Re: Effects of Violent Video Games on Children

[Guest guest]

This should be no real surprise. The brain can't really tell the difference between reality and fantasy even in regards to imagination let alone external stimuli. This is one reason why the military, police and fire departments all train as realistically as possible. The closer the training is to the real thing, the less panicked the people will be when the real thing happens.

A lot of these first person shooters are based on software made for the military to teach soldiers the basics of combat, and to give them more battlefield practice. The first shooter wasn't designed with that in mind, however. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was the first real first person shooter and it was developed mostly as a challenge to the programers and was written in an apartment. Later the idea was picked up by the military.

Now, I play some of those games a lot. The Call of Duty series is a favorite of mine (and I really hate that COD 3 isn't available for the PC). But I think as an adult, it is easier to keep in mind that it isn't real than it would be for a teenager. I still get angry when playing it, but that is more frustration on the hard levels or when something bizarre happens like the enemy attacking me through a wall or when one of them takes a full magazine of bullets and keeps running around, not to mention that in some places the enemy infinitely spawns new troops making a slow, cautious approach useless as the only way to stop the flow is to take the objective.

What I always find interesting about all this is that the people who make these games, or at least the parent companies like Sony, say there is no link between what kids see and how they act. They say this while spending huge amounts of money on advertizing for their products. Obviously they know that commercials influences behavior enough to make people want to buy their goods, yet deny that all the sex and violence in their games, movies and music has any affect.

Should higher standards be brought back? Probably, at least as far as television and music goes. Those are the most easily accessable media right now and cutting out the gratuitous sex and violence would only be a good thing. The violence angle is obvious, but showing all that sex without consequence (such as STD's, AIDS, unwanted pregnancy and injury to self-esteem) is equally or more damaging.

Any attempt to rein in the entertainment industry would be met with howls about the First Amendment and the "right" of free expression. Well, those things are well and good, but since "entertainers" seem to think that they have to push the envelop constantly, they shouldn't be surprised when the envelop snaps them back in line. After all, good music or TV doesn't require seeing how many people you can shock or offend. There is plenty of good stuff out there that does neither and it is easy to do. It is only the talentless hacks that have to take that low road to get attention. Reining them in would not harm the rest of us in the least. This could easily be done by bringing back the old X rating for things other than hard core pornography. If someone wants to make an envelop pushing bit of trash, then they can take the X rating, meaning no one under 21 is allowed to own or view it. Sure they'd complain, but they could still produce the junk rather than being banned completely.

It bears remembering that one of the key things that felled the Romans was that they went from a noble society to one of wild debauchery. As the limits on acceptable behavior were pushed back, their society weakened to the point it could no longer defend itself. When faced with environmental problems (the global kind not just local) and a "global" economic depression, they no longer had the strength the stand and collapsed under what would have once been easily handled barbarian pressure.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/29/2006 8:08:33 PM Eastern Standard Time, mnmimi@... writes:

I use the "ok" games to get him to drink supplements, get him to be aware of time. Games can't start till 10am on the weekend and not until afer school on weekdays. All done, means all done and games are done for the day. I have used them on occasion as teaching aides.

Something that I do is to keep a timer near the computer. I set it for 50 minutes. When that goes off, I have to take a 10 minute break away from the computer. That means getting up, walking around and usually doing some exercise like Hindu Squats, push ups or something. This is also a time to drink some water and have a small snack and such. Healthy snacks are best and one of my favorites is raw baby carrots with some peanut butter for dipping.

Puzzle and builder games can be just as frustrating as shooter games. Sometimes the tasks get harder pretty quickly. I recently bought Sid Meier's Railway (or something like that). This is a game where you build rail lines with certain goals set at the beginning of the scenario and other ones that crop up during the game. It does get annoying when the trains don't run exactly like you want them too and sometimes the competition does things that are bothersome and their trains seem to run very well. I've only had it a while, so I'm still on the learning curve I guess. Parental involvement can also help with this and I do think that parents should monitor gameplay and the games themselves.

Those shows are correct. The brain really has a hard time telling the difference between reality and fantasy. You mentioning being stuck in "game mode" for a while after playing is interesting. I get this too, but not typically while I'm awake. It is not uncommon for me, if I have been spending too much time playing a game, to have my dreams influenced by it. This can range from the amusing (if I have been playing a lot of Harvest Moon) to scary (if I have been playing too much Call of Duty).

[Guest guest]

Ravi plays games; I have to be super selective I usually choose goal

oriented games. Rayman, Scaler, a few others. You have to complete

taks to " win " Yes there is battle. Games like spongebob make him

violent and loose control over his bodily functions. He has

increased impulse control issues, and is more likely to melt down.

But bowling is too slow paced and can make him frustrated.

I use the " ok " games to get him to drink supplements, get him to be

aware of time. Games can't start till 10am on the weekend and not

until afer school on weekdays. All done, means all done and games

are done for the day. I have used them on occasion as teaching

aides.

Sometimes I can coach the group of children so they, won't give up

when a task is too hard I encourage them, and give directions. I am

told this last behavior of mine is quite funny. Games like

everything have to involve the parents, in whatever capacity

necessary.

I was hopeful at one point that I could convince researchers to use

the visual aspect and focus of game play to teach.

There was a program on the science channel about just that, that

experience is recorded by the brain and not the eyes so the brain

cannot dileniate between realtime and image (how much we are effected

is based on age. Although it takes me at least 5 minutes to quite

the game world in my mind, say if I leave from the place of play and

get in my car. There is a period of surreal time) This is really

the concept of mirror neurons. Images associated as feeling based on

past experience. In essence what makes us human