Skinner 1

Glenn Skinner
Mrs. Debock
English 4
November 19, 2014
Narrative
As I started my senior year, I was excited to be part of the graduating class of 2015.
However, since I was a sophomore, I was told that the senior exploratory was going to be
extremely difficult and nerve-racking; they were right. Since the beginning of the process, I have
faced several obstacles. Choosing a topic, researching and collecting articles, and completing
work on time have been a struggle. Despite all of these challenges, I was able to make surveys
to collect information from my peers, the managers at Game Stop, and parents about their
thoughts on video game violence.
In order to collect information, I created and distributed surveys. The student survey
asked questions such as, how do you purchase violent video games if you are underage; 56%
reported that their parents purchased the games for them, 13.3% were purchased by friends, and
31.6% chose that they were purchased by other means. When asked if they noticed a change in
their mood during or after playing video games, 26.6% report they do notice a change, while
60% said they do not. The students were also asked if they knew anyone that reenacts the
violence they see in video games; 21.6% said yes, 73.3% said no, and 5% said sometimes. One
student commented, My brother likes to put guns up and act like hes shooting people.
In addition to surveying students, I interviewed two managers of a video game store
called Game Stop. The managers were asked how often teenagers purchase violent video games,

Skinner 2

and both managers answered that the majority of video games they sell to teenagers are violent.
When asked if they personally noticed a change in their mood during or after playing violent
video games, both managers responded that they get angry and frustrated when they are not
playing well. The managers had opposite opinions when asked should the age limit change or
remain the same to purchase violent video games; one manager said the age limit should remain
the same, while the other felt that the age should be raised to age 18.
The parent survey reported that 75% of parents never buy violent video games for
their teenagers, while 25% reported that he/she purchased violent video games a lotmy
children are responsible. All of the parents claimed that their children do not reenact the
violence they see in video games.
As a teenager, I expected the results from the student survey. I was surprised that one of
the managers thought that the age limit to purchase violent video games should remain the same.
I do not think many parents sit and watch their children play video games, so I assumed that they
would say that their children do not reenact the violence that they see while playing video games.