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General: Survey Says: Games Don't Cause Violence
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
A recent survey conducted in Britain has suggested that violent video games are not linked to violence, and the majority of gamers know the difference between reality and fantasy. Of course this shouldn't be surprising to most gamers as the majority of us already knew that.
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Players of violent video games believe they are just "exhilarating" escapism which does not desensitize them to real-life mayhem, according to a new survey of one of the entertainment industry's fastest growing sectors.
However gamers do concede that people "who are already unhinged in some way" may be pushed over the edge if they play violent games obsessively.
Responding to public and political concern about video games, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) commissioned the survey, interviewing gamers, parents and industry figures about their effect.
Read the full article at CNN.com here.
Comments
In most situations some guy goes round with a knife (UK) or a gun (US) and exhibits extreme violence. During the investigation they see that he has played some violent video game (usually GTA/Manhunt/etc) and that looks for a basis of the "blame" for the incident. People say how he became obsessed with it, he played it all the time, and so forth. The simple fact of the matter is games don't cause the violent behaviour. People who are unhinged and have a violent mindset are obviously going to be drawn to games like those, they will play obsessively.
There are so many different situations us gamers can comprehend, from the age old CS player who breaks down because someone was far better then him, and sets out to prove to the world h can do the real thing, the guy who is obssesed with GTA because he lovs the violence who finally decides the game doesnt fulfil his needs enough.
In closing the only way a game contributes to violence in the streets is when someone stops using it as a game, for intended enjoyment, and starts using it as a training tool. Without the game to do this, they would eventually turn to firing range, or bomb-making or some other activity which could help them to learn and do what they want. Videogames are just an easy and less costly option.
I grew up playing Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy...so by the time the more violent, gorey games came out, i was already aware of the difference between reality and not reality. but the kids these days grow up with more indepth/complex bloody games. it isnt good.
I think games effect us in different ways. I think violent games have little effect on most people.
I am sure there are some it does affect though, but this is a very small percentage and who knows that there are other factors involved.
Oh hang on, no I'm not....
j/k
Ehh? Video games cause as much violence as action movies?? Only idiotes doesnt know its not real.
A fucked up person will cause trouble whatever that are doing, and a "normal" person wont..whatever they are doing.
Thats why all must take test to see if we are insane, and if we are.....there should be a alarm going off when we get a book, comic, movie or game that can make us do some crazy shit
Agent_X7 AKA J Star
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Notice: The views expressed in this post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com or its management.
I have noticed that there is a new social/pyschological science out in many universities and colleges in the US. The new trend for many of these doctoral students is give a thorough definition of the gaming phenomenon spreading world-wide.
Are video games addicting? These pioneers of gaming research are studying and quantifying that information as I type this thread. Much of the information I have read on this tends to be a bit inconclusive. IN some cases, such as the British story, you'll see information showing that video games have little effect on a gamer's , mental faculties, while in other cases data shows that highly agitated or disturbed individuals may show an influence to "live out" some experiences found in especially violent games.
This is rapidly becoming an actual course of study in many colleges.
My feeling is that anything taken to extremes can be addicting and thus become an all encompassing pull on how one views themselves and their world. Do games themselves stimulate violent real-life experiences? For the most part, I don't believe so. However, books have influenced many to violent behavior, therefore it seems very possible for future findings that show MMO's or violent FPS type games could influence some to live out some sort of violent fantasy.
Very interesting thread here. I would suggest that this is an important thread as well.
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
John Lennon
Here's a study by the American Psychiatric Association, a bit dated but far more reliable.
http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp784772.pdf
Here's another from the Journal of Adolescence, more recent.
http://www.lionlamb.org/research_articles/study 2.pdf
And the APA's resolution regarding video game violence issued in 2005.
http://www.apa.org/releases/resolutiononvideoviolence.pdf
To many people play video games to be able to know. About 90% of kids age 13 to adults age 25 play or have played video games including violent ones. Saying that video games cause violence is like saying that drinking milk causes depression. There is just too many people that play. Not to mention the obvious fact that only the violence gets reported. What about the declinine in violent crime over the past decade (except amoung teen girls) with the corresponding rise in violent video games? Look it up
It asks people to *self-identify* as de-sensitized. Um.
If you are desensitized to violence, you probably think that your level of sensitivity is normal. Without a third party evaluation, you might have no idea if you are desensitized or not.
So, what I'd love to see is something like this -- design a study that compares gamers to non-gamers who watch the news (particularly NBC in the last 24 hrs, eh?). See if there is any difference in response to violence, or difference in acting out violently.
That's the only valid measure. This is a violent world. We are currently at war, and the government keeps us on terrorism alert constantly. The news is full of domestic violence, game violence, random violence against persons, school shootings, and disasters.
Pointing at gamers seems idiotic to me. Most of us take fantasy violence to escape real-life events. If we weren't gamers maybe some of us would be revolutionaries -- we have strong tactical and strategic skills, some of us, after all. But we prefer to channel that energy into a harmless channel.
