Is There a Link Between Violent Videogames and Real Violence?

This sign leads students who are looking for
a round of "Dance Dance Revolution" or
"Call of Duty" where to go.

Evelyn Demartelaere plays violent videogames. Whenever she gets in the mood, she cuts on her gaming console, loads her fabricated world, and guns people down in high resolution.

More and more college students, like Evelyn, who studies at Winthrop University, are playing videogames. Consequently, the mental image of a small group of old friends huddled inside a dorm room eating nachos and killing each other is integrated into the student stereotype. It’s common for people to seek release from the stress and workload of the real world in the form of videogames, especially as companies such as Nintendo and Microsoft continue to find ways to widen their gaming audiences.

With the tragedy at Sandy Hook, it’s easy to see why extra attention is thrown at the booming gaming industry. It’s no news that videogames and violence are often heard in the same sentence, and these violent games are suspected of making violent children, teens, and adults.

Dayquan Williams (right) and
Evelyn Demartelaere (left) talk gaming
in the Digiorgio Student Center at Winthrop

Is there a link? Studies disagree on the validity of these claims. “There’s a link, but it depends on the game,” says another student, Dayquan Williams. “I know a guy addicted to Call of Duty.” Call of Duty is a violent, well-known game that allows its many players to assume the role of a soldier in the US military. 

Evelyn adds, “I think it depends on mental stability.” Violence, she says, like in the case of Sandy Hook, is mental imbalance for some people. “(Playing videogames) can cause violence, but other times it’s mental stability.” Dayquan agrees: “You can play because it is fun, or you like killing people.”

What do you think? Comment below to share what you know.

Writing Basic News Leads exercise

1.      A local man, Charles R. Lydon, was killed in an automobile accident this morning when his van collided with a fire engine Mr. Lydon was pronounced dead at the scene, and police have yet to determine who was at fault. The two firefighters involved in the crash were hospitalized, and their condition is currently unknown. While damage to the fire truck totals at approximately $50,000, Lydon’s van was destroyed entirely. The event happened at the intersection of Post Road and Rollins Avenue at 7:10 this morning. When the collision occurred, the fire engine was travelling at 25mph, responding to an emergency call reporting a store fire. This, unfortunately, was only a false alarm.

 

2.      Driving larger cars may give motorists special advantages according to a recent report from the Highway Loss Data Institute. Larger cars, by comparison, have more favorable injury and repair records than small two-door models and many small or midsize sport or specialty cars. This data suggests that repair losses and injury claim frequencies are 30 percent higher than average for these smaller cars while larger vehicles can boast 40 percent to 50 percent better than average claim records. For a motorist in a four-door Oldsmobile Delta 88, this means that he is 41 percent less likely to be injured in an accident, according to an example in the analysis.

 

 

3.      Perhaps you should think twice before feeding your family hotdogs for dinner, as they can be deadly. According to an article appearing today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, hotdogs are one of the most likely foods to choke children – especially if they are cut crosswise or fed whole to children under 4. Estimates show that someone in the United States chokes on a hotdog every five days. A researcher warns, “If you were trying to design something that would be perfect to block a child’s airway, it would be a bite-size piece of hotdog.” One should also be cautious when giving children under nine any candy, nuts, grapes, apples, carrots, and popcorn.

 

4.      The heartbroken family of Kristine Belcuore realized they had accidentally buried the wrong body when they received a repentant call today from the medical examiner. Due an unpredictable error, the family buried the body of a woman whose corpse has been unclaimed for a month. “We went through all the pain and everything, all over the wrong body,” said a relative. “And now we have to go through it again.” Over 100 relatives and friends attended the funeral last Saturday, which cost over $7,000. Mrs. Belcuore died suddenly at the age of 51 last week of a heart attack so unexpected that an autopsy was performed before the funeral. Her body remains in the morgue.

On Brandon Byron --by Travis Hawkins

Curiously enough, a young college student’s favorite writing is fiction, and he rarely reveals any of his prose to his peers. Nevertheless, he studies journalism and aspires to become a writer for a national magazine. A writer and a student at Winthrop University, Brandon Byron is a regular renaissance man.

Though Brandon is full of interesting talents, his love of writing lies closest to his heart. He loves the arts but loves words the most. As a creative writer, he often writes short stories, poetry, etc. Most everything he writes shares something in common: it stays private. Though writing is his hobby and ambition, his prose usually remains unveiled and personal; he implies that the one it really means the most to is himself.

He particularly wants to major in journalism, but is currently in mass communications. On asking him why this was, he explained that students in the area start out as mass communication majors before choosing what specific study within it they mean to pursue. Brandon has chosen journalism, and he already has his own plans set from there. “Everyone says this who goes into journalism,” he reported. “I want to work for National Geographic.” He made clear that the dream of working for such a magazine was ideal for him for a few reasons, yet for one reason more than others. He wants to travel around the globe, and landing a job there can make that happen for him. Yet the one place he says he wants to go more than anywhere is right here in the States: Alaska. The general area of Alaska and Canada appeals to him more than any other place on the globe because of the mountains.

As one can imagine for a multi-talented college student, deciding what he most wanted to do with his life was not an easy choice. For a while, he believed he was going to be a special education major. Brandon could not help but be interested in that area, given his circumstances. While Brandon, age 18, has been facing college and deciding what to do with his life, his little brother, age eight, has been facing his autism. Brandon has two brothers, and he suspects the condition of his younger sibling had everything to do with his initial longing to study special education.

Another of Brandon’s contradictions, characteristic of his individuality, is precisely his relationship to writing. He hated writing essays in high school, and the chore to this day remains one of his least favorite things to do. He finds that writing of a more technical style can occasionally cause him stress, considering that what he writes typically lacks organization. In contrast, he finds that his lack of organization is what gives his prose character – much like his own signature that identifies his work with himself. This is part of the reason why he prefers writing fiction yet also why he feels that his ideal career is with National Geographic.

In addition to his affinity to writing, he loves acting. Brandon recounts the story of how he achieved a lead role in the Melancholy Play – he forgot his lines but was called back anyway. He simply read them his lines, and they simply loved him. He also plays guitar, drums, and he sings; he listens to loads of music when he is not studying or writing. As a matter of fact, he explains how he does not usually show his writing to others. "To compensate,” he says. “I started acting and playing music."
--by Travis Hawkins