Blood & Glory: Do Video Games Make Monsters?

Video games have been taking the flak for the surprising rise in teen and childhood violence over the past few decades. Everything, from the increase of guns among inner city kids to the Columbine tragedy, have been blamed on video games. Some US Senators have even attempted to have the entire industry banned based on the fact that video games turn kids into violent, amoral, sadistic monsters. However, these moralist crusaders tend to ignore the other potential factors in such a transformation. What is not often discussed about this issue is the possibility of parental neglect and the predisposition of some children to violence even prior to being exposed to video games. Some studies are now being conducted to determine how video games affect a person’s mental health, in the hope of getting to the bottom of this video game debate once and for all.

While research is always necessary, there is always the possibility that the results of these studies would be too generalized. For starters, like literature, video games have different genres, with each genre having a separate set of core elements that define how the game is played. For example, the role-playing game...