The document discusses the history of mainstream media blaming video games for acts of real-world violence. It provides examples of controversial games like Doom and Manhunt that were blamed for incidents but later found to have no causal link. Studies are cited finding no correlation between gaming and aggression, though some politicians deny this. While certain games like Manhunt were highly controversial, there is no evidence they inspired real violence. Overall the document examines the debate around this topic and how video games have unfairly been blamed by media at times despite lack of evidence linking them to violent acts.

1. Arlene
For years, the mainstream media has berated and blamed video games for violence
caused in the real world. I am here to discuss this argument and provide points from
both sides, including mainstream media’s points and scientific studies that either
support or disagree with the accusation that video games cause real world violence.
People have suggested that video games have caused violence stemming from the
infamous Columbine school shooting that happened in 1999 due to one of the
perpetrators having a reference to the video game DOOM. Ever since this day people
have blamed catastrophes such as this on the art form of video games. This has led
to video games being banned in countries as the government was lead to believe that
they would influence people of the public to try what they saw on their screen, one of
the most famous cases was the game MANHUNT, which will be discussed later. Some
other games have also tried to be banned and shun by the media but for some reason,
they’re beloved series, such as the GTA series that is the biggest video game series
of all time, yet it still thrives as a series yet it is always under scrutiny from the media,
the use of the uses and gratification theory (UGT) will help people understand and
come in handy when discussing the series yet delicate topic of video game violence.
But why do people enjoy games such as these and do games really cause real life
violence or is that just what the mainstream wants you to think to push an agenda?
Phillip M. Boffey, a journalist for the Dana Foundation wrote an article about how fast
and quick the media is to jump to conclusions on blaming video games for mass acts
of violence, he used a mass shooting that happened in a Walmart located in Texas, in
which 22 people where killed and 24 others were injured. It was stated that when the
assailant was committing the crime, he used terminology that was a reference to a
video game, leading the main stream media to run with the narrative that it was a video
game that drove the man to commit the crime. This was later defuncted by the police
force running the investigation as they determined that it was not to blame on video
games, but the act was racially charged. This shows how one piece of information that
was not even confirmed at the time, was twisted into a narrative that the media has
been portraying for years to censor video games and what they show. Also, in this
article, there is also a mention on how the government have tried to stop violence in
video games from getting to the impressionable youth and that is by age ratings to
help guide parents/ guardians to see what is suitable for their children. This is because
in some games, death and gore is sometimes incentivised and shown in detail. The
author also theorises that the media and some politicians want to make the link
between real life violence and violence portrayed in video games because of how
quickly the media of video games has spread around the world. Even though,
throughout all the research done, there is no evidence to back this statement.
“They show at best, some correlation between exposure to violent entertainment and
miniscule real- world effects, such as children feeling more aggressive or making
louder noises in a few minutes after playing a violent games than after playing a non-
violent game.” – Justice Antonio Scalia, before the supreme court.

2. In 2003, the video game world was introduced to a very controversial game that no
one was expecting. The video game company ROCKSTAR, who are used to making
controversial games, made arguably one of, if not, the most controversial game of all
time. MANHUNT. MANHUNT was released in 2003 and to the dismay of the media, it
was well received by the paying public. The media did not fully know what was involved
in the game until details were released, in which they found out the story of the game.
In the game, you play a character who has been put on death row for reasons not told
to the audience, the character is then put into a snuff film instead of being executed
for his crimes, and incentivised to kill everyone he sees for money and his release.
The main mechanic for this game that is the most controversial part as the game is a
stealth based horror. You can sneak behind enemies and execute them, at first this
doesn’t sound bad but then you find out that the longer you wait to do the execution,
the more gruesome it is. This mechanic was implemented to work on the psyche of
the players, ROCKSTAR’s thought process was to challenge what the players would
do. As the player’s are not forced or even incentivised to perform a more gruesome
execution but the option was there. ROCKSTAR gained data from this and found out
that 97% of player’s chose to perform the more violent act and when asked why, the
participants said they were curious as to what they would see. The game was so brutal
and deemed too violent that it was banned in 15 different countries, this was the most
banned video game of all time, until MANHUNT 2 was released. The theme of the
game does not help either as it based around the character you play being in a snuff
film. Snuff films are films, mostly homemade, that showcase death, torture or even
rape, these themes are explored or even hinted at throughout the game. This was
huge for the media as only recently with the wider use of the internet, snuff film rings
were found, and people were arrested for possession of them due to the illegality of
the films. Although the game was shunned by the media and banned in many
countries, the game has created itself a cult following who love and adore the game
for pushing the boundaries and testing the psyche of the player yet there has never
been a case of violence being blamed or even hinted at the game. Showing that even
the most disturbing games can’t have an effect of people and their actions in the real
world.
The Guardian released an article on the 22nd of July 2020, admitting that video games
do not lead to violent acts within the real world. This is a very rare case of the
mainstream media siding with the facts and publicly acknowledging that video games
do not create real life violence. The article talks about a study that was done with
21,000 young people, came back showing that there was no link between aggressive
behaviour and playing video games, this was done using meta- analysis. The
researchers stated that there was “Miniscule positive correlation” between aggression
shown and video games and that it is “Way below the threshold for someone to lash
out or do something harmful towards someone else.” But even with The Guardian
showing results and methods of how the research was done, a politician, who was not
involved with the study or had any correlation to it, said that the data found “Wasn’t
meaningful” Which just shows that even with the evidence laid out in front of them,
they refuse to believe it and won’t allow it to ruin their perspective or agenda on video
games. To make sure that the researchers were not an outlier in the research on this
subject, they looked through 28 different studies that went as far back as 2008 to

