Is American Society Obsessed with Violence?

Violent Video Games Are More Popular Than Ever

Chris Murk, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 10, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Being an American nowadays means facing the fact that people are dying in a "war". Regardless of your political views on the current military situation, the fact that men and women are engaging in armed military combat can't be ignored. So with murder on the rise, and war knocking at our doorstep, is it any surprise that many American gamers are obsessed with war games?

Now I have to be honest and admit that I am a gamer at heart. Ive been playing games since Nintendo first game out, and have owned numerous amounts of systems and games since I could afford to buy them. But I have never been the gamer that likes the war simulators. I prefer my games to be a little less realistic, after all that, to me, is the point of games. Why would you want to escape life for a few hours by playing a game that simulates life, when you can escape into a far away world and use magic, or tame dragons? But the shocking trend of FPS, or first person shooters, is on the rise.

Reading magazines such as Game Informer, I find myself skipping a huge chunk of the magazine because several pages, both front and back, are talking about the latest and greatest shoot 'em ups. Games raging from World War reenactments to Gears of War all involve strapping on the latest piece of death dealing devices and pulverizing your enemy until they have more holes than should be considered healthy. But lets take a look at just what these games involve, just to be fair.

A numerous amount of the games that are currently for sale involve guiding a character through a war. Wars such as World War 1 or 2, or even the current Iraq War are being digitized and made for play by game lovers world wide. But in a society that deals with death on a daily basis, does this obvious attraction to dealing digital death involve a concern for the people playing them? Should parents, or even friends, be concerned when the gamer in question starts stuffing bombs into their enemies to watch the blood and gore like a sick firework? Should the eyebrows raise in confusion or even worry when the games allow people to strap on a chainsaw and dismember an opposing officer piece by piece? Its my opinion that there is something wrong.

Perhaps its simply that the game companies have found a proverbial cash cow and intend to milk it for all its worth, or perhaps its that Americans find Death easier to deal with, if they are the ones dealing with it. It makes financial sense that if the games make millions of dollars for the game companies, than sequels and other branches of the same type of game will sell soon after. But are we just talking about making a lot of money? Should allowing such violence, even if its rated by the ESRB, to be sold and mainstreamed be just about money? It does beg the question as to why we are so comfortable with death.

Is peace in our world possible when in digital lands we are napalming villagers and gunning down men? I doubt it. And am I calling for a massive revolt against all video games? Certainly not. I'm merely proposing that people question why violence and death sell so well.

Published by Chris Murk

I'm just an aspiring writer from a little town in Maryland. Ive got a lot of opinions and a lot of inspiration, so you can expect to see my writings in the world. View profile

Is American Society Obsessed with Violence?

Violent Video Games Are More Popular Than Ever

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