Video Game Controversy

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In the 1960s and 70’s, video games were created to make a relaxing escape from reality and stress. While evident from the gaming trend of violent and realistic shooting and fighting themed games from more modern times, the gaming industry has obviously strayed from its roots of relaxation and stress relief, but there is no denying gaming success. Over the years, video games have evolved tremendously. Modern video games are much more real to life, but people are worried about the effects of realistic and violent games on people; rating systems like the ESRB have been put into place to categorize games for different age groups, and video gaming as a whole has never been more popular as it is today.

Video games, or any medium of entertainment …show more content…
In 1994, controversy arose over realistic violence in games like DOOM, and Mortal Kombat. This public outcry resulted in court cases and lawsuits against the game creators, and development studios. From the lawsuits against gaming companies from 1993 to 1994 the creation of the ESRB took place, or Entertainment Software Ratings Board. (Ringo,2015) Though debates are carried on today over how violence in video gaming can negatively affect your actions, there is an issue many researchers run into. Though many suspects in crimes like murder or theft participate in playing violent games, so much of the gaming population plays violent games and never commit crimes, that most research on violent (Steinberg, 2015) However, in a study conducted by BYU, data showed that teenagers who played games with passive or non violent themes performed better on school and were overall more happy than those who participated in violent games. (Netzley, …show more content…
SRP purchaser Vance said that modern age video games are not rated with any different standards and retro age video games. The the graphics may not be as real as modern games, video games have always been rated with the same standards regarding age sensitive content. (Vance, 2014) in the 19 seventies and eighties, people were not necessarily worry about violence or sexual themes in video games due to the lack of realism. However, once videogame started to incorporate realistic sounds and visuals, controversy arose. Until the late 1990s, and of mm, video gaming had always been as children's activity. () It was at this point in gaming history that video games were starting started to be recognized as an activity for all

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