Debate: Does gaming cause harm?

[Crayo]

One of the biggest stereotypes stemming from mostly paranoid mothers is that video games can promote violence and affect your personality. Do you believe in this? Can it do any good when a 11 year old is on GTA and realises he can beat that prostitute up and get his money back (did this all the time lol)? Does it do good when a 12 year old is playing CoD all day arguing with strangers and doing his best to kill people?

Please don't take my questions as me being one of those paranoid mothers (that joke was coming sooner or later anyway), I just like to debate these things, and read other peoples opinion of it. Personally, I want gaming to remain as uncensored as possible. I could easily see this new union limiting what GTA can produce, and thatwould suck, so keep it as it is. I believe gaming doesn't affect your personality, but I do believe some troubled teens can get inspired by video games negatively, or can even be influenced, but they already had their own troubles beforehand.

What do you think?

 

[Farooq]

I suppose it could affect it, if it's online interaction with someone who continues to insult you and kills you in a game. Kids hate to lose, and having someone mock you constantly is going to make them angry. When kids get angry, they throw shit fits or break stuff. Either two things could happen, 1 they grow out of it, or 2 it gets worst. Obviously a parent letting a kid play a M rated game and talking to people online is bad on them too, why let your 11 year old have such interactions? Either way, I do think it could affect their personalities in a negative way, although I also think that there are some who aren't affected, I give it a 55/45 chance of them getting affected.

 

[Rysenberg]

Dirtsheet BS.

I've found gaming to be really helpful in my case. I'm an overthinker (not insecure girl on Twitter kind of overthinking, genuine thoughts over the point of life etc), but gaming occupies me and keeps my mind off of it. Since I've became a regular gamer (about 6 months ago), I've been so much happier it's ridiculous. Usually I'd either spend morning or Afternoons on weekends/days off watching TV, playing football because "it's good for me" or walking the dog or some shit like that. I found all those things just gave me too much time to think and consequently I'd be in a shit mood for the rest of the day.

I've moaned a shit tonne about being on holiday and it's for a reason, I'm bored out my nut and I've been in an awful mood as a result of that. It's just me personally, and I guess it can have different effects on different people, but gaming has really helped me.

 

[McLovin1]

Are we seriously gonna have this BS in here? They say teh same thing about TV, the internet and every other kind of entertainment. It's easy to blame the fact that your kids are blueberries on Video games but the truth is you're the one respnsable for what your kids do and how they act.

 

[GeeTeaIye]

Everything can be harmful, if you are stupid enough to be influenced.
Smart kids can do anything, but having a mind of their own makes them immune to virtual violence and influences.

 

[William]

I could easily see this new union limiting what GTA can produce, and thatwould suck, so keep it as it is.

Believe it or not Saints Row IV has been banned in Australia even though we were just given the R18+ rating for our games, the ESRB REFUSED to give a rating on this game, so they're basically telling adults in our country what they're allowed to play and what they can't play. It is honestly really stupid.

In my opinion on this topic though no, gaming does not affect the way a person thinks, what happens in a game people register as ITS A GAME not real life. I've played shit like GTA and Saints Row since I was about 8 and it hasn't made me believe for a second that it's alright to do any of the stuff they show in that game. In my opinion gaming is one thing that will never lead to people becoming crazy and killing people because they did it in a game.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

not at all. If anything, they help relieve stress so that you don't go and take it out on real people.

 

[CFCrusader]

Well here's the thing, first of all that'll only happen if a little kid is on these games and then does that in real life. In which case, parents need to realise that they need to be good parents and make sure these kids aren't doing/watching/playing that crap on the internet. Secondly, for more mature users (anyone who doesn't think gaylord is an insult, so probably someone 14+) it's a way to just relieve stress after a bad day, to make new friends and to become a better person. I know I'm a better person because of the people I've met playing video games, who have taught me not only gaming skills, but real life skills. Finally, there ARE games (like the ones that Nintendo make) that won't be telling you to start shooting people in the head. Instead you jump on people's heads.

 

[Swift]

It won't affect most people, but of course there are blueberries out there.
My 8 year old brother and 10 year old sister spend hours playing GTA and Red Dead Redemption and they're fine. They don't stab animals or feel like going on a murdering spree. Same with music, my brother is really into Ozzy, King Diamond, Slayer and a few others and he's not sacrificing babies or worshiping Satan or none of that stereotypical bullshit.
Though, to be fair I only see them a few times a month or so. So I guess they could be serial killers, Satan worshipers, animal killers when they're not at my place :mog: :

 

[Gav back in the championship]

no just because you like shooting a couple of computer generated people doesn't mean you wanna recreate it by grabbing the closest ak-47 and go on a rampage plus if a parent buys an 18 rated game for there 10 year old child not knowing what its about then its there fault not the game devs its 18 rated for a reason

 

[Cloud]

Sort of on topic, but for all the mums out there who panic about games there is something viewable at all hours of the day that contains horrific images and stories at all times and thats the news.

 

[Shadie T]

No. If you play a game where you kill someone and then kill someone in real life (If you are at an age where you can tell what to do and what not to) thats you having some mental disorder or just being messed up.

 

[Nano]

It doesn't harm you unless you're playing all the stupid day. Playing one or two hours a day to a game like for example GTA can't make you think that's real life...

 

[T.R.I.C]

Meh, anything can influence people to be violent: Video games, music, movies, books, neglectful parents. :meh: People will always find something to blame besides themselves. I had parents who monitored my gaming, and allowed me to play Manhunt, anyone remember that game, at the age of 14 and I dont seem to have any mental side effects from it.

 

[Irwin R. Schyster]

No, it does not do any harm. Someone who decides to be a dildo afterwards has always had the ability to do so. To go outside and actually kill someone (for example), I cringe when games get blamed for that shit. If you have that inside of you, you would have done it without games. You have a chemical imbalance, that isn't the fault of a game or a movie. If you are raised to know what is right and wrong (and you don't have any kind of mental problem), you wont be repeating what you see in games. My brothers and I grew up watching fucking slasher movies since, wow, 3/4 years old, and we have never done anything violent. Know the difference between reality and a virtual world.

These morons who blame games can never answer the question of 'well then, why didn't the thousands of other people who played the same game not go out and do the same thing?' Yes, let's be stupid and blame a game instead of looking at the real issue, which isn't the game at all.