Well, this is a discussion I've seen many many times. I guess the comic above makes clear how cartoonist Jago Diguba thinks about that.

I can by the way really recommend you to read the comic "Living with Hipster Girl & Gamer Girl" where the comic above is taken from:

It's really good, and I might even write a full article about it soon. And so far this off-topic notice.

When it comes to answer the question I think both "yes" and "no" can apply.

Now you can question if a game of solitaire can get you violent, if so, then I really wonder what doesn't make you violent.

The discussion began in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The misconception that video games was only for kids. What is true is that when the area of video gaming began kids were the first to be interested, but then again, kids have the tendency to easily bend into new technology where adults and elderly people quite often do not. Don't be fooled though, when I was a World Of Warcraft player I have met people in in Azeroth who were in their 70s, but overall, kids were the main target group. Now as kids mostly cast their toys aside when they grow up, people always believed the interest in video games would fade away when kids became adults. This however never happened.

Why not? Because video games are a bit of general form of entertainment. When you as a kid always loved to read books, would you stop reading when you grow up? Of course not! You would only switch from children's literature to a more mature kind of literature. Now games went into the same process. Nice to note is that somebody told me that reading used to be as controversial in the past as gaming is now.... With the same discussions by the way... It seems times haven't changed as much as people thing... figures....

And when the gamers matured, the game industry did see a market for the more mature gamer and so aside from games solely focusing on young children, games targeting a more mature audience also appeared, and with the computer technology getting better things were also getting more violent, but not only in violence. In sexuality as well. I remember the release of the games Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and most notably Duke Nukem 3D made "worried parents" get to their limits. Of course aside from loads of blood and stuff, Wolfenstein showed Nazi symbolism (which is since the game takes place during WWII not that surprising), DOOM shows satanic symbolism (geez, it takes place in Hell, what did you expect), and Duke Nukem 3D really hit the limit as you can in game flirt with young women and quite a lot of them are very eager to show you their boobs. If you finished the third episode you won't see any visuals, but the voice acting leaves no doubt that Duke is having sex with a random woman. I remember mothers saying "I won't let my kid play Duke Nukem 3D".... Er, dear mothers, for your information Duke Nukem 3D was never meant for children in the first place. Just like the Dutch movie "Turks Fruit" should also not be shown to children. And just like magazines with naked girls are also not meant to be sold to children and so forth, en zo voorts, und so weiter, et cetera.

In the end a rating system came for games, to make clear that some games were really meant for a mature audience. Still however, the misguided idea that computer games are solely meant for children still lingers.

Now when we really get into the topic of violent games

and the question if they really make you violent. It is pretty well known that some people have a really poor sense of fiction and reality. I do remember that the main actor of the Dutch movie "Komt een vrouw bij de dokter", in which a man has sex with another woman while his wife is dying that he got himself whacked in the tram by somebody because he was a pervert cheating on his wife. Really some people are just plain stupid. When it comes to games it should be noted that some people sometimes suffer from this same lack of sense to distinguish fact from fiction.

Now yes there are cases in which violent games did inspire people, not only kids by the way, to become violent. Word reached me that Anders Breivik who shot many people on the Norwegian island Utoya was inspired by World of Warcraft for his attacks. Now it should be noted that Breivik was already an extremist and that he was most likely already planning violent actions like this, and that World of Warcraft only gave him on insights HOW to do it. Als World of Warcraft is not nearly as violent as Rise of the Triad (the picture above this and the previous paragraph is taken from that game... You see what I mean?)

But odd as it may seem, violent games can also help to REDUCE violence in the real world. I can even speak for myself. When I really get mad, and you'd see me in real life like that, really you won't like me anymore. I sometimes do play extremely violent games when I feel like that. Knowing that all my victims ain't real but just some silly computer animations, I don't have to let my conscience speak. Really it calms me down. I can vent all my frustration on some fictional mother----rs...

Yeah, really the time that games are all like Mario, looking cute, with minimal violence and solely written with a young audience in mind is over. Don't get me wrong, I do think games aimed for children should still be developed, and making them looking cute and child-friendly should then definitely be done. But we will have to accept that aside from the kid gamer, we now also have the grown up gamer, and although a lot of grown up gamers do still enjoy a game of Mario or similar game every now and then (at least I do), it's only natural that the desire for more mature content for the grown up gamer would be there as well, and just as natural that the gaming industry jumped into this market. And so games about sex, violence and horror (and then I mean TRUE horror, not just some jumpscares, but games that will really make you shiver in fear) were nothing more but the logical consequence.

The question if games make people violent or not all depends on the player. Some players do, some players don't and some even become less violent. But the same goes for books, movies, well, whatever medium you can think of.