Could Call of Duty Be Causing an Increase in Gun Violence

No games don't cause you to pick up a gun and go on a shooting.

No these shootings are not secular to "White Males" we just get the most coverage. If they sited all the mixed race shootings everyday you wouldn't be able to read any other headlines.

Games don't kill people. Guns don't kill people. People kill people, nothing more nothing less.

Don't use a Video Game as a crutch to say why people are unsatisfied in this corrupt and dubious world.

I would agree with the OP on video games influencing how you see life and think...

i used to be a normal male of 40 years of age until i started playing Tomb Raider, now i have grown and platted my pony tail and like to cut about in cream leather hot pants with a satchel on my back....

I love FPS games yet i don't like gun/s in my home. My wife don't like my games she abhors it and is contented with Bejeweled or any puzzle games on her tablet and phone even sometimes wasting hours on it but she keeps asking me she wants to buy a gun and wants to practice in the shooting range.

I even tried to butcher a live chicken once during my teens but i just can't i had to let it go and let my sister do it without me watching.

reply to post by Soloprotocol


Yea ok Solo, and since I played Mario back in the early 80's I now run around eating magic mushrooms dressed in red overalls~ Wait till I get my flower i'll spew fire out of my nose =_=

Because clearly no one has ever been shot prior to FPS games coming out?

I don't think one single thing leads to a generation being desensitized to anything but rather a combination of things. If someone, not saying the OP, wants to blame video games then they should also blame music, tv, movies, social media, books and so on.

Violent crime has happened since the dawn of man, it will happen now and it will continue to happen in the future. That is the thing about mankind, random people will do random things at random times to other random people.

I agree with where your coming from Opeth and all related fields should be held equally desensitizing.

I want to take it one step further.

I blame the parents. If it's anyone's fault, I'm pointing at the donkey (Figure of speech) that raised the child in the first place. Great parenting skills letting your 7yrs old play GTA and Hitman, I applaud your use of NO discression, let alone the music and television these parents let there children watch.

I remember if something came on that was not child appropriate, my sisters and I were directed out of the room until further notice. No and's, if's or butt's(Because that's what it was gonna be if you did not listen the first time)

But then again nobody wants to hear that and it's got to be the video games fault.

Will anyone actually address that video games are a clear influence on these things, without making half witted jokes about becoming Lara Croft or TeleTubbies making you gay. (Because 80s shows weren't homo-erotic at all, He-Man.)

I believe people make a mistake thinking that the idea is that video games make you literally get up and kill. Rather than that they de-sensitize a person who is already unstable, or perhaps influenced the de-sensitization of people in an otherwise only slightly troubled person.

Video games aren't the only factor! But they are a factor. Our society GLORIFIES killing. Most of our society has never held a gun and shot someone, but we've all seen it in movies which have only increased in their graphic nature to make it a realistic, gory scene that is very glorified.

Then include the fact that you've got a suicidal teen, influenced by all of this. And then they see, Cho-Seung Hui. And Adam Lanza, and the Columbine shooters. And all the other shooters, and even though the news is condemning it in opinion, they are glorifying it in coverage.

All of these are factors, and denying that violent video games influence unstable minds is like denying that alcohol ads don't make it harder for someone to recover from alcoholism.

Hey gun violence really spiked when CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE came out and even a larger spike after BLACK OPS came out, now I love FPS games, I play TF2 everyday and I find it to take away my anger so I don't need to go shooting people, but I'm not saying that CoD is doing the same, VALVE games also have the humor to laugh away the anger, and VALVE does not make CoD, EA does so that assist is not present so your mind could be dominated by the visions of killing people if you aren't stable enough ❕

I love call of duty, battlefield 3 etc. but have never even dreamt of picking up a gun let alone using 1.

also, i don't play it around children.(even though the call of duty servers are infested with kids)


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

The same argument could have been made with GI Joe action figures as well as squirt and Nerf guns. Boys are targeted and conditioned from birth to play war.

It seems to me that people always look for some excuse or reason. Its silly. Mentally unstable people are unstable people... People will always try to point their grubby little fingers somewhere though. Murder happened way before TV or videogames. It does not de-sensitize people. Mentally unstable people have done things just as they do now, but before there was nothing to blame. Whats next? Blaming the Bible for being desensitizing? Or cars? Or how about ping pong? Give me a break...


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by Miraj
Will anyone actually address that video games are a clear influence on these things, without making half witted jokes about becoming Lara Croft or TeleTubbies making you gay. (Because 80s shows weren't homo-erotic at all, He-Man.)

I believe people make a mistake thinking that the idea is that video games make you literally get up and kill. Rather than that they de-sensitize a person who is already unstable, or perhaps influenced the de-sensitization of people in an otherwise only slightly troubled person.

Video games aren't the only factor! But they are a factor. Our society GLORIFIES killing. Most of our society has never held a gun and shot someone, but we've all seen it in movies which have only increased in their graphic nature to make it a realistic, gory scene that is very glorified.

Then include the fact that you've got a suicidal teen, influenced by all of this. And then they see, Cho-Seung Hui. And Adam Lanza, and the Columbine shooters. And all the other shooters, and even though the news is condemning it in opinion, they are glorifying it in coverage.

All of these are factors, and denying that violent video games influence unstable minds is like denying that alcohol ads don't make it harder for someone to recover from alcoholism.

edit on 12-3-2013 by Miraj because: (no reason given)

Ok Miraj, video games help desensitize individuals, for sure. So do EasyBake oven's that mold girls into cooking at a young age. I'm sure glad that alcohol put a gun to the drunk man's head and made him drive! The world is bombarded with marketing ploys via Alcohol Ads, the new God of War Ascension (Great Multiplayer I hear btw), Anti-Smoking ads (But I still smoke) I still drink, I still play video games (though not nearly as used to as I'm a father now). So the problem is unstable minds.... What you do you want to there to be a backround check to play a FPS game? Really because this bull *&#$ can be avoided by parents being present and talking to there childeren. The Adam Lanza's are the parents fault and there's only. They use Video Games, Alcohol and Drugs or even Horror Movies as crutch to there failed attempt at parenting. That's all. No more no less.

A child is only as unstable as the parent(s) that raised them.

No.
No.
No, and No.

Not anymore than war footage in the theaters during WW2 did. It's nothing new. War has always and will always be glorified. It's very profitable.

I do feel strongly about the age of the players lately though. they are rated M for mature for a reason 18+.
But a lot of like MMO type games are far worse than COD. They are rated T for teen so parents think they are harmless, but the online interactions are far from T for teen, and often fall well into the NC-17-XXX area.

Like I would much rather my Kid (if I had one lol) play call of duty (single player) than World of Warcraft.

Originally posted by Vaedur
I'm curious of people's thoughts. Take a good think about it. Day after day it seems new shootings in the US. The most popular competitive activity right now being played by masses is Call of Duty Online. Could the day after day constant shooting of advatars causing an upswing in gun violence? Millions are hooked on this game, with videogame addiction issues.
I'm not saying ban guns, I"m not saying ban call of duty, I"m asking a question. Btw I"m a gamer who plays violent games, RPGS, Assassin's creed is my favorite. I am NOT anti-videogame.

edit on 14-12-2012 by Vaedur because: Added "Gun" to the topic

Ok, so you are a gamer who plays violent video games? So allow me to ask you... how many people have you went out and killed as a result of playing violent video games?

If you answer none, which I suspect you will, doesn't that blow a hole in the theory that violent video games cause people to kill others?