The debate concerning violence and war in video games has existed for years but it is taking more and more importance nowadays especially because of their high level of realism due to technological progress.
Moreover this debate doesn’t only concern video games but all the media. Television, newspapers or radio are also criticised for the excess of violence that they release everyday. It’s getting a real problem of society for many people. Many psychologists have proved that it is very dangerous for children and teenagers’ balance: they are supposed to become more and more aggressive because of the violence they witness everyday.
In spite of this, other psychologists have recently claimed that violence in video games mustn’t be so worrying as children need video games to let off the steam. Video games are supposed to help them identify to the character they would like to be in real life.
But let’s ponder over all these assertions. If it’s true that video games can have an influence on some feeble-minded children or adolescents, we should not consider it as a scourge for our society.
Personally, I have been fond of video games since I was a little kid and I don’t think I would take a gun and shoot down anybody after having played to a war game! When I play with a video game I just consider that I am in a video game and not in real life. For ages, video game players have been criticised for their lack of reasoning and their need of violence but the same things could be said on movie enthusiasts, for example!
Violence and war have always existed in the human history and children don’t need video games to discover it!
Adrien Dubois
Adrien