge fines they get.

Governor Schwarzenegger implemented a law which states that retailers will be charged a fine of about a thousand dollars depending on the crime which is selling games with mature content rating to children under the age of eighteen (Out-Law, April).

Secondly another ethical issue is the rating system of violence known as the grey area in technical terms. It is clear that money is the driving force in any business and in today’s gaming industry, manufacturers are interested in money i.e. profit because without profit it would be difficult for the game companies to continue making games that people hardly ever play or buy. It is hard to assume if there will a be an actual grey area implementation in the near future for ratings of violent video games, but for now, it is the sole responsibility of the parents to encourage their children to make good decisions. I have seen cases where often parents are not aware of the games their children are playing or the maturity level of games and existing violence level in the games or are not aware of Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings allocated to game or event the meaning of the ESRB rating system (ESRB, n.d.).

Conclusion

Personally, I feel there should be one question that we all should ask ourselves about the causes of ethical issues arising from violence in video games. The question to ask is:

Does the video game developer feel any ethical obligation towards the society? (Salvador, 2013) There are other moral and ethical questions that I think have polluted the industry in all these years of advancements that need to be addressed like the most recent which is the Portrayal of women in games, sex in games in general, taboo subject selections like in Bioshock Infinite, Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and That Dragon, Cancer. You will be surprised to know that these games actually are about depression and cancer.

Bibliography

 

Pritchard, D.B. (1994), “Snakes and Ladders”, The Family Book of Games, Brockhampton Press, P162, ISBN 1-86019-0219.

Erica Loop “Do Video Games Contribute to Childhood Obesity”? Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/376383-obesity-in-children-video-games/.

Nintendo. (n.d.). Precautions guide. Retrieved from http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/manuals/.

Maria Chesley Fisk “Defining and understanding Violent Video Games” http://www.rwjf.org/en/culture-of-health/2010/10/defining-and-understanding-violent-video-games-.html.

Out-Law. (April, 2008). Video games and age restrictions–the US and UK. Retrieved from http://www.out-law.com/.

Salvador, E. (2013, October 5). video-games-and-ethics. Retrieved from http://tay.kotaku.com/.