I’m pretty sure that almost everyone has played, seen, or at least heard of Call Of Duty. The massively popular gaming franchise made seventy million dollars off of the first game alone, and is still going strong, with one of their games in the top three most lucrative games ever. Despite its booming success, COD was and is despised and feared by thousands of parents. The games foul language, brutal violence, and potentially dangerous online play have made Call Of Duty frightfully unpopular with parents and guardians everywhere. I’m not going to try and convince you of COD’s educational or interpersonal merit; it’s Rated M for a reason, but I will say that its popularity and reputation for violence have given many video games a bad name.

   
Take Halo for example. Halo is an FPS (first person shooter) that revolves around shooting aliens for some vague reason (OMG they’re gonna blow up the world! OMG they’re going to blow up the world again!
OMG they’re going to blow up the planet!etc.) Starting with a spaceship failure, then a spaceship crash, usually on an alien infested planet, where you shoot aliens, then the game ends with a dramatic and unfulfilling conclusion. Halo is a ton of fun to play.
    From a gamer’s standpoint, the Halo franchise is amazing. Versatile gameplay, loads of weapons, fairly long, and containing challenging enemies. I, personally, loved the Halo games, spending hours and hours blasting aliens.
    The games (most of them, anyhow) are rated M. However, much of the more “Mature” content in their games is swearing and the occasional unrealistic blood splatter. The swearing can be remedied by changing that language to russian or something (unless you speak russian, I guess), and many of the games have the option to turn blood off. Even though most of Halo could be rated teen (with a few small exceptions), it was given an M rating, which turned off many parents.
    One of the myths that you’ll hear about video games is that they encourage violent behavior, exemplified by posts like this one:

"My son had a fit when I took away his Teen rated Goldeneye 007 first person shooter Wii game. I couldn’t believe it was rated T. Lots of research links violent video games to more aggressive behavior in teens. But more importantly than that, I look at verses like Psalm 11:5, Matt. 5:21, Gal. 5:22-23, and Phil. 4:8, and I can clearly see that playing a “game” for 12 hours a day during summer vacation where you are endlessly seeking to shoot people in the head is not what brings about a life of love, joy, and peace."
John, from jonathinmckeewrites.com


All you gamers are probably dying right now. I don’t blame you. I certainly was- put off, to say the least. But back to the issue. Do video games cause violent and depressed tendencies in children. Well… It’s complicated. This article explains that depressed and violent teens are more attracted to video games as a cathartic release. However, correlation is not causation. This article states that, while video games are violent, they do not cause violent tendencies. The final verdict from me, based on both personal experience and research, is no. Video games do not actually cause violent tendencies. People who are predisposed to violence are attracted to video games, and so people assume that video games and violence go hand in hand.