7 Reasons We Should Be Worried About Video Game Violence

The video game. The dictionary describes it as "a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a monitor or other display." In a sense that's true - in the same way that a meal is a combination of raw ingredients heated to a point in which its atomic state is altered enough to pleasantly pass through your digestive system. Today, games are far more complex, realistic, affective and most importantly engrossing. Video games are not passive, as even the most basic of button bashers requires you to invest some conceptual understanding (whether it's thinking of when to eat the cherries in Pac-Man or knowing when to follow up a hadouken with a roundhouse kick to the face in Street Fighter). With such a diverse range of game types and markets, video games - and therefore game players - are now the norm. No longer banished to their bedrooms, it's fair to say that just about everyone under the age of 60 has played one. Be it scoring a sweaty goal on FIFA, pretending you're actually controlling the tennis racket on Wii Sports, or launching birds into towers made by green pigs on your phone, games have a wider reach now than ever before. Video games regularly make the news, too, such as was the case for the recent "console war," but unfortunately all too often it's for another reason entirely - video game violence. This article will use examples and modern research to look at the reasons why we should be worried about video game violence. What possible effect does video game violence have on us? How might it shape the future of video games? We start off with one of the core developments of modern games - the graphics...