Most people know that video games are a way of having fun without having to leave your house. In households with children, 67% have some kind of video game system (Subrahmanyam 416). Children see video games as fun, while parents see them as babysitters and distracters. But, do parents truly know what their kids are thinking when they play these games? Video games have come a long way in our generation. Due to the violence that has evolved into these video games, kids and parent's behavior and responses to everyday life have been greatly influenced. .
The development of video games throughout the past twenty years has been a tremendous accomplishment. The original Atari and Nintendo systems were a kid's dream. The aspect of being able to play games on your television and not have to go to an arcade was a great idea. Parents and kids loved it. But this was not enough for gaming companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. Their goal was to do what ever it took to make money. The best way to get to a parent's wallet is through their children. In order to do this, companies decided to make bigger and better systems with better graphics, such as the Sony Playstation, Nintendo 64, and the Sega CD. As technology increased so did the gaming world. Recently, Microsoft got involved by creating the XBox. Now, the capabilities of these systems are incredible. And, in order to keep people's interest, the gaming world was forced to create different styles of games, such as RPG (role-playing games), action, mystery, and many others. Because of our generation's interest in variety, this really seemed to be a pleasing accomplishment. By the year 2000, the game industry's worldwide video game annual sales reached $20 billion (Cohen 59). This can be partially due to the addiction of these games. Once someone starts playing a game it is almost impossible to get him/her off. Violence may be a good way to increase industry sales, but it can also corrupt children's perspectives on the world.