There are all sorts of violent video games available for people to play, in which, in the playing of the game, opponents are killed, innocent or not, deserving or not, game after game after game. For a lot of those players, they don’t see the game as being real, but rather see it as entertainment, so that even when they are committing what would be considered to be “bad acts” within that game, they don’t feel any responsibility for those acts, because it is pretend and not real.
The thing about certain violent video games is that they can conceivably inure someone to where it becomes rather commonplace to kill or to harm a given character within that game, and because of that, this could make them a less caring individual in real life. Another factor within video games is the factor of the understanding that though one’s character can be hurt or killed we find that because it is just a game, one can always come right back and play the game again, thereby providing the general feeling that a player is in a certain sense, invincible.
The main crux of the problem with violent video games has got to be that because it isn’t real, people who are participating in that game are never therefore in real danger and because they are not actually in real danger, they can see the game as being both a challenge and fun – but through their relentless playing of the game they very well might project themselves as actually being of courage, cunning, and daring through their pursuit of playing it. Yet, those very qualities that certain people may feel that they have obtained, are transitory, because it is just a game, of which, should they be in a real situation with real consequences in the real world, their courage that they believe that they have may be totally absent.
Indeed, violent video games are just games, which means that no matter how violent that game is, the kills so made, or the times that one’s character has been killed, the player who is actually playing the game is not ever in mortal danger, whatsoever, and therein lies the rub, because in this world, there actually are bad guys that do terrible things, which is very real, and signifies that when it is real, it isn’t going to be fun, but rather it’s going to be scary, and how people perform in the real world when they are scared and in danger, is not going to be the same as how they perform in the playing of a violent video game, because in a video game, nothing is at risk; whereas, in the real world, there most certainly is a risk.
So then, the lesson that never is learned in violent video games is that to put yourself at risk, in which, you could really be hurt or be killed, is not ever going to be fun, but rather it is going to be frightening and uncomfortable, because when it is real, there exists the type of bad consequences that changes your outlook, dramatically.