The grand controversy - Violence in video games

Before 1996, violence in video games wasn't so common. Blood was pixelated, could be barely described as blood, there were no psychic actions. In 1996-1997 a company called BMG Interactive announced a video game called 'Race 'n' Chase'. The name was soon to be changed into Grand Theft Auto, and after the public had seen what the game had to offer, complaints started to fly in. Jack Thompson, an activist, a lawyer, started a campaign against GTA and its violence. The game feautured free roaming around 1980s London with liberty to run over people and shoot them with lethal weapons (yes, that was how it went). GTA 2 was released soon after, and the pain was even bigger, but so was the profit. Thompson didn't give up. A few murders happened at the time, both were connected to the GTA games because the murderer was a GTA player. However, the charges on BMG were dropped, and Thompson lost another battle. In 2001 GTA III came out with its publisher being the newly formed Rockstar games. GTA III was criticized because it came out at the time of the 9/11 accident. People didn't want to play the game because it would remind them of the disaster. Lets go a few years forward. Manhunt, a jarringly weird experience that many people saw as a curse, but, it was developed to show the real life in those certain circumstances. Nobody wanted to play a game where you play as a psychotic killer in a psychic hospital being burnt down by its inmates, but on the other side, the game sold well. What was even weirder was the fact that the White House demanded the sequel of the game to be taken off the video game store shelves, so it happened, but it didn't last long until the game was back. Rockstar was off the hook again. Now, the main point, do video games really affect us, can we become more violent because of video games? The latest studies show that we cannot become more violent than we are now if we play violent video games. My opinion is: No, we cannot become more violent, we can only become more spoilt. Laters.