Everyone has their own motives for playing video games, whether it is for entertainment, or as a source of income.  However, no one can deny they can be infuriating at times.

     As a result of the article entitled “Blurred Game Lines” in the October issue of Student Prints, freshman Brandon “Jarek the Gaming Dragon” Chau offers his analysis of the shroud of controversy that surrounds video games.

    Chau has earned a substantial amount of money by making YouTube videos by filming the video games he plays on his personal page youtube.com/JarekTheGamingDragon. As a person with an immense knowledge of video games, his view carries a lot of weight.

    “[Video games] are the same thing as movies or TV where you have guns, knives, explosions, and people dying,” said Chau.

    Still, many media sources such as CNN, Fox, and MSNBC try to find a breakthrough story in an area where an argument against video game violence carries no weight.

    “The reason that the news media portrays video games in a negative light is because they want to watch out for the children.  They feel if you’re influenced at a young age you might feel like violent behavior is OK,” said Chau.

   While he may not agree with the media’s argument, he understands its viewpoint.

   “I can see where [the news media] is coming from because of games like Grand Theft Auto. The things that you can do in that game can happen in real life, but at the end of the day video games don’t cause violence,” said Chau.

    In reality, most kids already know the difference between what is acceptable and what is not when they play these games.

    “Most kids won’t act violent because of a game.  They play it and it’s interesting for the time, but they don’t want to live it out because they know what the end result will be,” said Chau.

   And the end of a crime usually results in jail time. Even if the kid does not possess much common sense, this reason alone is enough to deter him or her from bringing violent behavior from a game into real life.