Palms are sweating, heart-beating, breathing hard and heavy. No, this is not going to be about Eminem's "Lose Yourself" song, this is how a player feels while playing in an intense video game session. Quick reflexes are needed to gun down hundreds of enemies on-screen in ultra-violent and very realistic first-person shooters like "Halo" and "Doom". Blood and gore fill the screen from the shot down virtual soldiers. Finally, after long-hour game sessions, the game is completed. Video games give players the feeling of excitement and an adrenaline rush. But what does it really give the player? Is it good or bad?.
Violent games are the best sellers in the gaming industry today. Polls and surveys show's that players would rather pick video games that take place in virtual battlefields like "Halo" or "Counter-strike". Or video games that give the player the ability to do anything like blow-up cars or sniper walking pedestrians in virtual cities like "Grand Theft Auto 3". In an interview for Newsweek with senior research fellow at Pew Internet & American Life Project, Steve Jones, states that college students" game of choice is "Grand Theft Auto 3" (Are Games Good?). The sales are good for the companies producing these violent games, but the side effects on the player's are bad. .
People who buy games with violent content are known to behave more violent and aggressive than non-players. A study in 1998 reports that people who play "Doom" or "Mortal Kombat", identifies with the blood-thirsty heroes, which increases aggressive and violent behavior in the person (Ko p47). Violent games not only makes the player's more aggressive, it can also inspire the player to become killers. In Knoxville, Tennessee, stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, shot and killed a registered nurse and seriously wounded another person, when the victim's cars was hit by .22-caliber bullets.
