No Strong Link Seen Between Violent Video Games And Aggression

[Minnesota]

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Results from the first long-term study of online videogame playing may be surprising.


Contrary to popular opinion and most previous research, the new study found that players’ “robust exposure” to a highly violent online game did not cause any substantial real-world aggression.

After an average playtime of 56 hours over the course of a month with “Asheron’s Call 2,” a popular MMRPG, or “massively multi-layer online role-playing game,” researchers found “no strong effects associated with aggression caused by this violent game,” said Dmitri Williams, the lead author of the study.

Players were not statistically different from the non-playing control group in their beliefs on aggression after playing the game than they were before playing, Williams said.

Nor was game play a predictor of aggressive behaviors. Compared with the control group, the players neither increased their argumentative behaviors after game play nor were significantly more likely to argue with their friends and partners.

source (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/08/050810133552.htm)

I await the first poster who says, in effect, "I don't care what they say, violent video games do breed violence."

[ih8censorship]

wow Minnesota im surprised at you!!! normaly its all the liberals like you ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lieberman#Censorship
http://www.gopostal.com/news/lieberman-reportcard97.php ) and jerry falwell's claiming that violent games turn people psycho. bus ya as you can tell im not one of those and i enjoy a good first-person-bloodbath game once in a while. so ya im surprised your actually talking sense this time. :smile:

i would also like to quote mr LIEberman:
In Postal, players score points for gunning down a group of parishioners leaving a church and for napalming a high school marching band; as an avid player of Postal, i can assure you that you get no points for doing these things, and they are completely optional. you dont need to kill the marching band or the people leaving the church, you could just shoot at the people shooting at you or maybey even hide from them and play pacifist. but i personaly find it more fun to be a psychopath... for instance with the marching band, its fun to make the elephants stampede over the marching band instead of directly killing them :lol: :teeth:

[Piebald]

I have been playing videogames since I was about 9 years old, and I have not been 'more violent' because of them. However, I do think that I was desensitized to violence when I was a teenager because of games like Resident Evil 2 and Mortal Kombat.

[Meh_Gerbil]

I dunno.
I cannot help but feel a constant diet of violence is a bad thing.
That isn't limited to video games, of course.

[jason]

I doubt there is the direct correlation they are trying to demonstrate, especially with the game in question.

But at the same time, I fail to see how any good can come from something that encourages sociapathy like GTA does.

But I doubt you could get ethical clearance to run that sort of experiment with a game like GTA.

Jason

[Harfelugan]

I await the first poster who says, in effect, "I don't care what they say, violent video games do breed violence."[/QUOTE]
I play first person shooter games on line as often as possible . Dont think I'm any more violent than before I played . However if I see you on a game server I will kill you as fast and hard as possible with no remorse whatsoever . Violent video games , movies , ect... reflect more on where we are at as a society than they do on individuals . The individuals stand alone as each person has a different level of influence for any stimulas they allow their minds to take in . We also are responsible for our own actions and shouldn't blame it on anything but our own personal choices . There was enough violence before these video games came out and it wont decrease the violence around us by banning them . However commenting on the poor taste of some games or the amount of time spent playing when I should be painting the garage or spending time with the wife and kids isnt out of line .

[Cynic Sage]

I'm more into fighters than shooters.

[Shadow Phoenix]

I am actually a peaceful person with an active imagination who enjoys video games. Heck. I just read a Mary Higgins Clark Novel. Those are violent. Ordinary townpeople getting murdered by some psycho every time. I doubt Mrs. Clark is like that in reality. I think people who go violent have some issues beforehand that need to be addressed.

