Shoot 'Em All

Before video games were developed and "militainment" became all the rage among millions of people internationally, fighting for your country meant being a member of the military, marines, air force or another facet of government defense. Today, fighting for your country is as simple as: sitting in the living room, booting up a game system, and signing on to a world of high powered weaponry and an abundance of virtual death. Virtual shooting games such as Call of Duty, America' s Army, and Doom are all highly popular, highly violent games mainly advertised to the younger generations, promoting both negative and positive behavioral qualities in gamers.

Some argue millions of gamers will become more aggressive in face-to-face social interactions and/or be more inclined to participate in real life war/violence after video game play; in fact, the United States government is banking on it. According to P.W. Singer' s journal Meet the Sims…And Shoot Them, the U.S. government currently spends six billion dollars per year on development of America' s Army and other virtual media. America' s Army puts gamers through virtual training reflecting the real life scenarios a solider would face and, since it became one of the top ten virtual games, it has led to a significant increase in military recruitment and approval of the United States system of defense.

M.S. Eastin and R.P. Griffiths, in their journal article, Beyond the Shooter Game, argue the " violent video-game play is positively correlated with hostile attribution bias, arguments with teachers, and trait hostility." Video game scenarios teach gamers behaviors by demanding certain interactions with game play. The in game behavior is often translated from the game into day-to- day life through a hostile attribution bias, or more simply, attributing a negative attitude to others after game-play. M.S. Eastin and R.P. Griffiths explain " aggressive ideas found during video- game play involuntarily prime other semantically related ideas." This leads game players to experience aggressive thoughts outside the game environment.

Despite the negativity associated with shooting games, others argue the violent video games actually encourage teamwork, improve behavioral responsiveness, and are just plain fun. T. Reichhardt, in his journal article Video Violence: Playing with Fire, quoted Jeffrey Fagan, head for the Center for Violence Research and Prevention at Columbia University in New York, argues game researchers are arguing a slippery slope. He points out when the nightmarish game Doom sold millions of copies, violence among gamers should have increased; instead in 2001, violence in the United States hit its lowest level since 1972.

Reichhardt quotes Kevin Durkin, psychologist at the University of Western Australia in Crawley, who observes students playing various types of video games and asserts the most he sees out of students is laughter. Durkin asserted in a report to the Australian government, " The main type of aggression was robust treatment of the equipment."

Whether video games do or do encourage violence in gamers is still up to debate, but one thing is for sure, with your gaming console, you can always be an army of one (online).