We need a drastic re-think on the reliance that video games have on violence

Opinion by Matt S.

Let's start by stating the obvious reaction that many people are going to have on reading that headline: no, I don't for a second consider that video game violence makes people become violent. That is not the thesis of this piece. I don't think anyone picks up a game, and is immediately incentivised to pick up a real gun, and while I do believe that video games can impact on a person (I have to believe that, else games cease being art, as "impact" is a critical reason for the impact of art), I don't believe they influence behaviour. A person might find violence viscerally exciting or it might cause them to enter a state of sobering reflection, but even on those extremes, a game won't then cause them to behave differently in the real world.

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