Violent videogames foster cruelty and brutality

Luis Alberto Notario

Violent videogames are not limited to an act of brutality or cruelty shown to a passive viewer, as a film or television program would, but provided its interactive nature, it demands that the player identify with the character and act for it, while at the same time, its ludic nature brings about a sense of alienation, preventing players from rationalize the magnitude of the act they are carrying out.

A shocking report by the Associated Press was made public a few weeks ago: Daniel Petric, a 17-year-old teenager from Ohio, has been sentenced to 23 years in jail for shooting his mother to death and causing serious injuries to his father.

Obsession

The incident took place in October 2007, after his parents forbade him to play a videogame, and the cause for such frenetic reaction was typified by Petric´s obsession with videogames of violent content. The judge who sentenced him estimated that this teenager was so obsessed with the videogame that he had believed that, like the characters in the game, death was not real. His father, Mark Petric, pastor of a protestant congregation, declared that the teenager does not understand yet why he did something so terrible and ask the jury for mercy for his son.

As astonishing as it may seem, young Petric´s behavior is not an isolated case, and it coincides with reports of violent conducts linked to the practice of videogames originated in countries like Mexico or China.

The positive effects of some non violent games are well known, since they promote the development of skills and the acquisition of knowledge. There are dozens of games designed to stimulate learning, capacity building or collective thinking in children and teenagers, while at the same time, other projects such as The Asthma Files, are meant to educate children who suffer from some kind of disease.

However, violent behavior in teenagers and youths who systematically play videogames displaying cruelty and violence are a frequent phenomenon, and they often manifest themselves in very different and subtle ways, including discrimination and racism. The addiction to videogames by teenagers and youths, whose symptoms are similar to those suffered by addicts to any kind of drug, is becoming an increasingly more widespread reality in most parts of the world.

The average age for an American child to start playing videogames is 6, and they start with mobile phone games at 10 years of age. The average time that a 9 year-old child from that country spends playing in front of their computer is almost an hour.

Moreover, this practice is not exclusive to children, teenagers of youths. In 2008, 26 percent of Americans over 50 years of age played some kind of videogame, for a nine percent increase compared to 1999, while in Austria, it is estimated that between 10 and 15 percent of the population plays videogames. But it is in teenagers and youths that the negative effects have a really disturbing impact.

In 1947, Americans Thomas T. Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann patented what could be regarded as the predecessor of videogames, and electronic game system that simulated the launching of missiles against a target. In 1961, a young student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Steve Russel, along with other fellow students, created "Spacewar", which many people consider to be the first computer game.

It was not until 1972, with the formation of the Atari Company by Nollan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, that videogames, aimed mainly at bars and gaming rooms, started to be commercialized. Just four years later, "Death Race" appears in the market, being the first videogame to annoy the public opinion due to its violent content. Other videogames followed, like "Custer's Revenge", distributed by Atari in 1983, which did not only include violent actions, but it also had explicitly sexual content.

First Person Shooter

The advances and innovations produced in the IT industry, especially in 3D graphics technology, represented a turning point in the visual presentation of products, as well as in the level of implication of gamers, while at the same time they rendered the scenes of violence more realistic, with the creation of genres such as the FPS (First Person Shooter) and the Role game, which places the player 'in the skin' of the protagonist of the story. Among products developed using FPS technology, there are highly violent games such as 'Doom', 'Manhunt', 'Postal', 'Carmageddon' or 'GTA III'.

The latter has had wide international circulation, to the extent that Time magazine included its creators, Sam and Dan Houser, in the list of the 100 more influencing people in the world. It is a videogame of free exploration, in which, out of pure pleasure, the gamer can beat to death anyone he runs into, for which he will earn extra money or maybe a fire arm snatched from the bleeding and lifeless bodies of his victims.

In 2003, an American family sued Rockstar, the company that produced this game, for the death of one of its members. The victim was gunned by two youths in a drive-by shooting, and when interrogated by the police, they said they had learned it all playing Grand Theft Auto.

'EyeToy games'

The latest systems will eventually allow the design of new videogames with an even more active participation of gamers in violent actions. One such game is the 'EyeToy games', which has a camera that places the gamer right in the environment of the videogame on screen.

On the other hand, the new options of high-speed connectivity has enabled the evolution towards new game modalities, such as the 'massive multiplayer', allowing hundreds of people to connect, through the internet, to a 'virtual space' where they control their character and display their skills. Although it is not possible to establish direct relation between this modality of game and violent behaviors, the truth is that the 'multiplayer' experience will be quite different, depending on the involved players.

Violent videogames are not limited to an act of brutality or cruelty shown to a passive viewer, as a film or television program would be, but provided its interactive nature, it demands that the player identify with the character and act for it, while at the same time, its ludic nature brings about a sense of alienation, preventing players from rationalize the magnitude of the act they are carrying out. At the same time, its systematic use bears the risk of instilling a vision of reality in which the other is always an enemy that must be eliminated.

Such enemies are designed to satisfy certain cultural, social and political interests. These stereotypes of representation can affect both an ethnic group and a nation, but it can affect women in particular, who are generally shown as victims incapable of acting by themselves, or through body models of exaggerated voluptuousness.

