Do Video Games Promote Violence

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English 101
05 Feb 2013
Do Video Games Promote Violence?
Video games are being blamed more and more for violent acts people cause after playing them in extreme amounts. These violent video games are becoming more popular around the world among children, teens, and young adults. These games promote aggressive acts like shootings, theft, and drug use. As video games get more sophisticated and realistic, it becomes more like the real thing which desensitizes people to the violence, blood, and gore.

The most famous example of this is probably a shooting that happened in 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Two students entered the school and murdered 13 people while injuring 23 more before killing themselves. These two kids enjoyed playing a 1993 game called Doom. The point of the game is to kill aliens as you’re stuck in space. This game was even licensed by the U.S. government to train soldiers to kill effectively. The boys made their own version of the game where they stormed a school wearing trench coats and armed with guns. The characters then went in and killed student athletes (Shin). It was a plan that they carried out a months later. The students had previously stated it would be “just like Doom” (Porter and Starcevic). Many companies such as Sony and Nintendo have been sued over the matter. Since then many “copy-cat” killings have taken place. This isn’t the only case of copying video game violence.

In 2003, a man named Devin Moore was arrested for stealing an automobile. He had been playing the game Grand Theft Auto constantly for about a month and a half. This obviously played a role in him stealing cars. But he then took it to a whole new level. When he was taken to the jail he suddenly jumped the officer stealing his .40-caliber glock shooting him twice and killing him. Another officer that heard the gunshots started running to the officer’s rescue when Moore shot him three times and killed him. On his way out Moore turned his...
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