The sound of children playing—an online first person shooter game—devastates an active duty soldier and father.
I vowed to never play first person shooters online again.
About three years ago I was left once again to live life as a geo-bachelor. My wife was in South Carolina with family, in preparation for deployment. Training had slowed down to a crawl. In an attempt to pass the time I purchased the newest first person shooter. I can’t even recall which one it was but I do remember playing the whole storyline in the span of two days. It was at this point that I made a huge mistake: I decided to play online. At first everything seemed normal: the level of competition was high but I managed to keep up. In an effort to get the full effect, I used my headphone and microphone setup. I was appalled by what I heard. Seven out of ten of the players were middle school age or younger. These children weren’t casual players: they were the most intense, skilled competitors. I was devastated because I felt that these kids had traded in their childhood for a fantasy world of war.
That was the moment I realized that violence in video games has an effect on society.
My experiences in the military have shown me that the generation that will succeed us have learned about life experiences from the entertainment industry. They come to the unit excited about the possibility of having to kill. At no point do they take the time to think about the danger that is associated with war. To the new brand of soldier, war seems fun, and I’ll be honest: in the beginning it is, until people start to get hurt. It’s crushing to watch the young boys who leave home with a fantasy of war given to them by a joystick and HD screen turn into men who are scarred both physically and emotionally by the combat that arises from global conflict.
Before watching the reactions of soldiers who I came in contact with, I thought that the violent video game culture had little effect on reality. Once I accepted the truth of how these games have changed the landscape of the social norm, I took a look at the big picture. The same excitement for killing that some soldiers have takes over the minds of young men and women all over the world. The increasingly graphic portrayals that these games provide have become a mainstay in popular culture. Parents repeatedly succumb to the pleading of their children begging for the next video game that oozes blood from the very seams of the wrapper.
This was my reaction as a parent, to discovering how serious violence in video games is.
I for one have vowed not to be the parent that turns a blind eye to the severity of violence that my children are interacting with. It’s just this simple to me: what is the rating. My eldest son knows his rating limit and doesn’t even ask for anything that doesn’t fall into the categories that he is allowed to play. He even has a list of games that he wants to try once he moves up to the next rating. Once my children have reached an age where they can enjoy violent games as entertainment and nothing else then we’ll sit down and play them together. Until then, we’ll stick to the LEGOS games.
Read more on Video Game Violence on The Good Life.
Image credit: Luke Hayfield Photography/Flickr
So sick of this. You fight for the US government, complain about video games – do you realise that the US Army developed its own first-person shooter, as realistic as possible, to TRAIN and ENCOURAGE RECRUITMENT in youth?
Such uninformed hypocrisy.
Not only that but they release it for FREE and sustain it with support.
It’s called America’s Army.
I was aware of the game and have actually played it. Does that mean that I think that it’s appropriate for my young children, no? The story was not a rip on violent games, instead it was a call for parents to be more aware of the affect games have on children who are not mature enough to handle them. America’s Army was built as a recruiting tool for teenagers and military age personnel, not. children middle school age and younger. This is no different from most other violent games, parents just ignore the recommendations and permit children to indulge… Read more »
Hm, fair. Knee jerk from me, my bad man.
I guess my issue is that AA never gets brought up in these discussions. It’s the easiest shooter for kids to get!
