Discussion Main / MurderSimulators

I second that. A) The chart doesn't start at 0. B) It leads tropers to believe that crime is reduced by violent video games, while it's more likely having to with other factors. I could show another chart that shows incarceration rates going up every year and put the games on the graphs.

While we're on the subject: "People who play violent games for a long period of time can be desensitized to committing violence, making them more likely to commit murders or hurt others. However, a) this effect only occurs with those who were already inclined to commit violence..."

It's debatable just how much interplay there is between desensitization to violence and whether or not someone is inclined to it already, but the desensitization effect itself is more universal than that. You don't have to be violent already to be desensitized to violence by... wait a minute, did it say "desensitized to committing violence" before?

There is a long history of using this very phenomena. The military has in fact found that the more the target looks like the enemy in target practice, the less likely soldiers are to hesitate to fire the first time in real combat.

Granted, we are talking about people who are trained and conditioned to kill when ordered to so this doesn't make the case for banning violent video games but the accuracy of simulations is enough of a factor in helping overcome that inhibition that the military has invested in improving their methods.

Fixed, edited in a comment from 60 Minutes.

OBJECTION! Simply saying "it's awful" is not a valid argument. State your case first.

EDIT: I guess that solves that.