The worst I can say is that many of us are wasting our talents; the best light is that maybe some of us are saving the world by disengaging?
Yrs,
Shava
The problems aren't with the games, the problems do not like with parents who buy their kids these games, or even parents who dont supervise their kids on them. The problems occur when parents don't care enough about their kids to at least have an idea whats going on in their live. You could buy your kid the game, let him play it enjoy shooting some guy in the face etc and not have to worry. If your kid starts acting strange, becomes obsesed with games, obsessed with the violence and so on, then its time for you to worry. The fact is there are parents out there who are too lazy and stupid to take note of simple things like that, and with parents like that to guide you, your not exactly on a great road anyway.
There's a remarkable difference to someoen who thinks the graphics on a game look funny when some guys been decapitated and yet would be repulsed beyond beleif at the same thing, and someone who has a such an extreme desire for gore that they want to phsyically harm someone.
People say surveys and numbers can be used for this sort of thing, but they almost ceratainly can:
http://uk.gamespot.com/ps2/action/gta4/news_6116499.html - link to the top 10 games sold in 2004 of which GTA:SA is number one with approxiamtely 5.1million copies sold.
The top 10 console games of 2004, according to NPD, are listed below. Sales figures are approximate:
1. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2) - 5.1 millionhttp://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/persons_arrested/index.html - and from here we have the number of violent crimes resulting in arrest in the US in 2004
"586,558 arrests (4.2 percent of all arrests) for violent crimes"
Using this you could say if every single violent crime in the US in 2004 was linked to ONLY GTA:SA and that it was the ONLY violent crime on the market, then still only around 10% of its players would be affected in a way that made them commit a violent crime.
Apply logic and you realise that there are a hell of a lot more violent games on the market, and that most of those violent crimes commited in 2004 would not have been linked to games and your left with a number that isn't really very significant at all, infact your probably left with a figure that is about the same size as the number of people who were bent on doing this anyway, and a violent game gave them the slight push they needed.
If you have mental issues anything can cause violence.
People need to quit focusing on video games as a scapegoat.
Interestingly, this jumped out at me from the bottom of the Reuters article MMORPG re-presented. Though linked to and definitely a subject well-chewed, I thought it fair to show MMORPG.com the warning at the bottom of the article as it does concern them in this regard.
Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
"...the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem and hardly ever what we dream."
Does violence cause games???
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
Yes, violence in video games can lead to violence in the real world
It is part of the environmental development of the child
However it is only part of development, and the child will have to see and unstand the differences between a game and real life. However with lack of supervison both at home and at school (social upbringing in schools is mostly done by other students) it can lead to real world volence. There is both social and environmental factors.
There will never be just one source to such problems however the media rarely looks at the school or parents for blame.
That a side video games, can effect development meanly by exposure to such volence and allow a stoic view about it as its more interactive and not sololy just watched but played out.
While you might not personally see an conection they are there even if sutle they can be building blocks or the base for such volience
That is something that 98% of the world knew - all but the talking heads that hype any game that any nutcase in the news ever even looked at.
I lost the link, but I came across a reprint of an article from a 1960's NYT story that blamed "violent books" and comic books for the same thing.
I thought it was news forums!?
Well, I don't believe that violent games causes violent gamers. Atleast I do believe that 99% of the gaming community can see the difference between game and real life. Sure, gaming affects u and change u, but u don't necessary become more violent because u play violent games.
My belief is that games isn't the rot to that some1 gets violent, it's something else. Games are just what push them over the edge, but it's not the real cause of it. That's anyways my belief.
Finally science is catching up to what common sense already knew.
I also found it interesting that a graph on the U.S. Dept of Justice site shows that youth violence has been steadily decreasing for quite some time now. Probably because the kids are inside playing the violent video games instead of going outside and doing violence?
In the 80's it was rock music that was the Cause Of All youth violence, now it seems video games are the new punching bag of the clueless, close-minded and uninformed.
Yes they both contribute and Yes there is Scientific study evidence to confirm. The sentence above starting with "younger kids are playing...it distorts the way of thinking as they grow up..." is reality and has been proven. They are desensitized by playing the games from the time they can walk with no supervision or guidance. Not so much MMO's as games like Grand Theft Auto to name just one. Video games of that type are very violent and if kids are not informed/guided by parents can come to think it is OK to behave the same way in the real world. Young kids are very impressionable and without guidance these impressions can become what they view as Real. Maybe you have seen the TV reality type shows like The Nanny who observes a dysfunctional family who all yell at each other. As it turns out the parents grew up in a yelling house and are now passing the same behavior to their kids. Granted not the same thing but the behavior left unchecked can become an unknowingly adverse perspective of reality.
No I'm not going to make a list of references as those who really don't care won't believe it can happen anyway and the ones that really want to know will research it on their own...another difference in 'learned' behavior.
And if they feel 'insignificant and useless' from lack of guidence and parental attention?
What will they 'act' like?