Colton Andrews

Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin

First-Year Composition

13 April 2011

The Youth and Video Games

Five of the best video games of all time are rated M for Mature, according to Metacritic.

The sole purpose of the visual essay was to show the violent, inappropriate themes and images

portrayed in video games and to find a reason why young children are attracted to this type of

game. I researched developmental psychology in order to find out what causes could create this

response. Ultimately, I determined that the lack of attention at home leads to the attraction to

violent games.

Out of all the video games out there, the game that holds the title of largest launch is Call

of Duty: Modern Warfare II (MW2) followed by Grand Theft Auto IV. MW2 made

$310 million in the first 24 hours (Gameinformer). This very popular game expressed very

realistic portrayals of war. The mission I used in my visual piece was titled “No Russian.” The

objective in this mission is to blend in with a terrorist cell. In doing so, you must take many

innocent lives at an airport. This game was the most popular game played on XBOX Live for

2009. While this footage does not show any children playing, it does portray the extreme

violence in video games. It gets the attention of the viewer and shows how it is not unlikely that

a young child has played through this mission.

The other footage is from Halo 3. I found the audio in these games very disturbing. The

anger, violence, and sexual themes shown illustrates my point. Furthermore, the actual video

helps my point. While there is violence and killing occurring, another point in my visual essay is
being expressed. These violent video games reward players for their heinous acts. One can see

medals pop up and the announcer decree, “Double Kill” or “Overkill.” Children receive the

praise they crave from these games. Capturing and editing this footage was done following the

Terms of Use of both Bungie (Halo 3) and Infinity Ward (MW2) using the iGrabber capturing

device. This process was not difficult.

Originally, I hypothesized that the attraction to these violent video games were based on

the socioeconomic backgrounds of the children. However, developmental psychology proved

otherwise. The attention, or lack there of, that parents pay toward their young child has very

important effects. Children that have parents that do not spend time with them are more likely to

associate with negative situations and memories (Shaffer 467). These same parents are more than

likely to allow their children to play more violent games for extended periods of time (PAMF).

These children are not making the human connection that are crucial to social development

during this time (Shaffer 438). They stay secluded in their room, playing video games. As shown

by the audio in my project, the interactions online are not suitable for children. However, they

can take this profane, “cool” language and create an online persona where they can let out all of

their aggression.

As for the song, I decided on “Hard to See” by Five Finger Death Punch. I originally

decided to have a sad song. However, I realized that an intense song fit the message of the video.

The lyrics of this song do not discuss video games but instead depicts the violence and also

reasoning behind why children could possibly play these games. The song say, “Projecting all

my anger, I can’t seem to get this through to you.” A part of my theory is that these children play

these game to let out aggression built up due to a lack of attention. They are “projecting all their

anger” toward the other players in the violent games. Ultimately, the chorus stands true to the
whole problem. We truly “can’t explain” what is going through these children’s heads. We can

only look at statistics and make correlations between problems at home and the attraction to

violent video games.

 Works Cited

2 Bucks. Ten FTW (Hilarious Kids on Xbox Live). 2009. MP3.

"ESRB Ratings Guide and Definitions." Entertainment Software Rating Board. Web. 11

Apr. 2011. <http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp>.

Five Finger Death Punch. "Hard to See." Rec. 21 July 2009. MP3.

"Highest Rated Video Games on Metacritic." Metacritic - Movie Reviews, TV Reviews,

Game Reviews, and Music Reviews. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

<http://apps.metacritic.com/search/process?ty=3>.

“Modern Warfare 2 Sells Close To 5 Million In First Day.” Gameinformer. Web. 14 Apr.

2011.

<http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2009/11/12/modern-warfare-2-sells-

close-to-5-million-in-first-day.aspx>

Norcia, Andrea. "The Impact of Video Games on Children." Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Web. 11 Apr. 2011. <http://www.pamf.org/preteen/parents/videogames.html>.

Shaffer, David R. "Developmental Psychology: Childhood ..." Google Books. Web. 14 Apr.

2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=CuvXxrhk8HUC>.