Violent Video Games

Okay. So I chose to focus my blog on the completely overbaked topic of video game violence... let's not beat around the bush here. It is what it is but that has much to do with the fact that it is also a completely exaggerated and misunderstood topic of public interest.

For instance, video games with -shall we say- an element of destructive mayhem and blood gushing have been maligned by researchers, social scientists, and opportunistic politicians alike for decades. These self-proclaimed experts claim that violent video games promote and enhance violent tendencies in children and young people. One argument that has been beaten ( no pun intended )to death is the claim that video games with a central theme of violence "prime aggressive thoughts, weaken inhibitions against antisocial behavior, model and reinforce decreased empathy toward others and create a more violent world view on the part ofthe young player". ( Dill and Dill 1998) These researchers apply the effects of violently themed television shows and movies to the medium of the video game, ignoring the undeniable fact that a video game is, by it's nature, a separate medium with differing characteristics. As Goldstein points out in this essay, the video game cannot be compared with a television show or movie by it's open-ended narrative quality and it's interactive abilities to nurture it's users' varying goals and needs. In fact, studies have indicated that young children readily distinguish violent video games from the more realistic and therefore more unsettling imagery of the television. (Goldstein)

Another argument that has made the rounds in the ring of public opinion in the concept of the "third person effect". In media research, this is known as the capability of a violently themed video game to "turn a good child bad". In other words, violent video games and media in general brings out the ax murderer in little Timmy. (Think twice about plunking your little brother down in front of "Grand Theft Auto" while your car is unattended or you might have a budding gangster on your hands.)While it is hard to imagine that such an asanine concept has found scientific support at all, my opinion can best be summed by an equally befuddled researcher: "this idea is so odd, it is hard to know where to begin in challenging it" ( Barker 2001, pg.38) Indeed.

Then there is the argument that repeated exposure to violent media such as video games will increase the likelihood that the youngster's impressionable and developing brain will form aggressive cognitions as opposed to a child that has not been exposed to this media. Obviously, this argument has it's roots firmly planted in the theory of social learning. Among other things, the child will learn to associate repetitive violent imagery and actions with normal behavior and will thus repeat these behaviors in human interactions. As you might expect, research has thoroughly confronted this idea as well with vastly indecisive results: While research has,in fact, proven that children will display stimulated and physically aggressive behavior after playing a violent video game, other studies have indicated that children naturally display more active and involved social play as a result of playing the games. As Goldstein suggests,this would indicate a coorelation with physical stimulation and prosocial play rather than a direct coorelation with violent play. Studies concerning whether violent video games actually cause children to display aggressive behavior toward others have been largely inconclusive across the board.... As a whole the topic remains a firebrand in the scientific community as researchers of various concentrations and backgrounds remain ever divided.

My own opinion is largely based on observation. My younger brother and his friends will play gory video games until they are carted away in a straight jacket ( the gorier the better ) and my father reports that he has not had to lock his car keys away, hide the kitchen knives or chain him to his bed and call the authorities. Make of that what you will. I've already formed my decision.