Helpful or Harmful video games.

Scene from God of War III

There have been many arguments about whether or not violent video games are helpful or harmful. There have been those that say violent video games harm the player and show the player how to commit violent actions or just make them more prone to violent behavior. There are others that say that violent video games are a way for us to release our animal instincts and cope with life. They say that being able to play as an imaginary violent character allows us to be violent and release stress without actually harming the those around us. Now which is it? Are violent video games helpful or harmful?

The answer is somewhat confusing. The answer is both...and neither. The fact of the matter is that violent video games cannot be blamed or praised for what they do. There has simply not been enough research done in the field. Sure there have been studies done to study the behavior of a child exposed to such games but the research doesn't even touch the child's background. The player may have a disturbed home life and the violent video games may exacerbate the situation. However, in the same instance, the violent video games may create a refuge for the child and allow them to get rid of the violence through the game. There is just too little information out there to know for certain.

Now one can obviously form there own opinion about the situation and find research to support their theory. That is perfectly fine. However, that doesn't make their opinion a fact. It simply means that their opinion coincided with the findings of a specific study in a specific situation. To be practical, video games have just not been around long enough to really understand their effect on our psychology and make a concrete decision on their harmful or helpful nature. I mean we're really just now understanding what the antique philosopher's were meaning when they postulated their theories. "It really took us from 1750 to 1985 to really get it"-Kevin Williams when discussing our understanding of Friedrich Nietzsche.

Now as I said before we can always form our own personal opinions but they will never effect the reality of a given situation. From my own personal experience, I would say that video games have provided stress release when I was in need. I have been in a position where I was really stressed about something and in order to take my mind off things I just played a mindless video game which allowed me to calm down and the stress went away. Some games are pretty violent. For instance, Soul Calibur has been one of the biggest fighting games for a long time. This is one of my favorite games to play when I'm stressed out. It allows me to beat the crap out of an imaginary character and release my tension so I don't blow up and freak out on somebody else which would cause major problems.

So in conclusion, it is not possible to know for sure if video games are helpful or harmful. The best thing we can do is live from our personal experience and judge for ourselves whether or not these games are effecting us in a negative or positive way. Parents should also play an active role in their child's life and use their best judgment on whether or not to get a game based on the content. So even though science hasn't told us what the definite answer is, we still have control over our own lives and we should make our decisions according to our own set of values and priorities.