Article
violent?
We have all found ourselves
on a video game of some
sort in our lives. We all seek
the thrill and adrenaline
from playing as someone
else and forgetting our
troubles for a while. Youll
find that a lot of video
games in the market are
competitive, many require
mulita player campaigns
and in game battles. These
types of video games are
referred to as addictive
and violent and have made
for very controversial
responses from the public.
Video games industry is
definitely the most active
and dynamic merchandisers
of the entrainment
products to the young.
According to the moral
panics video games
research pdf, the
promotional budgets
exceed toys of toy or film
industry. In 1995, the digital
entertainment industry won
30% of the US playthings
market earning 18$ billion
globally. Since then, its
become a whole world of
global marketing with
followers who love and
share the same interests.
Are video games turning children
The follows are very loyal I come from a very video
and mostly young and male game friendly family, with
who prefer interacting with my brother gaming since he
avatars in another was little. In this article, I
dimension over watching will be talking about two
TV. games Ive played and
loves; GTA 5 and Red Dead
You hear many stories of
Redemption. After
crime and outbreak stories
completing both, I have
in the news relating to
witnessed the graphic
social media and bullying,
content first hand however
however the new moral
I wouldnt say its changed
panic is with a different
my behaviour. I dont even
media. These violent video
think it matters that Im a
games are sparking male
girl, I just dont have any
aggression which has led to
intention of repeating
some severe cases which I
anything I did in the game.
will be going to discuss in
this article. These violent
video games contain really
graphic content and for a
younger consumer, can be
exciting but also dangerous.
These young players will
Grand Theft Auto V is an
grow up knowing different
action-adventure video
ways of torturing someone
game made by Rockstar
or how to get the best
North and published by
gunshot purely based off of
Rockstar Games in Autumn
a make believe video game
of 2013. Its a multi
storyline. A lot of these
software game and you can
games contain a disturbing
play it on PS4 Xbox360,
blend of participation,
Xbox1 and on your PC. Its
engagement, rewards and
set within the fictional state
practise which I believe is
of San Andreas based off
an instructional
of LA and South California
environment for players.
and is an open world game
For a consumers point of
so players can explore the
view this is pleasurable and
city whilst also the vast
enjoyable entertainment,
countryside of the desert.
which a game should be in
Its played in 3 different
its own right.
characters perspective who
work together to commit
heists while under pressure
from a government agency.
The game is navigated by
foot or vehicle and players
have the option to switch
through the main
protagonists to help them
carry out heists and
missions. Records show
that this game was the
fastest selling
entertainment product in
history, earning a US $800
million on its first day, and
$1 billion by 3 days.
GTA V has caused some
controversies related to its
depiction of women and a
famous mission featuring
torture during a hostage
interrogation. People have
actually tried to recreate
scenes form the grand theft
auto franchise, a teen in
Bangkok murdered a taxi
driver back in 2008 to see if
it was as easy as in the
game. Polwat Chino, 18
was said to have become
obsessed with the game
and stabbed his victim 10
times. Carjackings are one
of the lower key crimes that
the franchise allows you to
do however Rockstar were
criticised for depicting
drive-by shootings. A multi-
million-dollar lawsuit was
filed in the U.S. state of
Alabama against the makers
and marketers of Grand
Theft Auto in 2005, claiming
that months of playing the
game led a teenager to kill
two police officers and a
911 dispatcher.
Another story that
happened recently took
place in 2014, when a boy
was suspected of murdering
his dad and brother. After
his arrest it was recounted
to authorities how he
idolized a violent character
from GTA V and had
contemplated and mentally
prepared the murdering of
his familys murder for
months. Eldon Samuel told
the police that he shot his
dad in the stomach with a
45 caliber hand gun and
stabbed his younger
brother around 30 times
with a machete.
Often games will create a
disconnect between the
game and reality. In game
you have your universe in
which all the power and
violence is seen as a
solution. In terms of media
theories surrounding the
consumers behaviour,
these news stories are
similar to the hypodermic
needle. The Hypodermic
needle theory suggests that
mass media could influence
a great amount of people
by injecting or shooting
them with particular
messages designed to
trigger a certain response.
