What Attracts Gamers to Violent Games?

CpXi7z1

CpXi7z1

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Is an addiction to violent games a precursor to violent behavior such as school shootings? Not everyone who plays violent games takes drastic measures, but for those who do, is there an indicator that an observant person might notice? To help break this addiction and possibly prevent violence, what are some healthy alternatives for venting anger or enjoyment?
 
I don't think violent games and violent behavior are related. I read somewhere that even though violent media is more prevalent than ever right now, the number of violent crimes has actually decreased.

According to the Times, between 1994 and 2010 the number of violent crimes among youth offenders fell by more than half, to 224 crimes per population of 100,000. At the same time, sales of video games have more than doubled since 1996.
Click to expand...
http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/13/39...es-coincide-with-drop-in-violent-youth-crimes

Take that for what's it worth. This isn't really something you can 'prove' though, as there are way too many variables at play. I don't believe the article I linked really proves anything, but I do agree that violent video games do not cause violence. Who knows, maybe it helps violence. Maybe there are kids out there who are psychologically damaged and want to do violent things, but end up just playing GTA for hours. I know that's bad for the child who has those problems, but I think we can all agree that we would MUCH rather have him play GTA, rather than act out his violent problems in real life.

If you think about it, though, there are millions of gamers who play games like GTA everyday. Only a handful of kids actually go out and act on the violence. If violent games were the cause of these violent crimes, we'd have a lot more violence these days.

For me, personally, I'm neutral when it comes to violent video games. As a kid, there weren't too many violent games, and I think I felt cool when I finally got to play some. I didn't enjoy being violent, it was just a taboo thing so, naturally, it felt cool to do. That wore off pretty quickly though. Now I don't really care either way. As long as a game is fun, I'll play it.
 
I don't believe that violent media causes violent behavior- if there's any correlation at all, I think it's reversed. People who are already inclined to violence may just enjoy seeing violence expressed in different formats. But I think for most gamers, myself included, it's just a chance to express a different aspect of your personality than you would ever express in another situation. I'm not a violent person by any means, but sometimes it's fun to vent a little into a violent game. It's not my acting out a fantasy or making me feel more violent, if anything it ends up letting some steam off and then I feel more calm and better overall.
 
I don't think playing video games is the cause but maybe their obsession with violent video games might be the symptom. If anything the cause is probably their parents' bad choices in life. I honk gamers are attracted to violence in video games because it's just a bit more exciting than being nice and polite to each other in video games. It's all just good fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
 
People have a propensity for violence, period. This isn't something that sprung up last year. People have been violent since the dawn of time. No amount of video game playing is going to change that. If you do hear stories about morons that kill others because they "saw it in GTA and wondered what would happen", they were either:

A. Not the age rating for the game.
B. What's taught of side and effects in school.
and finally,
C. The parents didn't do their job telling them what's real and what's fake.

Video games are just the new scape goat of this generation. Nothing more.
 
To unleash the beast of rage! Argh! I'm only joking of course.

Personally, I play simply for leisure and to test my gaming skills against A.I.s or other human players. Nothing truly happens in video games that can harm a human, all one experience is the senses you receive and process from the television screen - If you play with no TV on, you only play a blank screen! All one senses from a TV screen is electronic signals that have no human intent to do anything to you, it's all your attitudes that is of concern.

So if any humans dislike me blowing up and shooting the heck out of a electronic image that looks like a woman in a video game, you can leave the room and leave me alone - you're not being forced to experience my video game playing.
 
It seems to me that someone who is actually addicted to a video game isn't going to be out hurting people, or out doing anything else. They're going to be sitting in front of the game 24/7 or as much as possible.

I don't really think most people are attracted to games because of violence. I don't play because of a love for violence (I actually don't like it), but sometimes violence is involved. Combat within a story is also much different than random violence.

I've also read that taking out frustrations on a game can actually make people less prone to violence. I have no proof to back up that theory, but it makes sense to me. I think anyone who does something crazy like attacking a school would most likely have done it whether or not they played video games (there is something wrong with them).
 
I love video games especially if there are violence involved. When I was younger, I loved to play games involving access to heavy artillery and shoot like crazy to kill enemies. I guess what makes attractive to gamers like me is the excitement of killing and not getting killed in the process. In addition, the blood and the screams makes gamers pretty excited.
 
I think its merely escapism, everyone at some point gets annoyed or frustrated at people and think "man I want to punch that person" but the difference is that most people won't actually follow through with the thought. Games let you get out frustration, pretend you're an awesome character who fights demons and stuff, it's exactly like watching a cool Kung-Fu movie or action film, its escapism.
 
