Gun Violence and Video Games

I'll never forget the first time I played Halo for the first time, back in 2009 as a high school freshman. I had never played a video game like it before and I'm pretty sure I lost after 12 seconds of playing. I never attempted it again.
I often wonder what the appeal is to games like this, or maybe I'm just bitter that I have no talent when it comes to Halo.

Then I think of all of the advertisements I've seen of other violent video games, where it is easy to see that the majority of these contain hyper-masculine men. They are usually dominating, extremely large and muscular, angry and loaded with ammunition. The object in these games is to kill quickly and in any way imaginable. Rewards are given for kills, and levels get increasingly intense.
And of course, women are often hypersexualized as well.

Looking at the nature of these kinds of games and what the incentives and goals these games tend to have, it does cause one to wonder if people are influenced to commit violent acts when they play these games. While not everyone who enjoys playing video games that contain violence (GUN violence for context) end up being violent people, there is evidence to show that these games HAVE influenced some people (in specific cases)  to commit voilence. I do not think all people will be affected the same if exposed to violent video games, but I do believe it can play a large part in an already unstable and harmful person being more influenced to commit a violent act. In other words, some people are more susceptible to it due to internal (mental illness, etc.) or external factors around them.

For example, in an article by Nick Bilton of the New York Times, it discusses how people who play these games can become "less emphatic" to violence. Players can become desythesized because it exposes so much that it seems normal in time. It also seems that many mass shooters had a connection with actively playing violent video games for a period of time before their attacks. For example, Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, was a big fan of violent games and played Call of Duty often. While violent video games did not solely convince him to go through with this horrible atrocity  it was a large factor in giving him the idea to do so.

I think there definitely is a concern for video games and the marketing of weapons. People need to be aware of what they are exposing themselves to while playing video games, and how they react to violence afterwards.


Looking At Link Between Violent Video Game and Lack of Empathy
https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/looking-at-link-between-violent-video-games-and-lack-of-empathy/?_r=0

https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/may/11/the-professor-who-thinks-video-games-will-be-the-downfall-of-men-zimbardo