Why violent video games should NOT be banned.

[Your once and future Fanboy]

Games are just like movies, only more interactive. and if you want to ban violent games you should ban movies, graphic novels, radio broadcast, horror books, violent art, etc. if you allow one to be banned, people will ban more and more until we all are back in the dark ages where everything where dictated by religion.

also games, movies, etc can be considered as art, and art by definition is a statement, therefore it is protected by freedom of speech, so banning it would be illegal.
Suck on that Jack Thomson!

 

[Fumbles]

Remember that high ranking buddhist fella a few weeks back who said that playing violent video games is a great way to relieve stress and anger? That could be a good argument. Also, you could argue that intelligent, mature adults have every right to play violent video games if they want to.

You mean the Dalai Lama? Wow..That high ranking Buddhist fella...nice one

 

[MGlBlaze]

Oh, and who said violent games can't teach you. Anyone ever heard of a game called "Math Invaders"? Think "System Shock" with "Doom" graphics, run through your calculator.

I prefer more subtle examples for games having potential to teach you something; getting away from usual messages some games send (The Nuke scene in Call of Duty 4 should be familiar to everyone), let's take an example from Final Fantasy 7, as pointed out by Daniel Floyd's game 'lecture' series on Youtube (under the user-name kirithem, http://www.youtube.com/kirithem);
The character, Sephiroth, is a reference to the Sephirot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sephirot

There are plenty of other examples, of course, but that's the most memorable one that's come to my attention.

 

[butikilledu47]

for one, there's a rating system on every game that shows the appropriate age requirement for a person to purchase the game. violent ones are usually rated T or M, so parents should be able to mediate what sort of games their kids can play. and if the parents don't, most of the time the place selling the game will ask for ID. that takes care of the parental control issue.

there's also the fact that violent behavior has been a part of life since the dawn of time. violent video games have minimal, if any, influence on a person's will to act violently. also what versago said about gaming being just one form of violent media rings true; for example, if you've seen quentin tarantino's latest film, Inglorious Basterds (intentionally mispelled) you'll see that it's historically innaccurate and more gritty and violent than most other movies that are out right now, yet we don't see anyone naming themselves the Bear Jew and taking a baseball bat to people's skulls. that shit was already going on before the movie came out. we also don't see anyone trying to retell history through tarantino's twisted (but entertaining) point of view.

lastly, if a person can't separate what's reality and what's a part of their little gaming world, they probably shouldn't be playing games, OR just trapped inside their own house where all they had to do was play games. all the time. doesn't sound that bad actually.

these are somewhat generalized ideas so expand on them. dunno if it'll make 6-8 pages, but good luck.

 

[Doug]

I need some help here. I have a paper due at the end of the month in my ENGL 1020 class. It is an argument essay. My topic is why violent video games should NOT be banned. I am a passionate gamer and I strongly disagree with banning video games. I need evidence against banning them and I need evidence as to why people want to ban them. I already have my rough draft started. This thing needs to be about 6-8 pages long. So please, any help will do. I would like to get this thing knocked out in the next week or so.

Thanks

Cus...this is supposely the free world (well, maybe not Australia or Germany, but thats besides the point.

 

[chris11246]

I haven't seen a game as violent as some movies that are out, any Saw for example, and there are tv shows that kids can easily watch like NCIS or CSI which show very graphic images (NCIS constantly shows the autopsy which has a persons chest cut wide open). They also show ways of killing people that are much easier to copy than most games because they are more realistic.

 

[Myrrath]

As many others have already mentioned, the onus falls to the parents to raise their children to understand the differences between right and wrong, reality and fantasy.

Most parents nowadays blame everything else for their childs problems but not their inability to be good parents. This is where the blame needs to be. As stated before, all other forms of media are not being singled out. Yet movies for example can be more bloody and violent than any video game ever could be. (SAW or Hostel)

As with many others here and around the world I have been gaming since I was 4 years old on my Commodore Vic20 and have been gaming ever since. I play everything from RPG to FPS and not once have I thought it would be cool to take a gun to school or work and kill all my friends or co-workers. My parents made sure I understood the difference, and they didn't really have to do much since I knew already. It takes some simple common sense. Something I am noticing fewer and fewer people have nowadays.

But I don't blame the media, I blame parents for not doing their job. Both my parents have always worked to support my brother and I and they always found the time to raise us right. Todays parents don't understand what it really means to be a parent and if you think it's too hard. Then throw on a condom, go on the pill or close your damn legs and don't have kids!! And save the rest of us the headache of having to deal with more and more stupid people in this world with no common sense.

 

[Threesan]

Since when did teachers judge essays by how long they are?

Probably since they realized that the majority of their students will only do the minimum work required, and that if they don't establish a minimum amount of work they will end up with one-paragraph essays. Apart from the good of the individual student, schools shouldn't in good conscience place their mark of approval on anyone who asks for it, in deference to the students who actually give a damn about their education, self-betterment and all that.

I would stay away from those kind of arguements. "Slippery slope" arguments are generally not overly valid, and makes you sound a bit fanatical. They also have a bad habit of begging the question or ignoring the topic of debate.

Isn't slippery slope essentially the only reason we, say, allow the KKK to have a website / rally / whatever? To drag Zombie Franklin out of his closet again (I'm sure he's getting sick of it, too), "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." I'm iffy on whether violence in video games constitutes freedom of speech (but perhaps that is enough?), but if you formulate it just right I think you can make that work, or construct a similar argument. I think it's more a matter that a stupid argument is stupid, and that it might be tricky to make a proper argument from slippery slope/precedent, but not impossible. But, yes, please don't pull a Chicken Little.

