Violent Video Games

My avatar enjoying the scenery in first-person shooter Far Cry 5

We'll keep this brief and spare you the rant - not all video games are violent, and even violent video games do not make the player more likely to be violent in real life.

Our evidence?  Not only reports of dozens of studies, most of which were completed 10 to 15 years ago (the last time games were accused of causing real-life violence) that showed no causal link between game playing and violence, but our own experience of game-playing over the past three years. Even after hours of playing first-person shooter games, we don't feel any less affectionate toward our cats, any less capable of calmly dealing with the various challenges and crises that life throws at us, or any more likely to resort to violence.  

It's like saying that seeing violence in movies makes people more violent. Remember those westerns back in the 50s and 60s, where everything was always settled with a gunfight and the first reaction to encountering indigenous peoples was to pull out a rifle and immediately shoot them dead?  Did that make people more violent?  It's really no different with games.

The only people who seem to still believe there's a causal relation between video-game violence and real-life violence are people who never play video games.  

In fact, if anything, video games can provide a healthy outlet to relieve stress and can teach creative problem-solving.   

But guess what?  People who are violent, the sociopaths among us, might enjoy playing violent video games.  But just because they enjoy them doesn't mean that everybody who plays games are also violent by nature, or will become violent by nature.  Sociopaths might prefer red over white wine, they might wear certain colored clothing, or they might dislike black-and-white movies.  Doesn't mean there's a causal link between any of those things and violent behavior.

The U.S. has a well-known problem with mass shootings, and video games are not the reason.  Video games are played all over the world, but the U.S. in the only one with an epidemic of mass shootings.  Racism exists in various forms all over the world, and while it's always reprehensible, it's only in the U.S. that racists commit mass shootings.

We all know what it is that's different about the U.S. than the rest of the world and what all of the mass shootings have in common, and yet politicians refuse to address the problem and instead look for scapegoats like video games.

So no rant here.  We were going to post that we've been enjoying the game Far Cry 5, an action/adventure, first-person shooter game, after months of playing the grimly militaristic Metal Gears Solid V.  While we're concerned that anything we say about either game right now will be interpreted by the framing of the games-vs-violence  debate, we will note that roaming around the virtual Montana countryside of Far Cry 5 has truly been a fun experience.  While much of the game play does involve gunfights between your character and an apocalyptic doomsday cult, the game also provides opportunities for simulated fly fishing, the satisfaction of piloting small planes and helicopters around the wilderness, and exploring the mountainous terrain by foot or on ATV.  

We've played 58 hours of Far Cry 5 since our birthday present to ourselves back on July 25.  That's less than 5 hours a day, and considering our newly retired status, with all of the time in the world available to us, we're surprised it hasn't been something like 12 or 15 hours of game-play a day.  

Let's hear it for self-control!