Well, I love violent movies and violent video games. The more violence, the better. I'm not saying if it's violent, it's good, but it doesn't hurt to add more blood and dismemberment.

but, if you consider desensitization a negative effect, then totally. When kids are constantly watching violent movies and violent video games it does make them less squeamish to the idea of violence in real life. To some (me), the effect has been stronger than others. This is why i joke around with my friends about recent rape or murder victims. A kid died in my high school once and i made a joke about it. So did some of the other kids. why? because we are desensitized.

I have no problem with my warp sense of humor because i use it logically. but, like this kid dying in school, some kid told it to the victim's friend and he got his ass whooped. You see, that is the negative part.

Some kids can lose touch with reality and try things they see on GTA in real life.

There was actually a gang member that said that him and a couple fellow members played GTA by day and lived it by night.

a game does not have to be realistic for people to translate it to reality. Those of us who have played older games, such as in the NES generation, have routinized the comparison between reality and a group of pixels. While we could never confuse the two, we are a bit different from people who have never played a game in that it has become easy for us to see the audiovisual allegory. As video games become even more realistic, enough to seem sufficiently lifelike, I think we'll see a lot more influenced violence.

Play Fallout 3, and get a killshot on someone's head with a sawed-off shotgun. Tell me that isn't satisfying, as fucked up as it is to watch. You were just playing the game, might never have thought of doing such a thing, but killing is a reality in many game worlds. Violence becomes something you have to either look past or enjoy to make progress. Even in a game like Fallout, where multiple approaches are emphasized, the one constant is that violence is inevitable (War. War never changes :P).

Now, even an 8 year old won't think this IS reality. He knows it's a game, because it's on a screen, and he's controlling it. But you ARE the one who chooses the angle of your ambush, where to place your mines, and how to get the most kills out of a clip. You practice these things, and you get a small reward in dopamine or serotonin (can't remember which) when you do it right. This is the mechanism that can make anything-- ANYTHING-- chemically addictive. Not to mention the neurological rule of thumb: "The neurons that fire together wire together;" this means, if you practice bypassing the inhibitions against committing an act of violence, you can eventually extinguish them. This is a basic part of bootcamp, and neurological research by the Pentagon has found that videogames can help soldiers get into a "killing mode."

I think it's no coincidence that the most militarily aggressive country on Earth happens to have one of the most violent cultures, especially the parts targeted at youth in puberty. This is when we experience our Psychosocial Moratorium, which means we learn to think beyond what we have been taught to believe, and often rebel to achieve individualism. It's kind of a dangerous age to learn it's cool to blow off heads.

Of corse it has a negative effect. it just doesnt effect everyone the same way.

some people go shooting people and schools and blame the video game.

With some games, no way, like when you're out killing aliens and giant bugs. However, games like Grand Theft Auto and Bully (there's a really bad one) are too life-like. Kids think "Well, they did this in the game and got away with it. Plus, it was fun!" But they fail to realize that it's just a game where no one can actually get hurt. Bully is exceptionally bad because it's about a bully at a private boarding school who terrorizes the other students and goes into the town sometimes to harass the citizens. If a kid plays that, he is probably SO much more likely to act violent like the game.