Video Games = Violence! (Apparently?)
Some people are convinced that video games lead to violence. I don’t believe this. After all, some people clearly think all video games are evil and are going to hurt people — see here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xAK-X0RA5o)No, it’s not violence (for an example of that, see here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kdm7fg804) Notice that, in both cases, no research was done? And they managed to make Animal Crossing sound threatening? I suppose I should be congratulating them, really, as that is quite a tough thing to do! Notice also the comment about there being no legitimate reason for adults to be playing Animal Crossing… I play Animal Crossing. Plenty of adults play Animal Crossing. This sorting of games based on age, gender and other factors really has to stop. I’ve played 1st person/3rd person shooters — and I may be considered one of the least likely to play them ’cause I’m shy, quiet and gentle. And, according to some media I should have already killed tonnes of people because of it. Needless to say, I haven’t. In fat, “Only 0.04 percent to 3.2 percent of variation in minor forms of aggression can be explained by video games” (Patrick M Markey and Christopher T Ferguson: Teaching us to Fear) and even this is tenuous. Thus, if video games hardly ever cause anyone to, say, damage some property they aren’t really going to set someone on a murdering spree, are they? When I play more violent games I switch off — Eg. I know that it isn’t real and so I separate in-game behaviour from my behaviour in the real world. I know that just because I can get a body count at the end of a mission on Jedi Academy I know that it’s just virtual, and goals met in-game aren’t goals I meet in the real world. It’s also telling that people deliberately misrepresent facts, or don’t do enough research, so their listeners or viewers are more likely to be scared. Let’s be honest, too — it’s Fox News. Their viewers, I gather, aren’t very likely to undertake their own research and are instead likely to believe them. This contributes towards video games being seen to induce violence as people believe this, don’t question it, and pas it on. Or, if they are in a position of academia, they specifically carry out research that would show this to be the case and, because it’s research, people who haven’t been told how to differentiate good research from bad research would believe it and pass it on. This contributes towards the bad reputation of violent video games.
The supposedly realistic gunfire from the Dualie Squelchers in Splatoon 2 (Source: Inkipedia — Dualie Squelchers
People also love to sensationalise video games. This can be seen in a review for Splatoon 2 of all games. No, really. It’s on Commonsense Media. Which would already cause some of my readers to be wary, I’m sure. But read it, please. I’ve copy and pasted it so everyone can experience the full glory (name redacted, and link too as I don’t want them hurt) ‘“Splatoon 2 is bad for your kids. This game is DISGUSTING when I bought my kid this game I would except this game. To have family friendly moments BUT NO my child had been swearing more I would ask whos the best charater in the game he says marina I ask why he points to her chest I was DISGUSTED Nintendo im sending a lawsuit right now you better change it or else”’ (sic for, well, everything.) They also rate it 16+. I’ve played games that involve actual killing that aren’t rated 16+. The ESRB also states that Splatoon has “realistic gunfire.” Yeah, ’cause shooting neon ink is totally realistic, right? So apparently Splatoon is inappropriate for kids. For reference, it’s rated PEGI 7 and actually focusses around teamwork. But no, Marina wears a crop top and is, therefore, rated 16. I must say, though, that no-one has yet blamed Splatoon for any shootings, at least not to my knowledge. And I’ve gone off-topic, but I just wanted to point out how easy it is to twist things out of shape. If someone does that to Splatoon is it any surprise when they do it to more violent games? Especially since “as video games have become more popular violent crime rates have plummeted” and Anderson’s research showed a correlation co-efficient of -0.95.” This is a “correlation in the wrong direction” (Elle Crump: Turn That Game Back On) This proves that the so-called link between video games and violence is complete nonsense. Hopefully my article also demonstrates that complaining about video games isn’t just restricted to violent games — it often affects those that aren’t. This makes a clear case for people getting caught up in hating violent video games because they’re…video games — and some people seem to have an intrinsic dislike of those. It also shows that people need to be very careful with research and not just accept it as the truth without any questioning, as some researchers are more scrupulous than others. Not all research is good, however it is easy to present all research as such to people who don’t know any better. In fact, I suspect that’s why people do it…they can kickstart something that appears to hold more water with the general public so their opinions are more likely to be spread about.
Marina (source: Inkipedia — Marina)
So, research concludes that video games do not cause violence. In fact, they might help to actually lessen it. In fact, even though “In a 2008 survey on the gaming habits of about 2,500 young people, Gentile and his father, psychologist J. Ronald Gentile, found that children and adolescents who played more violent games were likelier to report “aggressive cognitions and behaviors.” They concluded that violent video games “appear to be exemplary teachers of aggression.” They also found that eighth and ninth graders who played violent games more frequently displayed greater “hostile attribution bias” (being vigilant for enemies) and got into more arguments with teachers.” (Scientific American: Do Violent Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior) This does not mean that video games caused that violence and aggressive behaviour, though. Not only are these two things hard to measure objectively it could be that they might have displayed those traits first and these led to them playing more violent games.
As such, violent video games causing violent behaviour are findings that don’t hold water when examined closely and are instead gathered to push that agenda, and to cause fear of video games. These are pure scare tactics — nothing more nor nothing less, and shouldn’t be taken as gospel.
An example from a mission debriefing Screen from Jedi Academy (source — Super Adventures In Gaming
Links
Elle Crump’s Turn That Game Back On can be accessed through the library — I can’t put a link in as it would require a log-in and I’m not quite sure how this would work — I don’t want to confuse people!
