The document discusses several potential negative effects of video games: violence, explicit sexual content, abusive/inappropriate language, addiction, stereotyping and representation, and censorship. It presents arguments both for and against the idea that each of these effects negatively impact players or society. While some effects like graphic violence are concerning to some, the document argues there is no clear evidence games cause real-world harm and alternatives like mental illness are often the root cause of issues. Censorship is debated as both protective of younger audiences but limiting of creative work.

1. Effects Debates
Ben White

2. Violence
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2819568/Boy-middle-class-home-turned-loner-obsessed-
zombie-video-games-Parents-court-teenage-
classroom-killer-life.html
This refers to areas within games that contain blood, gore and weapons. In GTA 5 (for an example), there are
quite a lot of different weapons for the player to choose from. With these weapons, they can then decide to go
on a killing rampage and murder whoever they want in various ways. Many people believe that this violence in
video games makes people more violent in real life, as many teenagers play these types of games for hours at a
time. The link above shows a newspaper article in which states that a boy who murdered his teacher was
influenced by video games. It says he played games such as dark souls 2 which contains violence, however, he
was found to have a personality disorder with psychopathic tendencies.
Personally, I strongly believe that video games do not cause violent behaviour. There have been many studies
into the case which too have found that there is no link between game violence and real world violence, and in
cases such as when people who have played video games in the past and have gone to a cinema or another area
and shot people for no reason, these people have pretty much all been found to have mental disorders and/or
be psychopathic. I have played video games since I was 3 and over the years the majority of games I have played
have had some form of violence in them, but I have no desire or intention to hurt or kill anyone, I even feel bad
when I stand on a spider. Another final point to make is that the human race just naturally has a violent side to it,
as does any animal as we need to be violent to catch prey and survive due to our race being omnivores, and if
we look at our history, it becomes increasingly evident that we can be pretty violent. Hundreds, of wars have
been fought in the past and countless people have died. Take Adolf Hitler for example. Was he inspired by GTA 5
to cause the deaths of 60 million people? No. Violence is cause by power, nature or mental illnesses in my
opinion.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/research-shows-no-link-between-video-game-violence/1100-6423385/

3. Explicit Sexual Content
This refers to any content in video games such as nudity and
sexual interactions. This is shown in games such as Ride to
Hell retribution and the Grand Theft Auto series. In these
games, characters are seen to be naked at times and even
having sexual intercourse with others. In the GTA series, you
can even buy a prostitute or go to a strip club to see naked
women. Due to the games industry having a significant
amount of males working in it, there is said to be quite a lot
of sexualisation of women in the sense that women in
games tend to be created with more appealing features and
sometimes have naked models. This can effect players by
making them think less of women.
I believe that there is a lot of this type of content in video
games, but it can also be seen a lot in movies or TV shows as
well. Game wise however, there does appear to be more
sexualisation on female characters, but I believe this is
because there are more men in the games industry and I
believe they are just trying to make the game more
appealing to other men as they are most likely to buy games
such as GTA 5.

4. Abusive/ Inappropriate language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKXgcz
WPCxg
Abusive or inappropriate language can
be found a lot in video games and refers
to the use of swear, vulgar or repulsive
words. A game called Conkers Bad Fur
day is well known for its over-use of bad
language as there’s pretty much a bad
word every 10 seconds. The over-the-top
use of this word could cause players
them selves to begin using such
language at inappropriate times or more
often. This could then cause the player
to use abusive language online which
would further spread and cause
aggressive arguments

5. Addiction
http://business.time.com/2013/11/15/candy-crush-saga-the-
science-behind-our-addiction/
This refers to spending too much time playing video games and
making your life revolve around them. A game called candy crush
saga is known to be addictive. The link above further states this
and it has been discovered that the game itself was actually
designed to be addictive. This causes people to spend too much
time on a game and not enough time working or socializing, so will
end up with a poor social life and working life.
I believe that games aren’t addictive and are only seen so because
proper gamers like to put a lot of time into them. I play games for
more than I should, but I do this because it is my hobby and I enjoy
having fun playing them and being entertained by them. I don’t see
this as being different to any other hobby – a person who would
read books a lot at home has not gone to the extent of being
described as an addict, so why are games being criticized?

6. Stereotyping and representation
This involves putting people in our society
into groups and taking actions against or
with them. For example, in Grand Theft
Auto 5, Franklin is portrayed as a violent
gangster who deals drugs. This is
stereotyping as gangsters are seen by most
people as criminals who deal drugs and
murder people and some people believe
that the majority of gangsters are the same
race as Franklin. In GTA 5, It is also incredibly
evident that the creators have made quite a
lot of African-American gangsters and I have
noticed this myself. This is where
stereotyping is bad as the game could
therefor inform people to believe that all
foreign and coloured people are criminals (
which they’re NOT) and could cause people
to talk ill of them or even avoid them, when
in reality most of these people are not bad
at all.

7. Censorship
Censorship means blocking content that is too gory,
bloody or contains nudity. A game called Left for Dead 2
was censored in Australia due to its over-the-top gore
system and blood effects. It is used to protect people
from disgusting visuals that could make them feel bad,
but goes against rights as the censorship is limiting and
stopping people from seeing the full game. Censorship
would be effective for younger audiences as this means
this audience can play more adult games due to all
horrible sights being removed, but the games were
designed to have the blood and gore for a reason so
should not be changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH7QCt
uaXgI