3. determine if there was any correlation between the data and results. They found that
all the results and data that they gathered was essentially the same as results and
data found from previous years and studies. There was an argument made that if there
was a negative response to the game that the participants played, no matter how little,
it would stack and lead to something bigger such as a random act of violence.
Although, in theory, this is a possibility, the people who conducted the experiment said
that yes, in theory it was possible but they found that there was no sign of accumulation
of anger between sessions of even as little time as 2 minutes. So yes, in theory, this
could happen, but it isn’t realistically a possibility.
On the 20th of April, 1999. The biggest school shooting in America’s history happened,
Columbine. This tragedy shocked the whole world as to how people could do this to
innocent people. The media obviously reported on this incident and it was broadcasted
around the world as everyone was wondering why it happened. Arlene. One of the
shooter’s decided to inscribe the name “Arlene” onto the side of his weapon that he
used in the shooting. This was a reference to a character from popular game DOOM,
which the media stuck to and ran with. Although police came out and said that video
games were not the reasoning for the shooting, the media ran with it as the gun was
named after a video game character. This was really, the first global blame for video
games causing real life violence as there was really only small blamings but when this
was discovered, everyone saw this as a sign that video games were the source as to
why people would do such a thing. This put DOOM in a bad spot, leading to the
developers asking people not to link their game to such a horrible act. DOOM had
been out for 6 years before the incident, and never had a problem with being blamed
for violence as the game is based around killing monsters and demons so no body
would insinuate that the game would lead to violence against other humans. Although
DOOM had to deal with the blame and scrutiny from the media, it has recently had a
new installation to the series’ rich history, this game is one of the most recognisable
and iconic game series of all time and being one of the highest grossing just to add to
its repertoire. This shows that something as small and simple as a name can create
such a stigma that video games have had to live with and will probably, forever be a
part of video games culture as long as they are part of the culture.
Polygon, a titan in the factual publishing industry, released an article named: A Brief
History Of Blaming Video Games For Mass Murder. The article talks about how video
games have slowly become a mainstay of modern culture but also mentions how they
still hold the stigma and disapproval of causing real life violence. Even as recent as
2019, the former president of the United States publicly said, in light of a mass shooting
where 14 students were murdered, that the act was linked to video games. Completely
ignoring the fact that the person in question was mentally ill and was racially fuelled
against minorities, the people he targeted in his shooting. Trump, in his speech,
refused to blame America’s problem with health care and gun control and instead
blame it on video games as an explanation for this occurrence. In the early 2000’s the
NRA attempted to ban video games in America as they believed that it was video game
corporations that were to fault and blame for mass shootings but failed to get a pass
as video games fall under the 1st amendment and class as a form of art. Of the top
100 deadliest mass shootings in modern history, 40 took place in the USA, the most

