John Romero creator of the video game "DOOM" which was banned in certain countries (17 years in Germany) due to its gore and violence content, shares his opinion on the subject as published in a recent blog on the PlaystationLifestyle page.
John Romero said, "I believe games are cultural and the violence that we see in the world goes beyond games. Plenty of countries play games. Canada, Germany, Japan, England, Ireland... They're all hardcore consumers of games, yet we don't see similar outbreaks of violence in these countries. It's not the game, it's the gun. It's not the computer, it's the culture. It's not the player," the topic of video game and violence has been an ongoing debate within certain communities and forums, blaming video games violence for crimes committed within the society itself.
An article previously published by the Telegraph UK cited a study conducted by Oxford University, which showed that the influence of video games were "statistically significant, yet minor, factor" in regards to the development of children's behavior." The study involves 200 children ranging from the age 10 and 11. In a statement by Dr. Andy Przyblski, head researcher of Oxford's Internet Institute, he explained that "the fact that the study had not found evidence of a link between violent games and real-life aggression did not mean it does not exist but academics are divided about the possible effects."
Meanwhile, the American Psychology Association confirmed the link between aggression and violent video games based on their report. Mark Appelbaum, PhD, who was the chairman of the Task explained that "Scientists have investigated the use of violent video games for more than two decades but to date, there is very limited research addressing whether violent video games cause people to commit acts of criminal violence, However, the link between violence in video games and increased aggression in players is one of the most studied and best established in the field."
Both studies from established institutions clearly explains that it all comes down to control and discipline, in a way John Romero is correct that playing violent video games is not the problem, lack of parental guidance and the culture we introduce our children are, as the famous author Mark Twain said, "too much of anything is bad."
