Violence in Video Games: Should it be Linked To Real Life Violence?

My heart goes to all the people who lost their loved ones in one of the most devastating killings in the history of the planet. It's breaking my heart just to mention this recent massacre that happened in Utoeya, Norway. I'd rather not want to talk about it at all. However, what's really grinding my gears is whenever I read news like this that instead of trying to help and understand what the victims are going through right now, conservatives are pointing the finger on video games that have nothing to do with this incident.

Apparently, the Australian Christian Lobby links this atrocity to violence in video games just because that lunatic scum, Anders Behring Breivik mentioned in his manifesto that World of Warcraft is "the perfect training tool" and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is "the best military simulator" and it somewhat aided him in his attacks. So some conservatives concluded that these video games had influence to Breivik's beliefs which ultimately caused the deaths of 77 innocent people (mostly teenagers) in Norway under Breivik's hands. They further added that "The studied indifference of this killer to the suffering he was inflicting, his obvious dehumanising of his victims and the evil methodical nature of the killings have all the marks of games scenarios."

And then the recent London riot, video games really can't get away with every violence that happens in the society, can they? Just today, I've read that Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis asserts that "brutal TV and brutal video games are a reason for this pointless violence as well". Do you think their claims are warranted?

Violence in video games has been the subject of several debates in the past and although a lot of research and major studies had been done to find out if there is really a conclusive link between video games and violent activity, no one has ever proven that violent video games fires up a person's killer instinct or increase violent tendencies among people.

Before anything else, I would like to stress that I'm not writing this because I'm defending WoW and COD - I'm not really a big fan of MMO and first person shooters. I just don't like sitting here and watching as other people are using tragedies like this as cannon fodder for their personal agendas.

First of all, I would like to state some facts.

1) Breivik's attacks had been under conception way back 2002, 3 years before he got addicted to WoW, and several more years before he played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

2) He was an active member of Oslo shooting club between 2005 and 2007, and then 2010 and onwards, which means he had a gun license and training to shoot a real gun. He didn't have any police or military training, yes, but do you think he would need a similarly rigorous training to be able to shoot 69 defenseless kids to death? I don't think so.

3) As clearly mentioned in his manifesto, he mostly used WoW as a cover, in order to isolate himself from his friends and relatives and give him enough time for preparation of his evil plans. So Wow definitely has nothing to do with his beliefs, ideals, and motives.

On the other hand, can first person shooters like Call of Duty train someone to shoot a gun with precision? Definitely not. Holding and shooting a real gun is very, very different than doing the same with your PS3 Sharpshooter. If we accept that theory then it would mean that I can become a swordmaster upon playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

I've been playing Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter games ever since the first iterations of these games were released. Did that make me a stealth espionage expert then?

RJ has been a dedicated Need for Speed fan for as long as I can remember. He raced and won with his favorite car Lamborghini Murcielago in several Need for Speed games. Damn, that must have trained him to become a great drag racer then! But alas, he failed to get a driver's license when he took a driver's test because he doesn't even know how to release the hand brake...

Conservatives are very quick when talking about the negatives in video gaming. So why is the same logic not applied to its positive effects? If Call of Duty games make us violent, then L.A. Noire might make us inquisitive detectives then.

And if violent games were really capable of turning someone to a violent murderer then atrocities like this would have happened a lot more often. The thing is, there a lot of other factors why people like Breivik are doing this. Some of these factors include their social well-being, state of mind, mental health issues and in Breivik's case, religious and political beliefs and ideals. The latter had much more influence on this guy's action and he took it to the extreme so wether he played COD or not, he was going to do this anyway. MW2 was mentioned like once or twice in his manifesto while the words Muslim, Christian, Islam, Marx were mentioned like 1000 to 3000 times.

On the other hand, video games has way more positive effects if we use it properly and play responsibly.

How about the argument that violent video games have bad effects to younger kids? Well, let's leave that to the parents. The ESRB rating is there for a reason.


I'm very open to other people's opinions about this. What do you guys think?

Posted in: video games