SIT151 Deakin University: Argumentative Essay on Violence in Games

This argumentative essay examines the impact of violent video games on social life and the potential link to criminal behavior. It presents arguments supported by empirical evidence, including the sociological perspective linking violent games to aggressive behavior, isolation, and a lack of social confidence. The essay references incidents like the Virginia Tech shooting and Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where perpetrators were fans of violent video games. It also addresses counter-arguments, such as the potential for games to enhance creativity and problem-solving skills through game-based learning. The essay concludes by advocating for restrictions on violent video games to promote a healthier society, highlighting concerns raised by organizations like the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as former President Barack Obama.

Running Head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background......................................................................................................................................2
Relevance in gaming industry.........................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Arguement1.................................................................................................................................3
Argument 2..................................................................................................................................3
Counter- Argument......................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4
Reference.........................................................................................................................................5

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Thesis Statement: Violent video games affect social life and can eventually lead to criminal
behaviour among people
Introduction
Criminal behaviour imposes a negative impact on the society. It can be defined that crime
is an unlawful action which is against the law of the state. It can affect the society or the
community social life in a number of ways. Psychologists have argued that environmental and
social factors are responsible for this criminal activity. In response to that, the essay is going to
discuss about the increasing rate of crimes by determinants like gaming. The essay will focus on
the background and theory of criminal activity and how far gaming develops criminal mind.
Background
Most of the early studies have dealt with the diverse theory of criminology in terms of
psychological, sociological and biological perspective. In response to that, most of these
researches have been carry forwarded by the perspective based on many determinants of
criminology. Therefore, to figure out a single reason that heightens criminal activity is really
impossible and restricted the outcome of the study. However, the recent studies are keen to
analyse the criminal behaviour in the light of influence of gaming in developing criminal
behaviour.
Relevance in gaming industry
In the recent incidents regarding criminal activity across the globe it is very important to
understand the role of gaming in society and the far reaching impact of violent games to set a

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new type of criminal behaviour. As a matter of fact, this tendency is growing at a rapid pace in
most of the developed countries especially where the popular culture is very much occupied by
the mania of video games.
Discussion
Arguement1
Empirical evidences prove that the violent stunts and
moves lead us to aggressive behaviour. The sociological
perspective is very much linked with this argument. It can
be stated that lack of social life, isolation, bullying and
absence of self confidence are referred as the primary
factor to make a person anti-social (Greitemeyer 2014). In
response to that games provide them the comfort of being
social. It can be seen in most of the young generation.
Without having any idea about the adverse impact of
violent games those people are becoming addicted by games and try to apply those techniques in
real life. As a result of that the American Psychological Association strongly argued that more
than 85% of the video games in America contain violence (Scutti 2018). Therefore, the
organisation suggested banning all these video games.
Argument 2
In this context, it is very important to understand the impact of violent video gaming in
affecting the society. For an instance, during the investigation at Virginia Tech shooting incident
police officers revealed that the gunman, Seung- Hui Cho was a fan of popular shooting video
Image1: (Scutti 2018)

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game Counterstrike (Markey,
Markey and French 2015).
Moreover, the gunman Adam
Lanza who was accused to start
firing in the Sandy Hook
Elementary School was fond of
Call of Duty shooting game
(Ferguson et al. 2014). In fact,
the more the craze for shooting video games has been increased it will lead towards an increasing
rate of violence and criminal activity in USA especially. In this regards, it is also significant to
acknowledge that many video game lovers can restrain themselves and in time it will going to
outburst which will affect the society adversely.
Counter- Argument
Despite all the allegations it can
be argued that gaming is a tool to
enhance one’s creativity and ability to
handle bad situations. Subsequently, the
term ‘game based learning’ becomes
very popular and develops a new idea of
educational learning (Bourgonjon et al. 2016). Besides this, in the perception of game lovers
gaming is an art which is all about skill and strategy that can be useful in real life. This very idea
is juxtaposing the basic concept of play. Video games are considered to be a cultural rhetoric of
the term ‘Play’ which is a constructive thought (Hamari 2016). However, these arguments cannot
Image2: (Ferguson et al. 2014)
Figure 3: created by the
author

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out rightly refute the negative impact of violence in gaming. In fact, the former President of USA
Mr. Barrack Obama also ventilated his concern about the growing trend of criminal activity
among young generation due to excessive influence of violent games (Ferguson et al. 2014).
Furthermore, the American Academy of Paediatrics has argued that there should be government
interference in order to prohibit the use of gaming among young generation or the society will go
on the verge of extinction.
Conclusion
In response to that, it can be concluded that science has some sort of negativity as well as
positive impacts. It was the responsibility of the people to restrain themselves from the use of
violent games. Games make the society more virtual than real which leads towards isolation and
escalation of criminal activities. Therefore, violent video games should be restricted and create
the society happier and healthier for all.
Reference
Bourgonjon, J., Vandermeersche, G., De Wever, B., Soetaert, R. and Valcke, M., 2016. Players’
perspectives on the positive impact of video games: A qualitative content analysis of online
forum discussions. new media & society, 18(8), pp.1732-1749.
Ferguson, C.J., Olson, C.K., Kutner, L.A. and Warner, D.E., 2014. Violent video games,
catharsis seeking, bullying, and delinquency: A multivariate analysis of effects. Crime &
Delinquency, 60(5), pp.764-784.

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Greitemeyer, T., 2014. Intense acts of violence during video game play make daily life
aggression appear innocuous: A new mechanism why violent video games increase
aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 50, pp.52-56.
Hamari, J., Shernoff, D.J., Rowe, E., Coller, B., Asbell-Clarke, J. and Edwards, T., 2016.
Challenging games help students learn: An empirical study on engagement, flow and immersion
in game-based learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.170-179.
Markey, P.M., Markey, C.N. and French, J.E., 2015. Violent video games and real-world
violence: Rhetoric versus data. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4(4), p.277.
Scutti, S. 2018. Do video games lead to violence?. CNN. Retrieved from
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/25/health/video-games-and-violence/index.html