Do Violent Video Games Make Us Violent?

Violent video games. It has long been a controversy to whether they make the people who play it violent or not. As we talked about in class, it does not make people violent, but what it does is change our views on violence. By being exposed more and more to violence we start to become desensitized to the blood and gore and it becomes acceptable, if not expectable.

Video games today are much more violent than ever before. Back when I first started playing video games at the age of 3, I used to play Mortal Kombat all the time. Now for those of you who don’t know what this is, it is a 2D fighting game that lets you kill the other player in horrendous ways after you have beaten them. The iconic “Finish Him/Her” comes up after beating the other player and after inputting a number of combination of buttons you may: shove a bomb into the other player’s mouth and watch them explode, rip out their skeletal frame - skull down to toes, cut them up into hundreds of pieces, and the list goes on and on.

This video shows all of the Fatalities in the new Mortal Kombat 9:
Now I haven’t played this game since Mortal Kombat 3 many many years ago, but this game has gotten so much more violent than it used to be. Unfortunately it seems like a LOT of games nowadays has a lot of violence like this.

Let’s not forget about Grand Theft Auto and the classic “have sex with the hooker and kill her to get your money back:

This is actually only a small portion of violent video games out on today’s market. And regardless of their “R” rating, even children can still get their hands on these video games.

So, I completely disagree in the statement that “violent video games make people violent” but it is undeniable that it has some sort of negative impact on us. I feel like a lot of people and especially children are slowly becoming more and more desensitized to violence (blood and gore and all). Not only are they becoming desensitized, but because they are getting used to the violence, the video game companies have to somehow make it more stimulating so people will buy their product.