Rogerian Argument on Video Games: The Effect Violent Video Games Have on Teenagers

The gaming industry is a growing population with approximately 2.5 billion video gamers all over the world (The European Mobile Game Market, 2016). With the popularity of video games, they are bound to be held accountable for the negative actions of gamers. The most recent claim being that video games cause shootings and other violent crimes. These claims are usually involved with school shootings because many believe that violent video games cause violent actions in real-life situations. Here are some of the supporting claims that intense video games cause brutal actions among players.

A recent article claims that a study was done targeting ages nine through nineteen and found a link to extreme video games and physical aggression (Snider, 2019). Some mentioned titles include Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and Manhunt. Common themes throughout these games include murder, gore, weapons, and robbery. Any game that includes these types of actions is believed to take over the minds of young players. These games include first-person point of view which can lead them to feel as if the game is real life. Once the player achieves the objective of murder, it causes the player to feel rewarded with no consequence. There is no jail time or any form of discipline in these games which may lead the player to think they could get away with violent actions in real life. According to an article, Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University, quotes “Video games are an easy scapegoat”(Bella,2019). Those who believe that video games cause violence among teens have no hesitation when it comes to blaming video games. These games are an easy target due to the violent events that occur in video games.

I do not believe gruesome video games cause aggression in young gamers, because as a gamer myself, I enjoy playing these games without an increase in aggression. I have played games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto since the young age of 8 years old. An article published by CNN depicts that instead of increasing the amount of real-world aggression gaming rather reduces real-world aggression due to permitting players to channel their feelings into the game rather than other people (Azad, 2019). Video games become a scapegoat due to the violence that is portrayed in an immense amount of video games. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 features a scene involving the mass shooting of an airport, but this does not mean that it will cause the gamer to feel as if they want to do the same. These types of scenes give video games a mightily sized target to blame for these tragic events. For example, politicians were quick to blame video games for the recent El Paso and Dayton shootings. An article by CNBC states, “Markey noted that while over 70% of high school students play violent video games, only 20% of school shooters have reported playing these games” (Whitten, 2019). The article continues to state, “school shooters tend to not be doing what their peers are doing” (Whitten, 2019). These statistics prove that there is no link between grisly video games and an increase in aggression.

In conclusion, I still agree with the fact that video games featuring gruesome scenes do not cause an increase in aggression among the players. I believe this because there have been many studies that show there is no link between the two. This has been researched a colossal amount recently due to the number of tragic shootings and the people who want answers. This allows those who have control of the media to make the public believe whatever they choose to blame the issues on. In the instance of tragedies such as mass murders or robberies, many are quick to assume that video games have a harmful effect on the gamer and believe that video games are the cause of these tragedies. This has been proven to be incorrect due to many studies from all across the world with several professionals involved. The media is controlled by those who use video games as a scapegoat for a much deeper problem which must be solved with the correct answers, rather than simply blaming a popular and growing hobby. For these reasons, I believe violent video games have no link with the increased aggression of today's society.