There has been countless studies showing that violence and violence in video games are in fact NOT linked.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/18/games-definitely-dont-harm-kids-says-huge-study
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/violent-video-games-dont-lead-to-increases-in-viol/1100-6422421/
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/research-shows-no-link-between-video-game-violence/1100-6423385/

50 Shades of Gray is an incredibly popular book among many women but if you look at it objectively it gives a terrible image of what consent is and basically promotes rape. One of the more popular violent video games, Grand Theft Auto, sold over 3.6 million copies. That's a lot of people. Horror movies that are meant to terrify more then actually send a moral message are popular and have huge audiences for them. What about murder mysteries? My grandmother is a huge fan of them and gets incredibly absorbed into the story and the uncovering of what happened to a victim, but she's absolutely repulsed when she reads the newspaper and hears about a shooting or something of the sort and it seriously depresses her.

I guess what I'm saying is that we have a hard line between what is fiction and what is reality and just because we enjoy something that is fiction does not mean we want to see it in reality. Video games are just in a stage where they're the best scapegoat for what makes morally wrong people wrong. Before it was rock and roll, after that comic books and somewhere around there Dungeons and Dragons. Now it's video games, just because it wants to be taken as a serious art medium and not just something for kids.

Just my two cents on the matter really.
 
I am a really calm and friendly person, and I manage this by playing First Person Shooter games. The reason for this is the following: I come home from high school stressed or pissed off, but instead of being mad at the people I love, I fire up Call of Duty or Battlefield and wreck some havoc there.

There are times when I team up with a really good friend and we play competitive FPS games, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive, but then we only play for relaxation, not for a stress-burning activity.

I think what I'm doing is miles better than what my friend is: he plays CS:GO all day EVERYDAY, but instead of letting go of his stress, he only gets more pissed off, to the point where he screams at his little brother (who likes to watch him play; the guy is really, really good at this game) or breaks his stuff.
 
Psychology studies have confirmed that violent games doesn't equal to violent behavior. I often use games as a way to vent my frustrations and to relax. It's my personal form of therapy. Some people are naturally more wired to be aggressive than others and others are more prone to having mental issues too. A person who wants attention and who wants to hurt people will do it and use any excuse. Take the Manson case for example- it's all pinned on a song sung by the Beatles. The song itself isn't violent or anything special, but Manson used it as his disturbed racist manifesto.
 
I tend to think that the two are not related because there are many violent people out there who are not addicted to games. Violent behavior is not necessarily wired to any activity but rather it depends on the individual.
 
This is sort of an "age old" discussion about whether or not video game violence leads to real life violence, with most professional studies leaning towards the two being unrelated.
Causation does not imply correlation, and video games is a very popular form of media.
I bet if we look at people who commit mass shootings we'll find that they watch a lot of violent movies too, but we don't equate the two because there is tons and tons of studies from years and years of research that show that the two aren't linked. I am willing to bet that this will be the same for video games in just a short couple of years.
 
Violent games would be considered a form of therapy if these individuals could even manage to distinct between right and wrong, fiction and reality. Pretty much you got unlimited ways to hurt a fictional avatar and that be a form of venting whatever anger you have in your system. I know that when I'm angry, videogames is the main source of distraction to go if I want to take it out on something. There's really no link there between violent video games and real violence. All we got is people finding the easy way out by blaming the games instead of tackling the real problem:

Which is mental issues/problems already present. Someone who's not mentally well or just don't care will go with real violence whether he played a game before doing it or not.
 
I have spent most of my gaming life playing video games that have lots of violence in them and I do not have violent tendencies. I jus think that it is a matter of choice but people like to blame their faults in life on other things and I really do not think that video games have anything to do with it.
 
I have played a few violent games myself and I can tell you that I am in no way a violent person. i do not believe that games that are violent are truly associated with violent people. I have played many games that the main objective was to get rid of your competition or those who stood in your way to finish your quest but in no way did that shape me for who I am today.

What attracts me to violent games? The game play, The story line, The way everything progresses. Most games, Not all but quite a lot of them have violence in their game. For me, It is just part of the game and nothing else.

The quick pace, The need to think quickly on your toes when playing games without a turn-battle system makes you get into it. It just sucks you in. Like action movies with all the violence, You got to watch it and you have to know what's happening. I think the same can be said for games in a way.

Even with all that being said, I believe that games have nothing to do with how most people act but rather they choose to act as such.
 
I think that violent games are interesting and may capture the attention of most gamers. People who commit violent crimes may have an emotional problem that may not be caused by watching violent games. Most people living in a hostile environment may get through by playing games that allow them to vent.
 
For a true gamer nothing "attracts" us to violent games. What attracts us are a lot of other things, violence is rarely one of them. For me I want a game with a great graphical interface, one that doesn't lag. I like high quality graphics to. I want one that updates quickly when bugs are found, and gives me a gaming experience I enjoy. If this game involves cutting the head off innocent people and blood gushing everywhere so be it, if not that is fine to :)
 
I don't think that gamers are more "attracted" to violence anymore than a normal person is. I think the majority of gamers know that what they're playing is a game, and shooting people or beating someone up in a game is just for harmless fun, or as an obstacle to overcome. I don't think what they do in the game is relevant to how they act in real life. Violent criminals are already violent in the first place. Games do not cause that.
 
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