Welcome to Liberty City, a rendition of New York City in the popular series of Grand Theft Auto. Released by Rockstar Games in April 2008, the forth installment continues the tradition of being as controversial as the three GTA's before it. With hyper realistic graphics, real world physics, and the ability to control major plot points in the game, Grand Theft Auto allows gamers to free roam with the sole purpose of creating havoc, destruction, and causing fatalities. In Grand Theft Auto IV, the gamer plays as Niko, an Eastern European immigrant that came to Liberty City to pursue the American Dream but instead gets mixed up with a life of crime. Game content includes blowing up helicopters, stealing vehicles, shooting cops or drug-dealers, and includes the option to partake in activities offered by prostitution and strip clubs
[...] Putting game developers on the defense, many say that video games do not lead to criminal behavior and players can tell the difference from reality and fantasy. Although the press and political attention has categorized video games as violent or sexual in nature, many video games do not fit into this myth. Because of the First Amendment it is up to parents and gamers to decide their choice in video games similar to renting a movie from your local video store. [...]
[...] Works Cited Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. "The Effects of Media Violence on Society." Science 295.5564 (2002): 2377- Aug < http:>. Brathwaite, Brenda. Sex in Video Games. Rockland: Charles River Media Felson, Richard B . "Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior." Annual Reviwer of Sociology 22 (1996): 103- Aug < http:>. Kierkegaard, Patrick. "Video games and violence." EurekAlert! - Science News May Sep < http:>. Olson, Cheryl K., Scd, Lawrence , Phd Kutner, and Eugene V Md Beresin. "Children and Video Games: How Much do We Know?." [...]
[...] Because of this game, organizations such as the Parent Television Council, Mothers Against Video Game Addiction and Violence, and many religious groups have pressed the government to regulate video game violence. The only problem with this is that many adults and children who are avid video gamers do not show violent tendencies or behavior. When the U.S. Secret Service analyzed school shooting incidents, they found that many were a result of serious depression. In fact, a 2002 Secret Service study did not find a relationship between the school shootings and video games, instead finding only one eighth of the shooters showed any special interest in violent video games, far less than the number of shooters who seemed attracted to book and movies with violent content” (Smith 26). [...]
[...] Arguments for this idea is based on that of “symbolic carthasis” or the “discharging aggression by purging aggressive emotions or emotional purification” according to Weber's article about aggression and video game violence (Vorderer 349). In Olson's focus group study at the University of Missouri, he found that the reason teenagers played M-rated games was mainly for “emotional regulation—to get their anger out, to feel less lonely, to reduce stress, a lot of things we didn't expect [which] might play a positive role in managing unruly emotions” (Smith 26). [...]
[...] While video games first began to surface as training simulators for the army, today classrooms have adapted to using video game consoles in their classrooms. Handheld consoles such as the PSP or the Nintendo DS have released games such as BrainAge and games that teach foreign languages, history, and geography. A Durkin and Barber study in 2002 reported that “school performance increased in children who frequently played educational video games” (Vorderner 404). However, this does not correlate with the amount of video game usage over being in a classroom which will result in negative school performance. [...]
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