War games, which at times show real operation theaters, have generated the addiction of thousands of youth, who learn to take up war as fun, and who at times are stimulated in diverse ways to join the American war machine.2

A Profitable Business

The widespread consumption of videogames, particularly the violent kind, by teenagers and youths, is not a spontaneous fact. On the contrary, it is based on sophisticated marketing mechanisms developed by a leading industry within the entertainment sector, which in the last decade has shown an accelerated growth and a huge technological development, conditioned by its strong dependence on the Market's dynamics.

The industry of interactive entertainment, as it is also known, reached the record amount of 22 billion dollars in 2008. In comparison, DVD sells continued to drop in 2008.

According to a research by the NPD Group, as at March 2009, one out of three dollars invested by US consumers in leisure activities went to videogames, which places this activity over any other way of entertainment, thus becoming the center of attention for major investors.

Another feature of the videogame industry in recent years is the increasing links to other cultural industries such as movies, music and television, evidenced through different kinds of associations. An agreement between Microsoft and Canal Plus (France) for the supply of audiovisual material for the Xbox 3603 was recently made public. Sony corporation, on the other hand, has announced agreements with the well-known television network and producer of audiovisual content NBC Universal as well as other studios to distribute its audiovisual products and programs from the PS3 network, and make available for consumers to download, through the Play Station Network, films and television programs by Paramount Pictures, MGM, Disney, and Warner Brothers.

Likewise, the music industry has consolidated bounds with videogames distributors that have assured them the immediate benefit of being able to reach to a larger public and to increase its market share.

The links between videogames and movies are widely known, which brings about countless materials that are based on blockbuster productions, like, for example, Saw, one of the most violent terror sagas of the last few years in the world of movies. Similarly, videogames have originated movie productions such as Tomb Rider, and have inspired directors like Brett Ratner, maker of Rush Hour, X-Men and Red Dragon, who has stated that he will start making movies based on titles created by Activision.

Boom Blox

Added to this are the initiatives carried out by some professionals of movies and television to create productions of their own, such as the television producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who announced his intention to create Jerry Bruckheimer Games, while director Steven Spielberg recently premiered Boom Blox Bash Party.

The production of content for cell phones adds a touch of complexity to the issue of videogames consumption by teenagers and youths, and the parental control of their content.

Videogame manufacturers

An increasing number of videogame manufacturers and distributors, including Capcom, Electronic Arts and Square Enix offer videogames for cell phones and MP3, while Sony has stated that it is studying the creation of a new product which combines the functions of its portable console and its Sony Ericcson mobile phones.

A new revealing articulation of the videogame industry - with politics - will be capable of greatly influencing its very future. It was evidenced during the last presidential campaign in the United States when the then presidential candidate Barack Obama purchased publicity space in videogames for his political campaign. Eighteen videogames, including "Madden '09" and "Burnout Paradise", showed announcements of the now President Obama and reminded the gamers about the voting dates, urging them to visit the official website of the campaign in order to facilitate their registration as voters.

Cuba: A Different Reality?

The spread of violent videogames, their great popularity among teenagers and youths, along with the negative impact on their habits and social behavior, make this an increasingly worrying issue, which cannot be limited to a single kind of society or country.

In Cuba, this phenomenon has many aspects and characteristics that are similar to the rest of the world.

A recent article published by the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, refers to the research conducted by Cuban psychologists Omar Stainer Rivera and Patricia Ramos with six-grade students from two elementary schools on their perception of videogames.

The results of the study confirm that a significant number of the polled children have access to videogames through different modalities, and that the average time that they devote to playing videogames is similar to the average reported by statistics of other countries.

A particularity in the case of Cuba is the absence of statistics on the consumption of videogames, because they are not officially commercialized, as well as the lack of studies on this subject. Added to that is the lack of regulatory mechanisms for the consumption of videogames that allow targeting players according to the games' content, since their circulation - mainly on pirate formats - occurs mostly through unofficial channels. A great effort is being made to develop educational videogames and software, created at some municipalities of the countries by means of a system of computing clubs, through an experience whereby children and teenagers suggest the protagonists, plots and stories of their like.

Training strategies

However, in our opinion, these initiatives will not be sufficient unless they are accompanied by the development of training strategies to develop the children's and teenagers' critical awareness faced with the consumption of violent videogames. It is also essential to educate parents on the risks posed by the practice of violent videogames, and the need for a more active parental control of the content that their children consume.

Obviously, considering violent behaviors as a manifestation associated only to the systematic practice of videogames by children, teenagers and youths would significantly limit the analysis of a phenomenon in which it is impossible to ignore the incidence of other elements linked to the family and social context where they are raised.

Download content

In spite of that, it is impossible to ignore the different elements that currently favor the increase of the consumption of videogames, especially the violent ones, among which we could mention the high level of socialization of the access to computing means, the circulation a software through alternative mechanisms, the relative easiness to download content from the Internet and the diversity of formats in which videogames can be consumed.

A question, therefore, could be raised as a summary of what has so far being analyzed: Will we bear witness in the next few years to the alienation of the individual through the practice of violent videogames, to the emergence of a new kind of social individual, characterized by the depersonalization of their bonds, influenced by technology, and for whom the use of violence is established as an expedite resource to settle their conflicts?