Shooting Video Games
Videogames have long been famous among people of all ages. Videogames are available in many formats and situations. Videogames have been proven to impact a person in many ways and are used as an informational or learning tool by many. For instance many simulation based video shooting games are used by shooters to practice their aim and to shoot at the target perfectly. Similar games to shooter video games are present for archery and other target sports which allow the player to practice or play the game in a virtual environment and get a feel of how it would be like to play in real. Most attention has been given to the violence based and shooting games. The reason for this is the impact that a shooting game has been known to have on a person. Shooting video games have been known to desensitize players to violence and its aftereffects. Many studies show that a shooting video game is a very powerful medium and it can put thoughts in the mind of the player and after playing such games shooting a real person may not seem wrong. Many studies prove the rush that people get from playing video shooting games can get addictive. For instance many shooting games enthusiasts add levels to the existing games and these levels are more difficult to play and in most instances more violent.
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Many incidents have occurred that have further proved this theory of desensitization. For example the Columbine shooting – video games where played a major role along with other factors like bullying and ‘goth’ culture. In the Columbine shooting tragedy two students of the school Harris and Klebold shot 13 people dead and injured 24 before committing suicide. The unfortunate event took place on 20th April 1999 at Columbine high school, Colorado. The two students entered the school premises and pulled out guns from their coats and started shooting at students. They spared no one from the bullets that were coming out of their guns. Their main targets were the jocks and the athletes who had developed into a strong group at the school and created a culture of bullying. But they once they started shooting jocks or no jocks they shot at anyone and everyone who came in their way. The main places that they were shooting in included the library, the cafeteria, and the grassy area near the west side of the school.
The main elements known to cause the effect that result into the Columbine shooting – video games, violent movies, and the jock culture that left some kids at the school bullied and angered. Both Harris and Klebold were known as shooting games enthusiasts. They enjoyed playing the shooter video games like Doom. Harris even developed new and violent stages of Doom that were available on his website that he created on America Online. These Doom levels called the Harris levels were initially developed for friends. In Columbine shooting – video games played a critical role and influenced the behavior of these kids. The guns used by these kids were the same guns that were used in the video game of Doom. Other similarities were found in movies like The Basketball Diaries and The Matrix which may have put the ideas in the heads of these kids. The two kids were also caught on tape referring to other shooting incidents. These kids were bullied and were unsatisfied with the prevailing jock culture and they rebelled by taking ideas from video shooting games. The violence that satisfied their anger in the virtual world was brought to the real world by them. However, both these kids had traces of compulsive behavior in their nature and had been spotted as trouble makers by the authorities even before the incident.
Apart from shooting games like Doom some other video shooting games include video games game boy advance shooter, xbox pariah shooter and so on. Video games xbox shooter, game boy advance shooter, video games play station 2 shooter and xbox video game pariah shooter are console shooting games. Today consoles like play station 2, xbox, and game boy are sold in abundance. Kids love to play these games and if left on them they may keep playing for hours without a break. Here is where the parents have to step in. Parents need to play their role by making sure that their children are living a balanced life with healthy sports and reading activities included along with shooting video game mania. Also they need to make sure that their child’s social life is full of healthy activities and violence free. Kids need to realize that there are many avenues where they can express their frustration and anger without harming other people and can actually make a difference by doing so.
