Many people play video games and have fun while playing them. Although there have been shootings and extreme acts of violence linked to video games, video games are not completely to blame for these acts of violence. A research study done by the University of New York following how people behave after playing violent video games has trouble making the link.  Erik Kain has studied the truth about violence through video games and has interesting findings. I’ve researched the August 2018 shooting in Jacksonville, Florida where a tournament turned deadly after a contestant lost a game. Therefore, do video games make people more violent?

The studies at the University of New York showed that video games do not lead to violence. Dr. Zendle found that the measurement of violent concepts does not make a person more violent. There was also no significant difference with games using ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ soldier tactics. The findings suggest that there is no link between realism in games and the kind of effects that video games are commonly thought to have on their players. Further study is now needed into other aspects of realism to see if this has the same result. Today’s games only become more real as technology advances, therefore, more studies need to be conducted. In this study they only tested these theories on adults, so more work is needed to understand whether a different effect is evident in children players.

In the research on the truth about violence through video games Kain concluded, “The vast majority of people who play video games do not commit violent crimes or engage in violent acts. If they did, the 70 million copies of GTA V sold globally would have thrust the world into chaos”(Kain, 2013). Some examples of people shooting others over video games are Anders Behring Breivik, he was said to have played World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Daniel Petric, shot his mother dead and wounded his father over them not allowing him to play Halo 3. And Nathon Brooks, he wounded his mother and father with a gun while they were sleeping after they took his electronics for two weeks. The study conducted by Kain shows that only a small percentage of people have killed or wounded others over video games. Also, if further research is done into individual cases there is likely a history of mental instability. Mental health has a much larger role with the violence and shootings than the video games themselves.

During my research of the Jacksonville, Florida shooting in August, 2018; I learned that Dan Katz was a contestant at a Madden 19 tournament; he lost his first game against Eli Clayton. Katz was very serious about what he did and was extremely upset.  After the loss, he returned the next day with a semiautomatic pistol with a laser sight. “He walked past patrons in other parts of the restaurant and then opened fire on his fellow competitive gamers before killing himself, Williams said”(Levenson et al.). Katz shot  Eli “Trueboy” Clayton and Taylor “SpotMePlzzz” Robertson dead during the shooting and injured another nine people. Another two were injured when they were trampled running out of the GLHF Game Bar. Katz was said to have mental illnesses and had troubles when his parents divorced when he was young. Again, Katz’s history of mental illness is the largest factor in this tragedy not the type of video games he played. This was a major conclusion after the investigation was completed.

In the end, the studies at the University of New York,  Kain’s research on the truth about violence through video games and the example of the Jacksonville shooting all show that video games do not necessarily lead to violence. All of the studies referred to mental illness as being the leading cause of the violence. The majority of people who play video games never carry out a violent act. I occasionally play Call of Duty and have never found the game violence to have an effect on the reality of my life. I certainly do not see the game as being anything near real or real life. Therefore, video games do not make people violent.

Works Cited:

Kain, E. (2013). The truth about video games and gun violence. [online] Mother Jones. 

[Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].

Levenson, Eric et al. "Jacksonville Shooting Suspect Specifically Targeted Fellow Madden

Gamers". CNN, 2018,

 Accessed 27 Sept 2018.

Zendle, D., Kudenko, D. and Cairns, P. (2018). No evidence to support link between violent video games and behavior. [online] ScienceDaily. Available at [Accessed 15 Oct. 2018].