Having said that, it occurs to me that you could try to do a satire, but I don't know how prof will react, and I suspect that would be very hard to do right, i.e., if Average Joe did it, he'd just look like a stupid ass. I dunno, what's the trick? Poignant yet subtle? Skewer without calling names?

 

[Megacherv]

It works well with depressives with escaping the cruel world and hopefully preventing, if not prolonging their suicide in order to escape the world full of HATRED, DEATH, DESTRUCTION AND IDIOCY. GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD, I SHALL FEEL YOUR HARSH STING NO MO- *ahem* sorry, lost my head for a second there.

 

[gunbladejoe]

Remember that high ranking buddhist fella a few weeks back who said that playing violent video games is a great way to relieve stress and anger? That could be a good argument. Also, you could argue that intelligent, mature adults have every right to play violent video games if they want to.

I agree with this guy all the way.

 

[Guy32]

Off of CNN a few months ago-
'Kid's Life Saved By "Gears of War" Experience' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI]

yup, that should pretty much win the argument for you.

 

[Good morning blues]

So far I have three reasons why they shouldn't be banned.
1. Ratings labels are there for a reason.
2. More games should have "Remove Blood and Gore" options.
3. Parents and Sales Clerks are at fault for buying and selling games to children, not the game companies.

Should I change my reasons? Or add 1 or 2 more?

None of these are reasons video games shouldn't be banned; instead, they are alternate approaches to keep them out of the hands of children.

When people argue that video games should be censored, they generally do so on the grounds that violent entertainment normalizes and glorifies real-world violence. That is the argument you will have to respond to.

If I were you, I would argue that it's a freedom of speech issue.

 

[notsosavagemessiah]

Truth of the matter is, anybody that murders somebody was going to do so anyways, no video game is responsible. You wouldn't call 1984 (the book) responsible for the patriot act would you? A persons actions are dictated by his enviroment, and most importantly, how he is raised. A traumatic childhood breeds a traumatic (possibly violent) adulthood.

 

[Zenkem]

To quote Cracked, "Violent video games have been proven to reduce real violent behavior by a study made by the friggin FBI!"

 

[alloneword]

Here is the thing about violent video games:

As it is, in the year 2009, video games are a medium which reach the largest amount of young people. A few years ago, and still now though they haven't been targeted as much lately, it was all a focus on movies. When the rating system on movies became enforced better there were less and less issues with young people seeing them.

Now there is also a rating system for video games, as we on the Escapist know. However, the enforcement of this rating system is so lax, both in store and at home, that children are observing violence much more than they once did. The problem is not with the games themselves buy with the parents who refuse to take an interest in what it is their children are playing.

There is no reason to actually ban the games, not to mention that its actuall impossible in any free country thanks to freedom of speech. If parents would do their frakkin job we wouldn't be having this debate.

 

[WickedSkin]

I need some help here. I have a paper due at the end of the month in my ENGL 1020 class. It is an argument essay. My topic is why violent video games should NOT be banned. I am a passionate gamer and I strongly disagree with banning video games. I need evidence against banning them and I need evidence as to why people want to ban them. I already have my rough draft started. This thing needs to be about 6-8 pages long. So please, any help will do. I would like to get this thing knocked out in the next week or so.

Thanks

Freedom of speech. It's all you should need. In Sweden games are even considered culture/art by the government so the government can NEVER touch it. They can't go Germany or Australia on it and demand the nazis be turned into zombies with green blood and it can never be banned. It'd be a crime against you or me but first and foremost the original artist/artists. But such classifications shouldn't be needed. Kind of should say itself.

However: Games saved me from a life of crime! Gaming actually stops crime.
Also there is a rating system, make use of it people! Also improve it and add a 18+ or 21+ rating.

 

[Curbsidewhiskey]

Not sure if something like this has been mention before in this topic, but my lecturer made an interesting point to me when we were discussing banned video games.

He said that the reason a lot of people fear the effect of violent or gorey video games have on people is because of their perspective of them. As an outsider they don't see things the way gamers see them. He gave a good example of this.

In GTAIII, People went all in arms about gamers being able to sleep with hookers then murder them to get their money back afterwords. But it's completely different in the eyes of the gamers since to him, all he's doing is getting health back up then getting back the money he spent to spend elsewhere. These people who are quick to point fingers just don't understand the effect these games have because they themselves are not gamers.

That's a condensed version of what he said, but I'm sure you get the generally idea.

That is a VERY good point. I never thought of it like that because I guess I never have really met anyone who never played violent video games, so I'm sure their reactions to me popping some guys head off would be completely different to mine.

 

[Fbuh]

a big issue I have with banning video games is that it is like banning someone's long work and artistry. A lot of parents have issues with video games, but if they don't want their kids playing them, then they shouldn't buy them. It's unfair to make others suffer for your own beliefs.

On another note, I joined a conservative republican news website once, just so I could argue with a guy about how he thought all video games were violent pornography and that the was outraged that his son had played this game (Mass Effect, if I recall rightly). My argument (one of them, at least) was "Then why did you buy it for him? It very obviously says 'Rated M' on the case, so isn't it really a dereliction of your own duties as a parent that is making you mad?" Boy, that made him mad.