What does all these three games have in common?
(source from: xbox360.ign.com/articles/Grand Theft Auto (GTA)is a game that was designed and created which allows the players to play a role of a criminal that can roam freely around a city and causing crimes such as bank robberies and assassination etc at the same time.
(source from: http://www.nuttersmark.com/images/blog/top5games/doom1.jpg)Doom is a 3D graphics, networked multiplayer game that allows the player to be the first person shooter.
(source from: http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p46/gilcarlesso/f49498363.jpg)Counter Strike is a game that allows you to kill terrorist because the players are first-person shooter. This game is quite similar to Doom.
Violent Games
The answer is violence. I have played two out of the three games mention above, which is Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Counter Strike (CS) and I have to say these games should not be played by those who are not mentally mature enough.
These games are meant for people above the appropriate age, somehow children and adolescents manage to get their hands on it. Children and sometimes adults are not aware of the consequences that they might face when they play these games. They might not be mentally and physically ready to be expose to the contents of these games. According to the Bruce Bartholow, conductor of games research, results shows that violent games has effects on the brain that predict aggressive behaviour (BBC news 2006).
The design of these games are getting more and more realistic which makes it more difficult for player to differentiate reality and fantasy/virtual reality. GTA has come out with its latest game which is Grand Theft Auto IV. According to Rory Cellan-Jones (2008), this latest game is "ten times more realistic, immersive and interactive than the original version". As a gamer myself, I have to say that there is a huge difference between the current games and the old games. If we compare the graphics and content, the old games do not contain obscene language and bloody scene in the games but the new games does. Not just that, the new games are now mostly 3-dimensional therefore causing and making it harder to differentiate real life and game life.
Due to the new highly advance graphic design, there are negatives effects on the players. The players has a direct interface with the games, so they can easily get affected by the games just by watching it because there is evidence that watching violence can increase the level of aggression (Kirsh 2006, pp. 130-137). The other thing that we have to worry about is the fact that the players tends to imitate what they see (Krish 2006, pp.130-137) and sometimes they act it out. They imitate because they are confuse between reality and fantasy. This is because games are getting too realistic due to the graphic designs of the games.
Solution...
Game developers or publishers should consider how the readers or in this case the players interact with the product (schriver 1997, p. 362). Even though there is a high demand for violent games in the market, there is a limit to how far you can go with the amount of violence you put in the games.
Reference List:
1. Cellan-Jones, R 2008, 'GTA - The Outrage Fades', BBC news, viewed on 11 June 2008
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/04/gta_the_outrage_fades.html
2. Kirsh, SJ 2006, Children, Adolescents and Media Violence, Sage Publications, Inc, California
3. Schriver, KA 1997, 'The interplay of words and pictures', Dynamics in Document Design: Creating text for readers, Wiley Computer Pub, New York, ch. 6 pp. 361-441
4. Violent games affects your brain 2006, 10 January 2006 BBC News, viewed on 11 June 2008
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