4. deadly taking place in 1927. 7 took place before video games were apart of American
life, leaving 33 school shootings taking place between 1980 and 2018, in which more
than 1 person was slain. In 4 of these 33, the perpetrators have been identified as fans
of video games. 1- Columbine shootings, 1999: The shooters were fans of the video
game, DOOM. 2- Heath High School, 1997: The 14-year-old perpetrator was a fan of
video games but suffered from constant bullying and mental illness. 3- Sandy Hook,
2012: “A loner with known mental illness and a fascination in school shootings. He
frequently played video games, his favourite being Dance Dane Revolution” – Officer
leading the investigation. 4- Parkland, 2018: Shooter spent many hours a day playing
violent video games and suffered from severe depression. Video games are mostly
tied to school shootings, because they are generally perpetrated by young men who
are, or were, at the affected school. Other mass shootings usually take place in the
workplace or public spaces. Their motives are generally tied to the beliefs, vices,
professional failures, mental illnesses or broken relationships of the individual
shooters, not their entertainment choices.
The FBI released a research document on the link between video games and mass
shootings, this was released around 2016. It states that, a student that constantly plays
video games, is a potential sign to look out for. This is a weird statement as the secret
service and department of education found that in 37 incidents of school violence, 12%
of those people played or had an interest in video games whilst people who had a
deep interest in horror films were 37%. Although, it is understandable as to why the
FBI look out for some of these signs as they need to cover all the bases to make sure
and keep the general public safe, no matter how big or small the potential is. After
looking through cases of and grim stories of mass and school shootings, when
researching this. It is very surprising how little video games are brought up compared
to other outlets of media, yet the narrative is based and focused more on video games
causing violence, showing that there is already a narrative being run.
Hatred is a different game… No claims of violence have ever been said about this
game within real life… But that is the point of it all. Hatred was released in 2014, as a
stand up against political correctness and how the stigma around games is false. The
aim of this game is to kill as many innocent people as possible and is also incentivised
throughout the game by there being a point system in which you gain more points for
killing more people. Sometimes in the game, you can get an up-close view of the
character that you are playing executing someone is an extremely gruesome fashion.
The point of this game, as the developer states, is to show that if you believed what
the mainstream media says about how video games caused real life violence, then
this is what would happen and would be way more frequent than what it is, raising the
question to people who believe that people who play video games are violent, then
why is acts like this not happening more often to due to how world spread video games
are as a media. Nothing but going around commit random acts of violence for fun. To
help show the serious message behind the game, the game is in complete black and
white to emphasise how “black and white” the message is behind the game, that if
video games really did cite violence in the real world then it would look like this, would
it not? Although, it was frowned upon in the gaming communities, it is very underrated
with the message is sends and shows and it is an important game to think about when

5. discussing the topic. Although, not good in faith, it is a very good game to bring up and
put in the main spotlight when the topic arises.
For a more psychological look as to what the effects are on people when they are
subjected to violent video games, I turned to look at The American Psychological
Association as they released a piece on myths, facts and unanswered questions on if
video games make people violent. The piece states that 4 types of study were
conducted and provided a wider understanding. The 4 types of study were: Laboratory
experiments, field experiments, cross- sectional correlation studies and longitudinal
studies. Two features of video games fuel renewed interest by researchers, public
policy makers, and the general public. First, the active role required by video games
is a double-edged sword. It helps educational video games be excellent teaching tools
for motivational and learning process reasons. Second, the arrival of a new generation
of ultraviolent video games beginning in the early 1990s and continuing unabated to
the present resulted in large numbers of children and youths actively participating
in entertainment violence that went way beyond anything available to them on
television or in movies. Recent video games reward players for killing innocent
bystanders, police, and prostitutes, using a wide range of weapons including guns,
knives, flame throwers, swords, baseball bats, cars, hands, and feet. Some include
cut scenes (i.e., brief movie clips supposedly designed to move the story forward) of
strippers. In some, the player assumes the role of hero, whereas in others the player
is a criminal. Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as
some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one
combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate
effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly
associated with: increased aggressive behaviour, thoughts, and affect; increased
physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behaviour. High levels of
violent video game exposure have been linked to delinquency, fighting at school and
during free play periods, and violent criminal behaviour. Though there are good
theoretical reasons to expect some populations to be more susceptible to violent video
game effects than others, the research literature has not yet substantiated this. That
is, there is not consistent evidence for the claim that younger children are more
negatively affected than adolescents or young adults or that males are more affected
than females. There is some evidence that highly aggressive individuals are more
affected than nonaggressive individuals, but this finding does not consistently occur.
Even nonaggressive individuals are consistently affected by brief exposures.
Grand Theft Auto, or more commonly known as GTA, started as a simple driving
game where you ran from the police whilst driving wreckfully but by GTA 3, you
could exit the car and release mayhem onto the world in this now classic sandbox,
open world master piece. The series really started gaining traction after it’s critically
acclaimed game, GTA IV, where the player was allowed to do a lot more stuff and
explore the most diverse and full world, with a gripping story to help. But this is
where the game also started getting it’s hate from the media as murder and illegal
acts were now a core part of the game where prostitutes and drugs are now involved
as well as the expansive arsenal of weapons at the players disposal to wreak
havoc. When GTA V released, no one expected ROCKSTAR to hold back on the

