"Life is like a video game. Everybody has got to die sometime" said Devin Moore after his capture and killing spree that resulted in the death of 3 policemen (Leung). This statement caused many people to think that video games were the cause of not only
Moore’s case, but many others too. But the real question is do video games cause bad effects such as antisocial behavior, obsession/addiction, and murder? Many people would say yes but I say that video games not only don’t cause these things, but are actually good for you. Many people say that video games cause anti social behavior, but I say that is not true. In fact, with the advent of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), Video games actually encourage social interactions. According to research done by the Civic
Engagement Research Group at Mills College: “Our findings conflict with a commonly held perspective that youth who play video games are socially isolated and often antisocial. We also found no evidence to support scholars’ concerns that young people involved in the Internet (in this case by playing video games) are less civically engaged” (Evans, Kahne, Middaugh).
That research studied the ordinary youth that plays video games and those that don’t and found that result. That search was done by survey and certain flaws can be seen in that type of research but then a study done by Nick Yee, a research scientist at the Palo Alto research center found that “About 1/5 of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their MMORPG experiences have made them more comfortable with face-to-face communication.”(Yee).
People also say that video games cause obsession/addiction to the games that causes interference with day to day life. While Video games may cause some people to become obsessed or addicted to the game, just because something can be addicting doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be