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JACK GORDON: Have you ever been barred from playing a video game because it’s too violent? Well if you have, you wouldn’t be the only one. Many of the most popular games fall under the category of Shooter Games. Games such as Fortnite, Call of Duty, Rainbow 6 Seige, etc consistently build massive player bases, and for good reason. A few of the aforementioned titles are considered to be some of the best video games ever produced. That being said, many people believe that said shooter games are far too violent. Are they right? Kind of.

This is the first episode of the Game on Podcast. I am Jack Gordon and I will be your host today.

As an avid gamer, I have stumbled upon many Shooter Games in my day. My current favorite of these is Call of Duty. Call of Duty is a game franchise under the shooter category known as “Mil-Sim” or “Military Simulation.” Remember this classification as it will be important later in this episode. Some of the most fun I have had playing video games is in Call of Duty, being able to slide and dive around while competing with other players in a high-octane shooter experience is what makes Call of Duty so popular. The newest title in the Call of Duty franchise, Black Ops 6, has about 300,000 players online at the time of making this episode. That is a lot of people at one time. So clearly something makes this game popular with people.

But although so many people love Call of Duty, many people dislike the game due to it’s violence. Many argue that realistic guns and blood effects make it too violent. However, the counter to this argument is that COD is a Mil-Sim game, so the guns should be realistic to simulate their real-life counterparts. Also, blood effects can be turned off in settings, giving you a more PG experience if you choose to disable them. So with the debate around COD proving inconclusive, I turned to possibly the most popular shooter of all time; Fortnite Battle Royale.

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Fortnite dwarfs Call of Duty in size with an active player count of almost 700,000 at the time of making this episode. The debate around Fortnite’s in-game violence is just as massive. Here is what some SPA students had to say about Fortnite’s in-game-violence:

STUDENT VOICES: I played a little bit, played Fortnite, if that counts, it’s not as violent as other ones. From my experience, I don’t think so, because it’s not very graphic. And, yeah, I think it’s just violence. They can make the weapons a little less realistic because there’s no goal; it’s just guns, and I feel like if you decide to make it violent, you can make it violent, but if you’re just trying to play for fun. Like, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with that. Pretty PG, yeah. Great game. Yeah.

JACK GORDON: Their responses were overwhelmingly against the idea that Fortnite is too violent. Many highlighted the fact that Fortnite has no blood or gore as the main reason why they felt it was not excessively violent. This begs the question: If blood, gore, and weapons aren’t what makes video games too violent-what is? After further research, I think I have found the answer. Many people, mostly adults, think that playing violent video games induces violent behavior. This argument is a compelling one. An article published by Michigan University titled “Do Video Games Influence Violent Behavior?”, describes a study in which college students were assigned to play either violent or nonviolent video games. The students were then tasked with setting punishments for other students partaking in the study. These punishments were not actually carried out of course, but the students who had played the violent games tended to create harsher punishments than those who had played nonviolent games.

That seems like the end-all-be-all answer to this question, right? Well…maybe.

Although the studies were conducted with a wide range of students in a controlled environment and by a reputable University, they failed to provide quantitative data about their study, instead using phrases such as: “significantly more” and “was associated with” when referring to the amount of students who chose worse punishments, as well as the severity of those punishments.

They also declined to mention how many students were assigned violent video games and how many were assigned nonviolent video games. All in all, the findings of this study are very interesting, but in my opinion, they lack the specificality to be able to truly differentiate correlation and causation. Meaning that essentially they did not provide enough information to be able to definitively say that violent video games have a negative impact on a person’s behavior or that they induce violent tendencies.

In conclusion, I believe that, in general, shooter games are not “too violent,” as the violence in the games is only there to further the gaming experience; after all, they are called shooter games for a reason. That being said, shooter games are not for everyone, and the choice comes down to the player as to what they are comfortable with playing. The debate surrounding shooter games has been raging since the first shooter games were introduced, and it will probably never stop, so the choice to play is simply one of preference. Thank you for tuning into the Game On podcast. If you would like to listen to the next episode (Why are Sports Games so Profitable?) visit The Rubicon website.

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