Mark Purcell's Essay 'Popularity Of Violence In Video Games'
English 102: Essay #2
10 October 2012
Virtual World Violence In the high definition world of video games today, a relatively recent trend has taken hold of younger people. The rise in popularity of the First Person Shooter (FPS) game has become very evident among teens and college students. This genre of game involves the player controlling a character in the first person perspective. The character being controlled usually wields one or multiple firearms in order to defeat enemies. Most of the popular FPS games provide very realistic situations, while others put you in an alien environment. Most FPS games even offer a choice between two game modes: single-player or multiplayer. The difference between these game modes is that single-player …show more content…
Do these players want to get away from their normal, everyday lives? This was true for me when I was a normal high school kid going through the motions of life. Everyday after I got home from school, a virtual world was waiting for me: a place where my skills had been honed and where I could dominate. I could never have this power in my “real” life. I strongly believe this is the same reason that so many other teens play these games. Mark Purcell analyzes the theory of escaping reality in his online article titled “The Popularity of Violence in Video Games.” Purcell writes that maybe these games are becoming so popular because “most of us do not live violent lives. Most of us have never been a soldier, detective, or a knight.” This is absolutely why people would escape their reality to play these games; they want what they can’t have, or what they have never experienced before. This parallels my point that people can use these games to kill and be killed without physically experiencing it., they can experience the rush of battle without the danger. Purcell goes on to provide a great counterexample of a potentially disliked video game; he says “I doubt most people would want to buy a game that allows you to be a barista where the gameplay revolves around you pulling espresso shots and steaming milk. That isn 't very imaginative.” That would be the absolute most boring game ever created. I would much rather prefer to be Master Chief in battle against the Covenant aliens in the world of
10 October 2012
Virtual World Violence In the high definition world of video games today, a relatively recent trend has taken hold of younger people. The rise in popularity of the First Person Shooter (FPS) game has become very evident among teens and college students. This genre of game involves the player controlling a character in the first person perspective. The character being controlled usually wields one or multiple firearms in order to defeat enemies. Most of the popular FPS games provide very realistic situations, while others put you in an alien environment. Most FPS games even offer a choice between two game modes: single-player or multiplayer. The difference between these game modes is that single-player …show more content…
Do these players want to get away from their normal, everyday lives? This was true for me when I was a normal high school kid going through the motions of life. Everyday after I got home from school, a virtual world was waiting for me: a place where my skills had been honed and where I could dominate. I could never have this power in my “real” life. I strongly believe this is the same reason that so many other teens play these games. Mark Purcell analyzes the theory of escaping reality in his online article titled “The Popularity of Violence in Video Games.” Purcell writes that maybe these games are becoming so popular because “most of us do not live violent lives. Most of us have never been a soldier, detective, or a knight.” This is absolutely why people would escape their reality to play these games; they want what they can’t have, or what they have never experienced before. This parallels my point that people can use these games to kill and be killed without physically experiencing it., they can experience the rush of battle without the danger. Purcell goes on to provide a great counterexample of a potentially disliked video game; he says “I doubt most people would want to buy a game that allows you to be a barista where the gameplay revolves around you pulling espresso shots and steaming milk. That isn 't very imaginative.” That would be the absolute most boring game ever created. I would much rather prefer to be Master Chief in battle against the Covenant aliens in the world of