Views on Violence in Video Games

CBS News' GameCore site is running a series of articles discussing the ever recurring debate about video games and violent behavior. They start with prominent anti-gaming lawyer Jack Thompson. From the article: "The heads of six major health care organizations testified before Congress that there are hundreds of studies that prove the link. All the video game industry has are studies paid for by them, which are geared to find the opposite result. Lawyers call such experts 'whores.'" Tim Buckley, of the webcomic Ctrl+Alt+Del, had the chance to put forth an opposing viewpoint on the subject. According to the site there will be more coverage on this topic next week from other gaming community members.

Comments

Re:New Study, More Time

[Kierthos]

Correlation, not causation. If video games could so drastically affect behavior, where are all the Pac-Man addicts who should be running around eating everything in sight? Where are the vast numbers of Halo and UT who should be sniping at people off of rooftops?

Most people can play videogames and not think that the room-mate who refuses to do the dishes needs to be fragged. It's those sad sacks who can't, and their parents (who in all likelyhood are just as responsible for Junior being a clue-impaired moron) who should be held responsible, not the game companies.

Parents need to actively involved in raising their kids, not letting the TV or the X-Box do it for them. Buckley hit the nail on the head with that one.

Kierthos

Kneejerk attorney

[nathan s]

I found it difficult to take him seriously after the first question:

What constitutes violence in video games?

There's no real debate over that. Any M-rated game has violence levels unacceptable and definitionally harmful to anyone under 17. The industry will rue the day it accepted this labeled scheme.

Again and again throughout the interview, he basically takes an elitist stance that says "if you don't agree with me you're stupid." Here, if you don't agree that "M-rated means violent" then the implication is that you must be too dumb to accept what "everybody" thinks.

It would have been interesting to see him actually answer the question, as Tim Buckley did. Compare and contrast:

What constitutes violence in video games?

The same things that constitute violence in real life constitute violence in video games. Blood and gore, for instance...

Re:violent games

[carpe_noctem]

Give credit where it's due

Re:violent games

[wawannem]

A study such as what you mention is much harder to pull off than you realize. How exactly are a person's "violent tendencies" measured? I wrote a paper on this very topic (the affect of violent video games on adolescents) in undergrad and one study I read equated a small child popping balloons to "violent behavior" or one child recognizing "violent words." The problem is that violence isn't an easily definable behavior. There have been a number of court cases where cities/states have tried to ban violent video games, but each has been thrown out because it is unprovable that video game violence leads to real violence. Now, if only I could find my paper to point to some links.

This is the only one that comes to mind quickly, but many may argue that a trade organization representing video game mfgrs is biased. But, some facts are impossible to ignore.

1. Adolescent violence is a problem primarily in the US despite other countries having a equivalent number of video game playing adolescents
2. In the last 20 years (actually since 1983) youth violence has been significantly decreasing, while video game sales has become a 7 billion dollar a year business. The decrease in adolescent violence is theorized to be due to increased youth programs and decreased gang-related activity and membership.