Their negative influence on childrens Essay Example for Free

Their negative influence on childrens Essay As a video game and computer game lover, the thought that negative effects ever being present in these enjoyable past time devices never crossed my mind. Over this past summer I was able to spend countless hours improving my skills on different games. I of course made multiple visits to video game stores such as Game Stop and Game Crazy. As I entered one these stores to purchase a new game, I noticed two boys, probably about eight or nine years of age, were playing one of the latest war games on a new video game console known as the Xbox 360. As I walked over to the shelves to search for the game that I had gone there to buy I heard a loud, Thats right bitch, I got your ass! I slowly turned to notice that it was one of the boys who were playing the Xbox that had just said this. What I had just heard is not something uncommon to hear boys say while playing certain games, but it made me think: what compels such young boys to act and say things this way? My purpose in this paper is to persuade parents of young boys that the video game culture might be harmful to their psychological development. First of all, video games today are being made so that the involvement of the player is constantly being improved. The idea is that when you play the character on the screen they want you feel as if you really are the character. Game producers are always trying to one up each other by making new ways to make games feel realistic. Whats unfortunate about this is that the majority of these games are extremely violent, gory, and sexually graphic. For example, consider the gaming company Rockstar. They are known for creating extremely controversial games. They are the creators of two popular games known as Grand Theft Auto and Bully. In Grand Theft Auto you play as a gang member in a suburban city who has the freedom to commit almost any kind of crime and is able to get away with it by killing those who get in your way. In the game Bully you play a young boy attending a private high school who bullies not only other students but teachers as well. These kinds of games all revolve around one notion, and that is using physical force to get what you want. This is what Cassell and Jenkins (1998) call playing like a male. In their book, From Barbie to Mortal Combat (1998), it explains how nine out of ten games present a male as the main character. Not only do these games have a male as the leading character, but the male is also grotesquely illustrated as a hyper masculine violent being. These males show no regret, grief, or sorrow toward their actions and basically take the life other characters in the game without expressing any emotion. Game producers come up with particular strategies to keep the gamer involved. Their most effective strategy is the way that they reward the gamer. The more people you kill the more points you get. At the end of every level they show a tally of how many kills you achieved and keep track of your points. As the game progresses these points allow you unlock more things in the game. For example, more weapons are provided for the character. At the beginning of the game the character is given low level weapons, such as a pistol or knife, but as the game continues the character gains larger and higher tech weapons, such a flame thrower or grenade launcher. And attaining these weapons lets the character kill more opponents quicker and allows the gamer to see more violently graphic material, such as severed limbs or exploding heads. According to Norris (2004), this aggression demonstrates extreme male behavior that contributes to gender stereotyping. Not only do we see extreme male stereotypes in video games, we also see extreme female stereotyping. In a game where the male is the main character females usually portrayed as helpless and needy and in most cases always need to be rescued. They are considered the damsels in distress. People may argue to an extent that there are also games that have females as the main characters too, such as the game Lara Croft, but this and other games define femininity in a very different way. Females who play larger roles in video games are portrayed extremely sexual. Since most gaming companies are comprised of mostly or all men, they portray the female characters as they would in a males fantasy. For example, Lara Crofts body is considered grossly unnatural. She does not have the same body proportions that a woman has. Her breast and waist sizes just dont exist in real life. And this applies to practically all females in video games. The last kind of video game that I would like to inform parents about are known as first person shooter games. These kinds of games basically teach kids how to kill. In the video documentary, Game Over (2002), Sergeant Baker explains how the U. S Military made a 30 year research on how first person shooter games effectively teaches someone to kill another person. In the military they use a live video feed simulator known as F. A. T. S, which stands for Fire Arm Training Simulator. The only difference between a first person shooter game and the simulator is that if a soldier accidentally shoots the wrong person they could be demoted or even fired, but if a child shoots the wrong person all they have to do is restart the game. A soldier may go to war and not fire a weapon for months on end, but when a child picks up a gun at the arcade or plays a first person shooter game they are going to shoot something. According to Sergeant Baker, the reason why the military uses these games to teach people how to kill is because it does just that, teaches them how to kill. They teach the mind to shoot at your enemy, and it has worked effectively for over 30 years. In conclusion, there are quite a few video games today can be detrimental to a child psychological development. I am not trying to say that all video games influence negative effects on children. As a matter of fact there are games that help teach problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, and allow boys to be competitive with each other. It is not the technology that is to blame, it is the content that gaming companies use where the problem lies. This is where parental guidance becomes important. Every game has a rating and that rating is there to let the childs guardians know whether that certain game is suitable for the age of the child. Overall video games are a fascinating past-time that is a lot of fun to play. Parents just need to make sure that they observe what their child is playing and how long they play it for. References Cassell, J. , Jenkins, H. , (1998). From barbie to mortal kombat: Gender and computer games. Caecilia: Graphic Composition, Inc. Norris, K. (2004). Gender Stereotypes, Aggression, and Computer Games: An Online Survey of Women. Retrieved November 26, 2006, from Academic Search Premier Database. Dietz, T. (1998) Sex roles: An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games. Reviewed November 26, 2006, from Google. com. Web site: http://www. findarticles. com/p/particles/mi_m2294/is_n5-6_v38/ai_20749198. Huntemann, N. (2002). Game Over: Gender, Race, and Violence in Video Games. United States: Media Education Foundation.