Games like Medal of honor or Call of Duty may show a lot of violent content by killing people. It could also be seen as a simulation of how or what it would be like to be part of a military team or a secret agent in a mostly historical environment, giving the game player an insight into what troops or soldiers have to deal with in reality. I wouldn’t say that those kinds of games are extreme. Resident Evil has to be one of the most suspenseful FPS games out there. The content is so intense and full of horrific gore and violence that it even caused me to turn it off because I knew what was lurking behind the door and I didn’t want to go through it! Alas I am no wimp I knew what the game was based on and mutated monsters were not lurking on the ceiling of my bathroom, so games don’t all have to be based on real life to shock and scare you while playing them.

I personally don’t understand the reasoning behind how a computer game would make someone believe that it was OK to go and impersonate it in their own mind, doing what the characters in violent and aggressive games do. Surely there’s a distinction between knowing that you’re playing a game and actually going on a real life rampage. Ofcom did a recent study on 12 – 15-year-olds and most of them said that playing violent games made them feel more aggressive. Again this is where the age restrictions come into effect.

Why are parents not paying attention to the guidelines set for them instead of listening to their children who want to play the violent games? Fair enough that the games seem cool and all their mates are playing them meaning they don’t want to be out of the loop after all.

When you’re of a young age you can become influenced easier and you may hear of things in the media that sound like a similar situation to a game but in reality the dangers are very real and you don’t get a second chance if you’re involved in an incident with a knife or a gun. What other ways can we engage with young people without having to provoke their inner rebel? Maybe the gaming world is the safest place for our young people to be anti-social without gaining a criminal record, hurting or even killing someone.