They can be, in the sense that they influence people subconciously.

TV is a huge influence, and proof of this is in the stereotypes media constantly perpetrates. Indeed, video games could also influence. No matter what though, I don't think you can "influence" someone to kill another person. Murder is not normal behaviour. If they were influenced, then these people weren't mentally stable in the first place.

I don't think it's okay for a six-year old to be playing Call Of Duty while blood splats all over the screen

ThePunkKid wrote:I don't think it's okay for a six-year old to be playing Call Of Duty while blood splats all over the screen

Yeah, that's bad for the kid.

Graff wrote:Considering my 6 year old cousin has PS3 and Xbox with God of War and Gears of War and he hasn't doesn't anything like rip faces off or tie bungie chords to knifes, Nope.

Okay, then considering that kid who killed his brother or whatever because he saw it on Manhunt then all games are evil and should be banned because they influence everyone, right?

BEEPIMATRUCKLOL wrote:

Graff wrote:Considering my 6 year old cousin has PS3 and Xbox with God of War and Gears of War and he hasn't doesn't anything like rip faces off or tie bungie chords to knifes, Nope.

Okay, then considering that kid who killed his brother or whatever because he saw it on Manhunt then all games are evil and should be banned because they influence everyone, right?

I f*cking agree with you. My cousin is always playing these weird video games and there's blood splatting on the screen and all those combat games & now he punches most of the people he sees. :/ so yeah so goddamn bad!

ThePunkKid wrote:

BEEPIMATRUCKLOL wrote:

Graff wrote:Considering my 6 year old cousin has PS3 and Xbox with God of War and Gears of War and he hasn't doesn't anything like rip faces off or tie bungie chords to knifes, Nope.

Okay, then considering that kid who killed his brother or whatever because he saw it on Manhunt then all games are evil and should be banned because they influence everyone, right?

I f*cking agree with you. My cousin is always playing these weird video games and there's blood splatting on the screen and all those combat games & now he punches most of the people he sees. :/ so yeah so goddamn bad!

Uh. Wow.
You do realize he was being sarcastic right? What he meant is that you should not define an entire group of people through one man's action.
Which is exactly what you're doing.

Violent video games, I dunno. If you're a kid who's still easily influenced, and parrots everything they see, I think it's safe to say that parents need to watch what they're playing, watching, listening to, etc.

But on the subject of whether or not playing video games is a waste of time, hell no. I've found that playing complicated video games, like Military Madness, Warhammer 40k Dawn of War, and stuff like that, actually helps me focus and concentrate ALOT. Games like Demon's Souls have helped me enjoy challenges, inside and outside of video games. I can honestly say that video games have played a major role in making me want to constantly push my boundaries, and seek things that are hard, but pay off in the long run. And starting from a young age, too. Video games have helped me take advanced classes, learn other languages, and overall become a person that is dedicated to bettering myself.

For critics and parents that say that video games just turn your brain into slime, you're wrong.

Strider: Sorry, what? I don't get it. English is not my first language.

I agree that some video games aren't suitable for certain age classes, but I don't believe it's that harmful for a child when he sees blood on a screen, if the child isn't shocked by it, which I can imagine, I don't see the problem. I am aware that some kids are negatively influenced by Call of Duty or whatever, but those kids are quite unstable in the first place and there are many more factors to violence, which a lot of people don't consider, because it's commonly accepted.

actually it is a really good source for teaching English XD

I'm kinda on the fence about how bad violent video games are for the children playing them. I think it's okay after they're older, because then they can better distinguish between the fantasy of what they're interacting with and the reality of the world outside the TV. I didn't play video games until I was around 11, and by then I knew that what Voldo was doing to Sophitia could not and should not be repeated. That said, I wouldn't want my little brother playing violent games, especially since they've become so graphic in the last 10 years. I usually just let him play stuff like Kirby and Rayman.

Conversely, I strongly believe kids are bad for video games. I don't play online anymore because of all the 8 year olds calling me a faggot.

I played Monopoly as a child, now I'm poor as fuck, which is basically comparable.

Kids will try to look cool, sure, if they see others playing it referring to it as cool, it could influence them acting like it. So yes, they can be influenced, but then again, cartoon series do the same. I didn't see any kid throwing a ball at a dog trying to catch it because he's seen Pokemon.

But if they get influenced by it, other adults will mention, tell him to stop and he probably will. So it's no big deal in my eyes.

Video games are good for children, you learn basic skills and hone manual dexterity.
You can't say that violence is bad for kids objectively because EVERY other person I know played violent video games as a child, and only one of them shot up his school (Shit was so cash).
The fact of the matter is that people are different, you don't have to see a murder to commit one, and (addiction excluded) video games haven't harmed anyone in any direct confirmable way.

TheRavenHouse wrote:Video games are good for children, you learn basic skills and hone manual dexterity.
You can't say that violence is bad for kids objectively because EVERY other person I know played violent video games as a child, and only one of them shot up his school (Shit was so cash).
The fact of the matter is that people are different, you don't have to see a murder to commit one, and (addiction excluded) video games haven't harmed anyone in any direct confirmable way.

Excuse me? There has been a trend of violent crimes due to gaming. It is obective. This link while it states it doesn't led directly to extremely violent cases, it has led to an increase in bullying which can be the catalyst for worse crimes. There is also this which suggests notable deaths with video games being the root cause: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Notable_deaths. You can't claim something to be not objective or subjective if you will because you haven't experienced it.

Also "you don't have to see a murder to commit one", true, but there are many things you can do without having seen it prior. How about you don't need a license to drive?

People are different, like you said, but you claim that holding an opinion like violence is bad cannot be objective, but you say people are different? I can subjectively say violence is bad for kids, because you have said violence as a whole, not specific to the topic, but just violence. Violence is bad for kids as it can either desensitize them, and could teach them that violence is okay.

Some researchers believe that while playing violent video games leads to violent actions, there are also biological influences that impact a person's choices. According to Sean P. Neubert of Rochester Institute of Technology, a person who is biologically predisposed to aggression will be more strongly influenced by violent scenes and thus will have a greater risk for carrying out destructive actions. For example someone with antisocial personality disorder has a greater risk of going out and shooting someone after playing hours of Grand Theft Auto or a game of a similar nature.
Other biological theories of aggression and violence have specifically excluded video game and other media effects. For instance the Catalyst Model proposed by Ferguson and Beaver specifically exclude media violence as a contributor to violence, arguing research evidence for such effects have been weak, and media violence is too distal a factor to have much influence.

I hope you have enjoyed the direct involvement video gaming has had in these cases.

Rescue Potato wrote:

First off, learn what objectively means.

I can't find any statistics on how bullying is effected by video games, if you could provide a link to such a thing that would be helpful for your argument.

Sure, violent video games have a biological effect on the brain, but so does literally fucking everything, Everything that humans can perceive with our senses has an effect on our brains.

Also there was a dramatic drop in violent crime around 1995, since then video game sales have gone up 250 percent. But no one's saying video games prevent crime, just that if what you're saying is true the statistics shouldn't show something this seemingly correlated and exact.

Also, since I stopped playing video games as much as I used to, from all day to every other day or so, I have had WAY more violent urges, and while I've never acted on any of them, I never had them when I played a lot of video games, this is most likely do to personal problems, but once again video games could not in any way be proposed as a reason.
Sorry if my arguments are jumbled, and switch between personal and factual.

PS, I only had violent crime statistics for the united states, where as the only statistics on video games I could find that went back that far were for world wide, so if they were both US or world wide it may be slightly different.