Is Violence in Video Games to Blame for Violence in Real Life?

A large majority of the American population believes that the content in some video games causes violent behavior in the people who play them. Take the highly controversial Grand Theft Auto franchise for example. Grand Theft Auto V had record breaking sales in its first day of being released. It is a game revolving around, chaos. It breaks the boundaries of the phrase “do whatever you want,” because in this game, you can buy a million dollar car one minute, and then the next, it explodes because you drove it straight into a taco truck. Or, the player could purchase a tank and go on a rampage through the streets. Now these are the kind of actions that cause many people to think that video games cause violent behavior, but this is simply not the case. Recent studies show that violent video games have nothing to do with the actions of people in real life. It is only mental defects that cause such actions.

I strongly agree with these studies. The fact that so many people blame video games for tragedies such as the Sandy Hook shooting is just absurd. These happenings are the result of mental illness, not because someone wanted to recreate a video game in real life. As I said earlier, Grand Theft Auto V had record-breaking sales in its first day. Basically, this means that millions upon millions of people bought the game, many not as mature as they ought to be. You don’t see these millions of people going out and carjacking someone do you? Didn’t think so. The only reason that these things might happen is that a few very impressionable kids that are WAY too young to be playing violent games, go and try and do what they saw in real life. But still, this isn’t the video games’ faults. It’s the result of parents that don’t care what their kids play or see on TV.

So now the problem stands, what can we do to make people see that video games are not at fault for violence? There are too  many people that need something to blame for violence in America, and unfortunately, their scapegoat is video games. Despite the large amounts of scientific research that disproves that video games cause violence in people, not enough of them will listen.

~Ethan

Grand Theft Auto 5 Sales Going Through the Roof!

In just three days Grand theft Auto sales break a record making a billion dollar in gains from mostly teenagers. Grand Theft Auto made 1 billion in three days which took Call of Duty: Black Ops 15 days to make. Grand Theft Auto 5 takes place in Los Santos and San Andreas. There are 3 main characters Trevor Phillips, Michael, and Franklin. They are each criminals and are forced to work together in a series of missions.

This game is rated M for mature meaning 17+ yet a lot of their earnings come from the parents of 12 year olds and older.  Grand theft Auto 5  includes a torture scene and you can even run over and shoot innocent people. It also promotes drugs and alcohol. I have an older brother who is 13 and yet most of his friends own Grand Theft Auto. However it is the parents choice whether to get the Grand Theft Auto for their child or not. What about the kids who go over someones house and play it. I think its totally unacceptable for a 12 year old kid to play this kind of game. It might even influence their choices in life. The fact that makes it worse is that you are killing innocent people at least in war games you’re protecting your country and not just taking lives freely. I don’t think a game like this should be on the market and if you are enjoying killing people even if it is game then that’s a problem.

~Hailey

Next Generation of Gaming has Arrived

The next generation of gaming has started, with the Wii U, and now the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One. But the PS4 looks to be the best console coming out. It has an improved controller, with a new touchpad, enhanced vibrations, a new shape and a new light bar. This means one great controller. Also, it has a 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon™ Graphics Core Next engine main processor, and 8 gigabytes of memory. Basically, it means its fast, and the graphic will be REALLY good. It also has some of the great new games coming out including Destiny and InFamous Second Sun.

Now, I think this will be the best new console coming out for all the reasons above. They have the new DualShock 4 controller, which seems to be the best one out there. The graphics will be fantastic, and the games just as good. But the thing is, the Xbox One will have these games too. But the bad thing about the Xbox is, you need to pay to play online, unlike previous PLaystation console, where online play is free. It definitely gets annoying paying every month to play online. So this leads me to my concluding question: Will the PS4 still be free to play online? If it is still free, it will be without a doubt the best new console. And if you need to pay… it will still be the best, but you will have to pay to play online just like the Xbox One.

~Dimitri Tracey

Virtual Violence

 

Human society is rife with people blaming horrible events on even minorly related things. People automatically associate events with things that may not even be minorly related to each other. One particular example is the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Some people blame video games for the crazed gunman act. People in Connecticut are proposing a tax on M-Rated video games, as to deter buying them, and deter violence. I personally disagree with these people, I believe that video games are not the catalyst for violence in young people.

I don’t see how people can believe this! They believe that a twenty-something man was influenced by a video game to murder people. The only thing that could have fueled his horrible act was criminal insanity! If a child is horribly violent, there is only one group to blame: the parents. They are the people to allow their child to play a game that has been recommended for people  of 17 years or older.  The parents should exercise their power upon the kids, and should be aware of what resources their children are using. I believe that only teenagers and up should be allowed to play violent games. Also, studies have shown that violent video games may be good for the brain.

~Andrew Below

Will Megatron defeat Madden Curse?

With the new release of EA Sports next installment in the Madden series, Madden NFL 13, officially on August 28th, 2012 there has been a lot of buzz with the game. I personally think EA outdid themselves making huge improvements from last year’s game. One of the major ones being a new physics engine called “The Infinity Engine”. This is important because it brings a whole new set of realism to game play causing your running back to trip and lose balance after taking hits from the defense or even running into the offensive line. Also, there are an infinite number of possible animations meaning that your player will not get stuck in a tackle animation; you can break tackles more easily. EA did a good job bringing physics into game play.

