POLL: Video games don’t make young men violent

If you’ve ever gotten into video games, you might have experienced “gamer rage.” 

It could be caused by something as simple as flying off Rainbow Road in Mario Kart one too many times, playing against try-hard builders in Fortnite or getting called every epithet in the book in a Call of Duty lobby. 

“Gamer rage” isn’t just a slang term like smurfing or noobs, it’s a real psychotic break that happens to video gamers, as documented by the American Psychological Association in a 2023 dissertation. 

Three Maricopa men were arrested after experiencing gamer rage in the last month.  

Nicholay A. Zelenskoi, 30, was arrested March 23 after an argument sparked with his wife about something he said over game chat. It ended after he allegedly assaulted his mother-in-law and brandished a gun, according to police. 

Cops also arrested 18-year-old Carlos J. Brizuela and 24-year-old Brenden G. Umberger two weeks later after video game-related quarrels. 

The arrests prompted InMaricopa to ask our readers if they think video games make young men more violent — 348 people voted. 

Three in five 5 respondents said violent people will be violent with or without video games. 

“A violent person is going to find any medium to feed that part of them,” said Hidden Valley Estates resident Jamie Morano. “While I think being sedentary and unsocial and indoors for too long is bad for anyone’s mental state, it doesn’t equal becoming violent.” 

However, one-third maintain video games indeed make young men more violent, and that they are a “detriment to society.” 

Just 8% of voters said video games are a net positive because they can be a healthy outlet to get anger out.