Still not a serial killer_

Do videogames make people violent? 

This has been a question that many have made throughout the history of videogames, having various contradicting answers given by several specialists and investigators. 

Do I believe videogames make people violent? Nope.

I think videogames, as well as other forms of media, can be a catalyst for violence. But many claim that videogames especially, lead to violent behavior, due to their unique form of interactivity and action-reward system, triggering a positive response from the brain when engaging in violent acts (like when you order a dog to roll-over, it does the action, and you reward it with a pet behind its ear). 

This may ring true to some, but I hardly think it is the norm. Oftentimes I get testy or wish to emulate violent acts (nothing sketchy, just swordfights) when watching TV series or movies, but not in videogames. Why? Because the interactivity in games acts as an outlet whereas watching a series or a movie is a rather passive activity where the need to act on my impulses is not met. 

I also do not agree that exposition to violent images through media equals total desensitization. Yes, people may not become as shocked when exposed to other violent images, but when the violence and death depicted is real, if they are like me, they’ll be appalled. Whenever news and reports on wars, murders, and other kind of tragedies involving deaths are shown, I cannot watch any explicit scenes, even though my kill count in RPGs is through the roof. 

Why does this happen? I can distinguish real events from virtual ones. A murdered man in the news was once a person with a mother and father, possibly with a wife and kids, a job, and friends. A dead guy in a game is a bunch of pixels that an actor may have given voice to its dying scream, but did not feel any pain. 

If a person cannot distinguish violence in the real world from violence in a virtual world, that person possibly has some kind of disorder, and probably shouldn't even be exposed to any kind of media that depicts violence. 

In the meantime, I’ll just take out my rage for the person that cut me in the line for McDonald’s in that pixelized soldier, instead of tracking him down, stalking him for days, and devise a wicked plan for murder that would be untraceable back to me.