 The cover athlete for this year’s Madden is Wide Receiver Calvin Johnson Jr., also known by his nickname “Megatron.” He came off a stellar 2011 season for the Detroit Lions having career highs in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns. You can see his career stats here. He is also one of a handful of players in Madden 13 that holds a 99 overall rating the others being DeMarcus Ware, Aaron Rodgers, and Darrelle Revis. Some people doubt Megatron will be able to match his 2011 season and fall victim to “The Madden Curse.” The Madden curse is the idea that after a player is the cover athlete of Madden next season they do horrible or get injured. Supposedly every player that was ever on the cover of Madden from 1999 – present day has caught the Madden curse in some shape or form; One of the worst being Peyton Hillis, who at that time was a running back for the Cleveland Browns. Hillis was the cover athlete for last year’s Madden. During his 2010 regular season Hillis racked up 1,177 rushing yards on 270 carries and 11 rushing touchdowns. Next season Hillis suffered with injuries playing in only 10 games. In those 10 games he had 587 yards and 161 attempts and only 3 rushing touchdowns. People blamed Hillis’s decline of the Madden Curse.

It is very possible that Calvin Johnson Jr., will have his numbers decline slightly, we can’t possibly expect him to top that outstanding 2011 season. But if he has another Peyton Hillis season I don’t know what EA will do. On the contrary, if he has an amazing season people will say the Madden curse was just made up. It is too early in the season to tell right now but will Megatron be another victim of the Madden Curse or can he defeat it once and for all?

~Matt Bonito

“War is Upon Us”

Ever since the release of the series’ biggest hit yet, Call of Duty fans have been outraged with the misinformation Activision had stated about the Call of Duty Elite service on PS3. Ever since Call of Duty: Black Ops came out in 2010, Activision has signed a contract with Microsoft stating that their Xbox 360 console gets all DLC before the PS3 console.

Although this was effective since Black Ops came out, this has still caused the PS3 community to go up in flames, as well as an infinite amount of threats and attempted lawsuits against Activision themselves. Many users are trying to start a class action lawsuit against Activision, as they were misinformed by Activision’s marketing statement that persuaded many to buy Call of Duty Elite.

I personally agree that Activision has scammed PS3 users because they did not state anywhere that Xbox would get all DLC before PS3 even if they had Elite. Thankfully, I did not buy Elite, but I would hate to get scammed like this, and Activision has taken no action regarding this issue as they are not providing refunds.

~Christian Kenny

Video games

There are many computer games that are for Windows computers and not for Macs. Why are games like Terraria, Star Wars the Old Republic, and many Steam games for Windows and not Macs? How hard would it be to make a game for Macs? My friend Jack Pepper said that it would take a few weeks to a month to make Star Wars for Macs as well as Windows. This is not that long if you think of how much money they would make. Many of their players come from World of Warcraft and I’m guessing that the number of people that play World of Warcraft on Macs versus Windows is about 7% Macs and its a growing market. So Star Wars would largely increase there cash

Also the other thing Star Wars game makers are doing cannot get them near the amount of people that making it for Macs would. I think that for each new thing they add they get around 20,000 more people or around a 1 percent increase in their population per update since they have 2 million players. Also this means that every month from the players they make thirty million dollars a month from the fee. They made 120 million from the initial release. They have made 150 million dollars so far. If they made it for Macs that number would double and they’d be pulling in 2.1 million dollars a month and would have a total of 160.5 million dollars. How is that not highest on the priority list?

~Dan Light

Competing With the Best

It seems that many people went for Modern Warfare 3 this year. This is because, in my opinion the Call of Duty franchise is easily one of the best known in the gaming community. But, Battlefield 3 did give the call of duty franchise a good run for it’s money. Battlefield 3 beat Modern Warfare 3 in a poll by IGN. More than 60% of the community they surveyed preferred Battlefield 3 over the Modern Warfare 3. But, Skyrim which is known as a “role-playing-game” also gave Call of Duty a good run for it’s money. Although all three games were released within a few weeks of one another I still believe that Modern Warfare 3 won most of the attention as usual.

The reason most people are attracted to Call of Duty over Battlefield is simple. It is that Call of Duty is simply a faster paced game that requires less tactics. As for Battlefield which requires a lot more skill, communication, and teamwork as a whole. Another reason why the Call of Duty franchise was the game to choose, is because it had been in the business for so long. The Call of Duty series started in 2004 and has escalated since. The first three games released were not really recognized until the fall of 2007. This is when Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released to the public. The game had millions of sales and won Game of the Year, from IGN. Ever since the release of Call of Duty 4 it has been the right choice for anyone looking for a good, action-packed, and fast pace first-person-shooter.

Are Violent Video Games Okay for Kids?

One time I was in Game Stop with my sister and I saw a preschooler holding Call of Duty: Black Ops while their mother was paying for it. Another preschooler next to him was looking at an advertisement for the newest Call of Duty game and said “Mom, Mom! Can we get that next?!?!” Does that sound right to you, or is it just me? I think that kids that age, or kids of any age under the age the ESRB recommends, shouldn’t play games like that.

Just think about it. Most of these games have war, guns, drugs, and alcohol. Kids can’t have or do any of these things, so why does it make it okay for them to play them? These games could influence them to do something they shouldn’t in the future or add more profanities to their growing long list of them. Also, when playing on Xbox you can play with people that you don’t know on the Internet through Xbox Live. The real issue there is that you can also talk to them. Which, if you pay any attention to the news, is a potentially dangerous situation since you don’t know who they are and what they can find out about you.

I could keep going on and on about these games that are meant for responsible adults and not kids, but I think I made my point clear. Next time you sit down and turn on your Xbox, think twice about what game you’re going to play. It will help you realize what you’re getting yourself into.

~Taylor McKinley