[ih8censorship]

exactly. its like that i know i can act like a maniac in Postal2 and do things like use live cats as silencers for my guns and expose myself in public, but my brain tells me that that is wrong in real life, but is ok in a game.

im just starting taking a college course in Psychology, and allready from what ive read i have a good idea of why people can blame something like this on why people go psycho and kill people. to understand the behavior of why someone might go insane and kill people after playing a game we will take the cognitive approach: which is based on how we prossess , store, and use information and how the info effects things like what we belive and feel. (paraphrase from my book) so, i think from a psychological standpoint its logical for someone to go off the edge and do something crazy because of a game, but that is because there is a pre existing condition that causes them to prossess the information they recieve wrong, so they do the wrong thing. but for any "normal" brain, a violent video game shouldent be a problem because those brains know that video games are pretend, and people really shouldent be like that because really doing that would be wrong.

im going to like psychology :teeth:

[BeHereNow]

I don't care what the report says; it doesn't explain why I have a battle axe mounted by my door for when the orcs attack.

[Brandalf85]

I like violent video games, not GORY mind you. It depends what you consider violence, i mean Wiley Coyote and Roadrunner are pretty 'violent' if you wanted to push the issue. But video games: I mean yes there ARE ones like GTA that could be bad cause you pretty much kill and steal etc. But cmon Halo 2 or something....I'm fighting ALIENS FROM ANOTHER PLANET to PREVENT HUMANS FROM DYING. I'd hardly call that a bad game aside from some language and some blood (mostly from aliens). I think some games are pretty bad (Postal 1 & 2 come to mind). But most are fun and if you honestly go out killing someone or get more violent than you have bigger promlems. Perhaps you should remain the game world and take your anger in there.

[Yamyam]

I have been playing videogames since I was about 9 years old, and I have not been 'more violent' because of them. However, I do think that I was desensitized to violence when I was a teenager because of games like Resident Evil 2 and Mortal Kombat.

I agree. Though I might feel more like fighting after playing a fight game (Tekken for instance) I would still have the same morals and conscience about violence, the same with other games containing violence and blood etc. Desentisized for sure though-> also by watching thrillers and horrors you get used to it more.

[Sheepdog]

well, let me put it this way. if video games have become such an influence in my psychology, you'd be seeing me jumping on turtles and spitting fireballs more often (i don't care, it *looks* like he spits them).

[A Cup of No]

well, let me put it this way. if video games have become such an influence in my psychology, you'd be seeing me jumping on turtles and spitting fireballs more often (i don't care, it *looks* like he spits them).

I do that all the time. :outtie:

[Cynic Sage]

:highjack:

The Decline of Videogaming 1 (http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/declineofvideogaming.html)
The Decline of Videogaming 2 (http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/declineofvideogaming2.html)
A Decline Christmas (http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/adeclinechristmas.html)
The Decline of Videogaming 3 (http://www.flashplayer.com/animation/declineofvideogaming3.html)

[shadypickaxe]

I don't care what they say, violent video games do breed violence. :lol:

Just kidding. And also I think it's silly that they just point out video games. All you do is sit and tap your fingers--little more than one might do watching a violent film.

Like what people have posted before, if the person is violent, it's not the video games or comics or whatever that "made" them that way; they have a problem that needs to be addressed.

[Gromit45]

Contrary to popular opinion and most previous research

Oh, I see! When you find the research that gives you the result you want then that is the one you promote. Notice the opening statement "contrary to popular...research". By the use of the word contrary, that means there already is much research linking violent video games and aggression in people.


The box quote ended a little too soon. This was just a paragraph or two below.

“I’m not saying some games don’t lead to aggression, but I am saying the data are not there yet,” Williams said. “Until we have more long-term studies, I don’t think we should make strong predictions about long-term effects, especially given this finding.”

The researcher is still admitting there may be a link.



How most wanted to jump on this video game research and claim it as gospel truth makes me think about how the gay community jumped on the "research" for a gay gene and proclaimed it true. It was what they wanted to hear and other studies were not going to persuade them.

[PrometheusX303]

Hey. Parents don't want to take responsibility for their children anymore. It's always video games, or music, or movies, or the school system... But NEVER the parents' fault.