I think it premature (even if this was meant in jest) to link Doom and Quake with a *decrease* or an *increase* in violent crime. You might as well linked the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases with a decrease in violent crime. Both types of statement rely upon the fact that two factors are correlated with one another when examining certain time windows, but neither one demomnstrates an actual *effect* of one variable on another.
It would be more demonstrative of actual effect to show that those people who did kill others had increased or decreased video gameplay experience relative to the general population *on average*. And singling out one case (Columbine) does not prove the point. One needs to aggregate over many datapoints to draw valid conclusions.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it premature (even if this was meant in jest) to link Doom and Quake with a *decrease* or an *increase* in violent crime. You might as well linked the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases with a decrease in violent crime. Both types of statement rely upon the fact that two factors are correlated with one another when examining certain time windows, but neither one demomnstrates an actual *effect* of one variable on another.
It would be more demonstrative of actual effect to show that those people who did kill others had increased or decreased video gameplay experience relative to the general population *on average*. And singling out one case (Columbine) does not prove the point. One needs to aggregate over many datapoints to draw valid conclusions.
$0.02