The First Amendment is one of America's defining attributes, helping give it the reputation of "The Land
of the Free". It allows for the freedom of speech to keep the government from deciding how the citizens
are supposed to feel and behave. It inherently allows for more individualism with its people which gives
a lot of room for numbers of communities to form. I grew up playing video games and I have been
committed to that hobby for over 15 years. Most of my friends indulge in it too. I have sought to develop
my own projects and have been able to pursue academically with the Game and Interactive Media
Design program at High Point University. In some of the classes, we have explored video games as an
art form that is capable of immersing people more than movies and TV shows. However, the medium
has faced a lot of controversy and censorship throughout its history.
In 1992, the fighting game, Mortal Kombat received a lot of controversy for its depictions of gore and
violence. Parents were concerned with their children growing up with material like that and becoming
more aggressive. There was enough outrage that this issue was taken to a Senate hearing in 1994.
The verdict was that all video games needed to be age-rated by the ESRB (Entertainment Software
Rating Board). Video games would go under the radar 5 years later with the Columbine school shooting
in 1999. The two attackers were students named Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. They had maps they
created in the first-person shooter game, DOOM (1993) that were modeled after their school.
This quickly led to the correlation between violent video games and the actions of those boys.
There have been many psychological studies over the years that have tried to determine whether they
do increase aggressive behavior or not. There has not been enough of a correlation in their results to
give a definitive answer to the question, but what has been evident is that people have been trying to
get video games banned for almost three decades. It's mostly been misinformed people without much
knowledge of video games that are trying to decide what should or should not be available on the
market. Some gamers will see many of those games as influential titles that pioneered many aspects of
the game industry. Others grow attached to those games, connecting them with their past or the friends
they have made. In communities, these players make names for themselves and are seen as celebrities
within them like Mortal Kombat player, Sonic Fox. Video games are protected under the First Amendment
as a form of expression, so other people do not have the right to remove them.
played and what I dabbled in. I have albinism that made me extremely nearsighted and sensitive to the
sun as well as being susceptible to severe sunburns in minutes. It was difficult for me to play catch and
be outside for as long as the other kids so video games were what I turned to for fun. I don’t mean to
make this a sob story, but whenever misinformed people try to attack the only medium I really enjoy, it
makes me frustrated. It carved me into the man I am today and now, my education depends on it being
present in the market.
Links Used:
Creation of the ESRB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3HDVd22P8
Columbine History and People blaming Video Games for Mass-shootings:
https://www.polygon.com/2018/3/10/17101232/a-brief-history-of-video-game-violence-blame
Columbine Shooters’ DOOM Map: https://gaming-urban-legends.fandom.com/wiki/Columbine_Map
Psychological Test Example: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550610379506
Video Games protected Under First Amendment:
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1152/video-games