In this case the message
GTA V were portraying to
players is that this is how to
kill people and that its
okay. Also, the GTA V
gamers also fall under the
uses and gratifications
theory because the game is
exciting and players like to
imagine that they are
actually in the game doing
well.
Red Dead Redemption, also
made by Rockstar is an
open world western-
adventure set during the
decline of the American
Frontier in the year 1911.
Unlike GTA V it only follows
the story of one man
named John Marston, a
former outlaw whose wife
and son are taken hostage
by the government in
ransom for his services as a
hired gun. Marston sets out
in the fictionalized version
of Western United States
and Mexico to bring the
three members of his
former gang to justice and
to reunite with his family. In
game violence include gang
shootings, animal skinning,
hostage and murder. Upon
its release, RDR was
acclaimed by many viewers,
including game of the year
awards from gaming
publications. It was later
considered one of the best
games of all time.
Although Red Dead
Redemption was not
banned in the US and UK,
for a brief time it was
banned in the United Arab
Eremites from the store
Geeker. It was initially due
to nudity but the ban was
lifted later after its official
release date. Aside from
that you can also tie
someone up and leave
them on the train track
which shocked me at first.
You can skin animals in the
game with your knife, in
doing this, it makes a gross
sound and blood gets on
the screen. As it is this so
vividly shown, it encourages
violence against animals as
we are basically getting a
step by step of how to do it.
As a player, those scenes
were my least favourite,
especially if you are
sensitive to that sort of
thing. There have also been
claims by players that the
game is misogynistic to
women, an example of this
is when a women got ran
over by a train. Players
claim in the game the men
who get shot down have
the power to fight back, the
women dont. One women
even explaining that RDR is
a Hollywood-inspired tale of
the West, and it shows in
how it handles women.
Although I couldnt find a
news story on crimes
committed on red dead
redemption but I did come
across lots of reviews from
parents talking about their
childrens behaviour. One
parent said on the subject
of giving her son the game,
I would but only if I
thought the kid could
handle the themes in place.
I don't think the violence or
brief-ass nudity would scar
him for life, but realizations
about things mentioned,
like necrophilia, could have
a deeper problem, just
because it would be such a
shocking thing, even if he
DID know about sex. And
another saying, I was over
at my friends house last
night. He let his nephew
play RDR. His nephew did
nothing more than go on a
continuous shooting spree
in the game. And when it
was time for him to go and
stop playing it, all hell broke
loose. He threw an insane
temper, probably the
craziest I have seen. He got
irate.
As much as kids can
through tantrums over
anything, I would say that
as a parent it must be scary
to see a young child getting
angry and out of control
over a game aimed at
people a lot older. This
brings me back to the
media theories, reception
theory is the idea that
producers or directors of
media texts encode a
hidden message or meaning
that they want to convey to
the audience. I think its
dominant reception theory
that RDR can portray to
players. Many young
children may easily
misunderstand the message
in red dead redemption.
However, the preferred
reading of the skinning of
the animals was try to
create a realistic and
immersive experience
highlighting the struggles of
life in the Wild West.
The cases I have discussed
are about young
impressionable children
who are vulnerable to the
violence shown in the
game. They have taken an
oppositional reading of the
game. This is because young
children with existing
mental health issues may
want to join in with the
pleasure of the game not
realising the potential real
life consequences. Alike
GTA V players
subconsciously fit the uses
and gratifications theory
because its the excitement
and self-rating factor that
makes this game addictive
to many uses.
I personally wasnt effected
by both of these violent
games, I wasnt obsessed. I
was going to school getting
out the house and had
other things going on
besides playing on the
Xbox. I can agree with the
criticism over the violence
particularly in the GTA V
torture scene being too
much but I wasnt left
convinced that those sort of
crimes are in anyway okay. I
knew that before I did the
mission anyway, and that
goes the same for any other
violent mission. However, I
think that it is what sets me
apart from the people I
talked about in this article,
a lot of these have been
linked to either mental
health issues or being
considerably very young. I
consider myself to be with
the majority of hundreds of
thousands of people who
played it just for shear
enjoyment and bouts of
entertainment in
moderation.

Rosie Blake