Video Games Effect on Behavior

Video Games Effect on Behavior
With games like Assassin’s Creed 3 and Halo 4 recently released, video game sales have been sky-rocketing. Children, teenagers, and adults alike have all been rushing to Game Stop to have the chance to slash victims with a hidden blade or shoot down enemies with AK-47s. This type of game rewards murders. In fact, the National Television Violence Study (1996) found that about 73 percent of violent video games reward violence as an acceptable way to handle conflict (Norcia). This is true for a variety of games ranging from Poke’mon to Mortal Kombat. Due to consumer’s demand, most of the video games sold are violent. Gamers learn to identify with the characters they are controlling. “This identification with characters in video games increases a player's ability to learn and retain aggressive thoughts and behaviors they see portrayed in violent games (Norcia).” Aggression is defined as an action
It can be a verbal attack--insults, threats, sarcasm, or attributing nasty motives to them--or a physical punishment or restriction. Direct behavioral signs include being overly critical, fault finding, name-calling, accusing someone of having immoral or despicable traits or motives, nagging, whining, sarcasm, prejudice, and/or flashes of temper (Shin).
Research on the subject has suggested that violent video games cause aggressive thoughts and actions.
Assassin’s Creed 3, mentioned in the paragraph above, is an example of a classic violent video game. These types of games focus on ruthless killing and the destruction of public property. Apparently, aggression in young gamers is so pronounced that some of the states are trying to pass laws to make it illegal to sell video games with certain ratings to people who are under the game-rating age limit (Video Games). This would mean that popular M-rated games like Skyrim, Dishonored, and Fallout: New Vegas would not be available to purchase for a large demographic of gamers: high school...