6. chaotic content that the gaming world had come to know and love and they did
not disappoint, making one of the largest and most diverse open worlds ever made.
More weapons and vehicles to cause more mayhem and even more gory violence.
The mainstream media hates this series due to the main core of the game, but
the gaming world loves this series and will continue to play it no matter what
the mainstream media says about it. No cases of violence have been blamed on this
game either.
Another rare occasion of the mainstream media coming towards the side of video
games not making people violent is CBS News with their “Playing video games does
not make you a mass shooter, experts say.” Article. The article states how
throughout all the years of research to try and destroy the stigma of how video
games cause people to be violent within the real world, no one has really taken
notice. Stating how even the company, CBS, have been one of these to ignore the
facts and data put in front of them and run with the narrative that has been
perpetuated for years. It states that even though 165 million Americans play video
games, billions play them worldwide. Yet other countries do not connect these
games with violent acts. Ivory reiterated that study after study shows media,
including video games, has no link to violent crime. "I think it's OK morally to have a
problem with celebrating violence. It is even OK to say maybe playing video games a
lot does something to you, but it definitely doesn't make you a mass shooter. There
are other things that affect that," he said. The public doesn't always blame crime on
video games — but they are eight times more likely to do so when the perpetrator of
a crime is white, according to Ivory. "White people don't play video games more than
people of colour," he said. Therefore, pulling video games into conversations about
white criminals may be using the games as a baseless excuse. "When it comes to
actual serious criminal violence, there's virtually no evidence that video games
matter," James Ivory, professor and research director at Virginia Tech, told CBS
News. This shows how even now, the media is finally starting to see where they
were wrong by trying to put down the media of video games and blame it for
unspeakable things due to not having a story good enough.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will always be one of the most controversial games
ever made, not just for its themes of war and death whilst scrutinising both American,
Russian, British and Chinese military’s. But one mission, where you play an
undercover agent participating in a terrorist attack where you and the people you
are trying to fit in with go through an airport and kill all innocent people in there,
gunning them down. This is the only ever skippable mission in the history of the
series due to its intense nature. When the media found out about this mission, they
jumped on it trying to scare the general public that playable missions like this could
cause a shooting on this scale to happen in real life. This has not been true as
nothing has been close to this and never mentioned the name of the game. This is a
very distressing mission for some and is well warranted the “skip” option in the menu
when the mission appears but as previously mentioned, nothing has come of this in
real life and there are no signs that anything will, especially linked the game. The
game developers came under scrutiny after the game’s release just mainly because

7. of this mission but even with this mission, the game has gone on to be classed as
one of the greatest games ever made and still has an active community to this day.
To add more studying to the repertoire of proving that video games do not cause real
life violent, Molecular Psychiatry did a longitudinal intervention study on if playing
violent video games cause people to be more aggressive. Previous experimental
studies have focussed on short-term effects of violent video gameplay on
aggression, yet there are reasons to believe that these effects are mostly the result
of priming. In contrast, the present study is the first to investigate the effects of long-
term violent video gameplay using a large battery of tests spanning questionnaires,
behavioural measures of aggression, sexist attitudes, empathy and interpersonal
competencies, impulsivity-related constructs (such as sensation seeking, boredom
proneness, risk taking, delay discounting), mental health (depressivity, anxiety) as
well as executive control functions, before and after 2 months of gameplay.
participants played the violent video game Grand Theft Auto V, the non-violent
video game The Sims 3 or no game at all for 2 months on a daily basis. No
significant changes were observed, neither when comparing the group playing a
violent video game to a group playing a non-violent game, nor to a passive
control group. The concern that violent video games may promote aggression or
reduce empathy in its players is pervasive and given the popularity of these games
their psychological impact is an urgent issue for society at large. Contrary to the
custom, this topic has also been passionately debated in the scientific literature. One
research camp has strongly argued that violent video games increase aggression in
its players.
Mortal Kombat is one of the most successful and popular game series ever made
and only continues to rise in popularity with every release. But Mortal Kombat would
never have been what it is now without the controversy surrounding it. With
the series’ first release, it was instantly involved with controversy with how gruesome
and gory the game was, including decapitations and many, many executions. The
media tried to bury this game ever since release but because of the violence, that
was the main draw of the game and has remained to be the main stay and focus of
the series and the fanbase and peers seem to love it. The media tried to stop people
from buying this game as they thought it would inspire people, especially the youth,
to try out some moves shown in the game which caused fatal to the characters. The
media also pushed to get the game banned in some countries and in some, it
worked but the majority of the world now embraces the game
and applauds it’s violence and with every instalment, asks for more and expects
more.
In conclusion, video games do not lead to violence in the real world, some people
may be influenced but those that have been said to have gained influence from
games have had severe mental health issues. There is a pattern of aggressiveness
from people who play violent video games but never enough to hurt anyone or
anything and this effect will not stack meaning it lasts around 1 minute after the
person stops playing the game. The mainstream media have been blaming video
games for acts of mass violence since roughly 1999 with the Columbine shootings.
But as of late, with all the evidence provided, the mainstream media are starting to

8. pick up that they were wrong by pushing the narrative and people have stopped
believing them because of it, ruining their credibility.