“That was the moment I realized that violence in video games has an effect on society.” I dont really know, yes of course games has effect on society, everything has in the big or small scale, but I feel somehow, the violence factor is a bit overrated. Do the children of the 80’s, who played pac man, sit in small dark rooms eating pills and listening to monotonous music? do the children of nineteens who played Doom go around and shooting monsters while listening to rock music? and the 2000 generation who played Counterstrike…[…]. No they dont. Sure there are… Read more »
If memory serves during the american civil war something like 2% were active killers, 18% would kill when ordered, 80% would avoid killing at all. By WW2 that 18% was in the mid 40% and by vietnam it was 100%. Military training is now so effective that currently military psycologists are more concerned with how to rationalize efficient killing in the minds of those returning home than developing more ‘how to kill’ techniques. The primary techniques used to increase this ratio were human style targets e.g. Silhouettes and kill commands. This may correlate with first person shooters if programmed with… Read more »
Meh. Before I had violent video games, I went outside and playing cowboy and indians, and vampire hunter with my friends. Instead of killing each other online- we nearly killed each other using sling shots and sticks. I guess the big difference being there were consequences to our action- pain. If you don’t want to let your kids play violent video games, that’s perfectly fine. No argument here. Raising a generation of killers? I think that’s a bit bombastic. Even if it is true; the military will be thrilled. They’ve had a hand in crafting the public’s perception of the… Read more »
I think your statement applies when applied to little kids. If they’re too young, than obviously they will be more affected by the violence. The solution is to get parents to stop buying kids those video games and let the grown ups play their violent video games in peace. I am not any more violent for playing my video games, since I understand that they are not to be emulated in real life. Video games themselves are just the scapegoats, it is entirely the fault of the parents for buying the games for their dumb kids. Or in Adam Lanza’s… Read more »
Interesting read Theron Bostic, thank you. I worked on Call of Duty for 5 years before starting my own studio. We created Real Heroes: Firefighter for the Wii. The only non violent action shooter out there and we ended up selling quite well and getting nomiated by IGN for Shooter of the Year. We are currently working on a larger cross platform sequel.
@Veteran I’m in the field right now so I will be brief (it’s hard to type long responses on a phone). Thank you for bringing clarity to what we military men actually feel about war. I signed up because I felt that my country needed my help however small my contribution may be. That decision obligates me to do things that are seem unnatural. General Custer once said that “war is hell” but he still fulfilled his obligation to continue to fight. I guess my point was that when you look at the younger generation of soldier they seem too… Read more »
Hate to be “that guy,” but it was Sherman who was famous for saying war is hell.
Custer’s quote would be more like, “don’t worry, there aren’t that many Indians on the other side of this hill.”
Now don’t I feel like an idiot. Of course, in the letter to the mayor or city of Atlanta before he burned it down. I guess I was just thinking of Custer because I work on Custer Hill. Good catch.
You’re right…..in the letter to Atlanta before he burned it down. I stand corrected.
Custer was in fact an arrogant opportunist.
I find it horribly ironic that an active-duty member of the military is worrying about the effect of violent video games. Kids figure out the difference between reality and make-believe really young. They understand just fine that violent video games are firmly in the realm of make-believe, and that doing those things is socially unacceptable in real-life. Well… except that the President keeps demonstrating that it is socially-acceptable in real life by solving virtually every foreign policy issue (and some domestic issues) with military violence, or the threat of it. As do countless police departments across the land. Which has… Read more »
@Jonathan G, why do you think it is so ironic? We, in the military, take an oath to defend the Constitution. I have only met a few military members out of hundreds who actually want to go to war and do harm to others. Unfortunately, the world is an ugly place sometimes and military force is necessary to defend freedom and fight tyranny, whether you like it or not. Just because we serve in the military, and risk the possibility of sacrificing our own lives, does not mean we like or condone violence. I’m also wondering where you earned your… Read more »
I explained why I think it’s ironic in the second paragraph. The author is worried about the effect of violent video games making kids violent while he’s engaged in modelling violence as socially-acceptable and the way to solve problems. (Whether he wants to or not is irrelevant.) There’s a common-sense saying: “Actions speak louder than words.” And, it’s right there in pixels: “It’s crushing to watch the young boys who leave home with a fantasy of war given to them by a joystick and HD screen turn into men who are scarred both physically and emotionally by the combat that… Read more »
Good article, thanks for sharing! Regardless of what others say, and there are many out there that will tell you how wrong you are, you are obviously a thoughtful, caring parent and you are concerned about raising healthy, well adjusted kids. Not to say those who disagree with you are not, but regardless of your stance on this issue, the world would be a much better place if more parents actually cared about being good parents. I am also a veteran, 18+ years Navy, and I agree that violent video games are not right for my kids… much to their… Read more »
The more things change, the more they stay the same…. I fully sympathize, and I agree with a lot of what you say here. But, I doubt this is something unique to this generation. (My usual knee-jerk reaction when people talk about the younger generation: “ ‘twas ever thus.”) Historically, the younger generation of American men, new military recruits, almost never know what war is really like. Very few societies tell their young men all the details about what it’s really like to kill someone. If we told the full truth, we’d have far fewer volunteers. As for the entertainment… Read more »
What about so many wars till now?