A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on two- or three-dimensional video display devices such as a TV screen, virtual reality headset, or computer monitor. They are impressive feats of art, computer science, programming, music, motion capture, voice acting, and other various disciplines. Video games came into existence during the 1950s when computer scientists developed them as simulations for research purposes and were widely popularized during the 1980s when consoles, arcades, and joysticks were available to the public. Since then, after the advancement of video game development, an interesting controversy sparked into existence regarding the effects of video games containing violent subject matter on its player base mostly concerning young children and teens. This debate took root during the 1970s when video games were criticized by the general public regarding the inclusion of rock and roll alongside the occult, viewed as stigmas back then, believed by parents to negatively influence the highly impressionable minds of youngsters. Recently, the debate has shifted directly towards the violent and crude subject matter present in widely played video games. So, the purpose of this controversy analysis paper is to determine the strength of the correlation between playing violent video games and exhibiting violent behavior by means of conditioning through these video games.

In the light of recently occurring, two mass shootings that took place in August 2019 in El Paso, Texas, Ohio, and Dayton, the question was put forward regarding how video games may shape and impact our society as a whole. In his ‘Manifesto’ the shooter mentioned his adoration and admiration for the widely popular video game, ‘Call of Duty which allows someone to take the role of a military soldier and even terrorists to engage in violent gunplay and claim victory. Due to the mention of this video game, the president of the United States, Donald Trump was able to place blame upon this mode of entertainment regarding the motives of the shooter being inspired by this game. Trump’s remarks in accordance with assigning the blame for mass shootings to video games were widely validated by other lawmakers and politicians. It's a decision that major media outlets and retailers have also undertaken late; ESPN itself recently opted to delay broadcasting an Esports championship due to the shootings — a decision that seems to suggest that the network believes in a connection between gaming and real-world crime. And Walmart made a controversial decision to temporarily remove all video game displays from its stores, even as it continues to openly sell guns. This leads the discussion toward the claim by a group of people (mainly governments and news media outlets) who blame the “Gruesome and grisly video games” for the “Glorification of violence in our society”, as quoted by American president Donald Trump from the White House after massacres in Ohio, Dayton, Texas and El Paso resulted in a death toll of 31. Even before this major tragedy occurred, this entire controversy has been permeating to several other international governments; Russia banned most video games containing high-impact gory violence such as Call of duty: Modern Warfare, The Dead Rising series, Crackdown, and so on, and Pakistan banning Postal 2 for the glorification of violence against Muslims and Saudi Arabia banning the widely selling, Grand theft Auto games. This is a clear indication that governments and highly influential politicians consider video game subject matter to directly influence the youth that is playing said violent video games and this is to be considered a value claim due to the inclusion of influential ethics by being exposed to the violent subject matter and the socio-ethical implications it would have if violent crimes are committed by those gamers. Although a diverse amount of research has been conducted by several different organizations to test the correlation between the mass consumption of violent video games and the occurrence of a mass shooting or other violent crimes in context to the video game scenes depicted in them, there have yet to be concrete research results obtained which would confirm a positive correlation to this issue and most researchers are of the factual claim which is that extensive research does not provide substantial evidence regarding video games inducing violent behavior in its player base.

Kira Bailey conducted research published in the journal, Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, concerning a sample of high gamers (gamers exposed to high-impact violent video games) and low gamers (gamers not exposed to high-impact violent video games) to be subjected to a test regarding facial expressions and the perception of the sample towards t