Video games have been a very big form of entertainment for the past 20 years. With all forms of entertainment comes controversy. According to two studies published in the "American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" playing violent video games can increase a person's aggressive thoughts. Violent games such as Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and Doom have been the reason for many of these claims. One of the first games to bring such a claim was Mortal Kombat. Released in 1992, ,Mortal Kombat allowed you to brutally beat up your opponent. After you have depleted all of your enemies health, you then have the choice to perform a "fatality". One of the most violent fatalities would be where you stick your hand down the opponent's mouth and rip out his spine. In Grand Theft Auto, you play as a man trying to make it in the crime world. You take on several missions to gain respect among your fellow criminals. This game is praised by video game critics for its ability to let the player choose their own path and its "open-ended" world that allows you to go around town doing whatever you want. You can steal cars, kill random pedestrians and even pick up prostitutes. All this violence and other criminal activities portrayed in these games would make you think that crime should be on the rise. If these games can cause you to think more aggressive than more aggressive action should be going on. But on October 20, 2000, President Clinton released a statement where he said that since 1992 the national violent crime rate has dropped by more than 20 percent. It doesn't look like games did much to increase violent emotions in others.
             Now while all these games do seem to promote violence and immoral activities, I do not believe that this is enough to cause someone to want to follow in the game's footsteps. If you know the difference between right and wrong ...