Video Games and Violence

This is an opinion piece I wrote after having read a report on video games and violence. It was politely rejected, but I'm interested if anyone has any further opinions on it, since I'm not much of a gamer myself, just someone who believes that games don't make killers.

In the wake of the most recent school shooting in Montreal I read a report seeking a connection between violent video games and the actions of the assailant. In my opinion asking if video games cause violent behavior is a bit like asking if drinking alcohol causes car crashes.

The vast majority of people who play video games do not go on shooting sprees, just as most people who drink copiously do not attempt to drive themselves home afterwards. Nonetheless there will always be a portion of society who is at risk to engage in potentially deadly or murderous behavior, albeit for vastly different reasons.

In the case of one who chooses to drink and drive society typically deems the driver fully responsible for his actions, but in the case of killers who play video games—which millions enjoy daily without serious thoughts of actual murder—we tend to seek a cause in the form of entertainment. When someone is killed senselessly as a result of a drunken driver the media seldom digs for mitigating circumstances, yet in the case of random homicide(s) we are never satisfied by the possibility that this was just a sick person who could not find the help they needed; or worse that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent tragedy.

Perhaps our helplessness and disbelief in the face of an irrational murder obliges us to seek a deeper motive, but I think we do ourselves a great disservice by blaming TV and videogames for real violence.

The tendency to see violent entertainment as a predicate for acts of violence is disingenuous. Violent rampages have happened and will continue to occur with or without the aid of a Playstation or a library of Schwarzenegger films. Senseless violence was with us before every case of it resulted in a media circus, a Hollywood movie and a bestselling book.

Indiscriminate acts of violence are committed by people with disturbed minds, whether the result of an abusive past, family problems, a mental handicap, substance abuse, a sociopathic personality or a combination of these. This is not to say that murderers do not gather influence and enthusiasm from violent forms of entertainment, but I don’t believe that an unquenchable yearning to act violently is visited in healthy people who partake in such diversions.

As for the question of whether these games promote a desensitization in the minds of youth—which may or may not lead to a potential to act out violently—I think it’s pretty clear that where and how one is raised is a far more critical factor than the games one plays. Before videogames children played war, wrestled with one another and engaged in violent sports like hockey and football. For most these games were and remain a healthy outlet for the aggressive phase of childhood and early adulthood that is experienced by many. Videogames are no different; despite the gore since most players are capable of realizing the blood and guts for what it is: a fantasy.


The real question should not be “Do videogames cause violence,” but rather how we as a society treat those who are vulnerable to acting out violent fantasies. Are we sensitive enough to the calls for help they often make before acting? Are we listening to what they are expressing and recognizing the signs? Are we offering treatment and ensuring that they are housed in a safe, nurturing environment?

To blame videogames for an act of murder is to abdicate our responsibility for what we could have, and should have, done to prevent it. Censoring games and violent programs will not do much in the end to stem the violence. What really needs to be done is to provide the proper care for those in our society whose mental and/or spiritual states lead them to believe that killing others is an answer to their problems.