Video Game Violence

As I sit here writing this blog, I'm watching my boyfriend play Basket Ball on his XBOX Live. Just a few minutes ago, he started yelling at the video game (or the player he's talking to over his headset) for making an unnecessary intentional foul so that he couldn't score on a fast break. When he got the ball back, he returned the favor, and caused an unnecessary intentional foul on the other player. I asked him why he would do that and he simply replied "Because he deserved it"

This may be a harmless example about the effects sports video games have on children or in my case, my boyfriend (same thing), but as video games become more and more intense, so does the influence they have on the players. Many of these video games are teaching players that making illegal fouls are okay, and that it is just part of the game, while in fact many of these rules have been made to protect players from getting hurt.

In the Video game Madden 2010, the violence portrayed in the game, makes many of the illegal fouls (such as helmet to helmet hits) more acceptable for many of the young players. If any of these fouls were committed in real life, brutal injuries could occur. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SoDPFhT-u8

Not only are video games full of physical violence, they are also full of verbal threat. In an old professional game my cousins used to play, I can remember the characters saying that they were going to kill the other one, and that they wanted to destroy them. As times change, and the video games become more real life, players are going to start acting out these actions in real life.

My boyfriend may not agree that screaming and causing unnecessary intentional fouls are out of line, but I'm sure if someone did it to him while playing the game in "real life" he would be very upset.