Topic: New study on video games and violence

[Onyx Dragon]

Interesting read:

http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/story/2011-09-14/Dont-study-the-video-game-study-the-player/50406018/1

[Joshua]

No shit! It's not the medium, its the person!

What will they tell us next, that the sky is blue?


In other words, I am not surprised at all with the findings from that study.

[00XJ]

Bullshit. Cain played way too much GTA, then went out and killed Abel. Duh. Fuck your study.






But seriously, every time a common sense study like this comes out, someone is quick to release another "study" and paste it all over news sites everywhere about how "video games are destroying innocent children".

It's pretty safe to say that I've played a LOT of very violent video games, yet there hasn't been a single time that I've ever hit somebody unprovoked, and even in those cases I felt DREADFULLY sorry about doing it. So if violent video games a murderer make, well, it's only a matter of time before I instantly switch from "wouldn't hurt a fly" to "shopping mall massacre".

[Onyx Dragon]

It's pretty safe to say that I've played a LOT of very violent video games, yet there hasn't been a single time that I've ever hit somebody unprovoked, and even in those cases I felt DREADFULLY sorry about doing it.

SO wait...you HAVE hit someone unprovoked, but felt bad later?  Damn, Nick, I don't care if you feel bad about it, stop playing violent video games

[00XJ]

SO wait...you HAVE hit someone unprovoked, but felt bad later?  Damn, Nick, I don't care if you feel bad about it, stop playing violent video games

no I meant even in the cases I hit someone who provoked it, I felt bad. guess I worded that weird.

[angry hampster]

This is not a new development/theory. Video game violence has been under fire for two decades, and has been studied heavily since the Columbine High School shooting.

Read through the document below...it's old but has a lot of great data regarding the effects of violent games.
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01ab.pdf


I used this as part of a meta-study paper I wrote in college regarding the same topic.

[Onyx Dragon]

no I meant even in the cases I hit someone who provoked it, I felt bad. guess I worded that weird.

I know, I just thought it was funny

[mopar10]

so does this mean if I play MLB2K11 all day I will be the next Nolan Ryan?

[ProjectOpel]

so does this mean if I play MLB2K11 all day I will be the next Nolan Ryan?

No, it means you will use baseball bats as your preferred weapon of choice...because that is what the game has trained you to use.

[mopar10]

No, it means you will use baseball bats as your preferred weapon of choice...because that is what the game has trained you to use.

I should have known. only negative things come out of games. darn. I was looking forward to that 5 year/ $80 million conract

[Daemon]

I still think you guys are too quick to write off the effect of realistic shooters on impressionable minds. That's not to say they are going to cause every person who plays them to go on a shooting spree, but the realism being put into today's games very well could desensitize people to shooting someone in real life.

Do I think they over react to this danger? Yes, but there is something there.

This connection has been shown pretty convincingly in numerous studies.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.121.3205&rep=rep1&type=pdf

http://web.clark.edu/mjackson/anderson.and.dill.html

and many others I can't link to due to not having access to the journals.

Point being, you can't write any of it off. To do so is premature as studies are still being done, but one study does not invalidate the many studies that have said right the opposite.

[00XJ]

I still think you guys are too quick to write off the effect of realistic shooters on impressionable minds. That's not to say they are going to cause every person who plays them to go on a shooting spree, but the realism being put into today's games very well could desensitize people to shooting someone in real life.

Do I think they over react to this danger? Yes, but there is something there.

This connection has been shown pretty convincingly in numerous studies.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.121.3205&rep=rep1&type=pdf

http://web.clark.edu/mjackson/anderson.and.dill.html

and many others I can't link to due to not having access to the journals.

Point being, you can't write any of it off. To do so is premature as studies are still being done, but one study does not invalidate the many studies that have said right the opposite.

Regardless of whether violent video games do desensitize young people to violence, the biggest problem is still that these studies and anti-video game groups are taking responsibility off the parents shoulders and placing it at the feet of the people who made the video games.

Parents these days don't have to really parent their kids anymore, because if their kids do something shitty, it was video games/movies/tv/peer pressure that pulled their strings and made them do it.

[Meatywand]

Parents being dumb fucks and not following game ratings is also part of the problem. Kids don't need to be playing super violent M rated games....they're rated M for a reason. Reminds of the time some 10 year olds mom came onto XBL using her kids headset and tried to bitch me out for casually saying fuck while I was talking to my buddy in the game lobby....sorry it's an M rated game, and I'm an M rated individual, try actually parenting your fucking kid instead of expecting the fucking Master Chief to babysit them.

[Daemon]

Regardless of whether violent video games do desensitize young people to violence, the biggest problem is still that these studies and anti-video game groups are taking responsibility off the parents shoulders and placing it at the feet of the people who made the video games.

Parents these days don't have to really parent their kids anymore, because if their kids do something shitty, it was video games/movies/tv/peer pressure that pulled their strings and made them do it.

The problem with this is that those studies show the same effect on college students that they do on 10 year old kids. Aggression seriously increases in most people after playing these games, and that has been shown time and time again.

And you really can't make the claim of "Let the parents decide," because parents quit parenting a long time ago. The warnings are pointless as parents just buy it for their kids anyways.

I'm not suggesting we take violent video games off the market, but more work does need to be done to keep it out of the hands of children at a minimum.

[00XJ]

The problem with this is that those studies show the same effect on college students that they do on 10 year old kids. Aggression seriously increases in most people after playing these games, and that has been shown time and time again.

And you really can't make the claim of "Let the parents decide," because parents quit parenting a long time ago. The warnings are pointless as parents just buy it for their kids anyways.

I'm not suggesting we take violent video games off the market, but more work does need to be done to keep it out of the hands of children at a minimum.

I don't think you understood my point... my point was that parents aren't doing their jobs. It's not the fault of the video game, it's the fault of the shitty parents. No where did I say what SHOULD be done, I just pointed out what's happening.

[Daemon]

We can agree on that, but how do people not take it as a serious effect when these games, and I admit I love playing them, use the same thing as military training? That has to click with people on some level, regardless of how mentally unstable they are to begin with.

[Meatywand]

I don't know what games you play, but I'm pretty sure the Military doesn't scream OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE STAY FROSTY constantly, and that they don't send one poor bastard named Ramirez to take out a mechanized infantry platoon with an M16 and a combat knife single handedly....

[Daemon]

....meaty....come on man, I didn't say anything like that.

They military is using games to help desensitize soldiers to pulling that trigger, and it works. That is a real effect of it. It doesn't mean that they are going to become psychopaths, it means they will have a whole lot less trouble pulling that trigger when the time comes. That is a real fucking effect, man.

[Scotty]

OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE STAY FROSTY

While not used as much as MW2 suggests, abbreviations are used some what frequently...

As a solder what his MOS is, there's a chance he'll use military phonetics.


Well, at least all the people I've know who went into the military have (though, they've all been doofy too  )

[TMW]

I don't know what games you play, but I'm pretty sure the Military doesn't scream OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE OSCAR MIKE STAY FROSTY constantly, and that they don't send one poor bastard named Ramirez to take out a mechanized infantry platoon with an M16 and a combat knife single handedly....

I mean, think about how Ramirez feels! Being paraded around like some sort of internet hilariosity and making his preffered line of work turned into some sort of game, it's just not right! Little kids shouldn't be left with babysitters like Ramirez, I mean, seriously, he goes 'round and kills things. You wouldn't leave your kids in a war-zone, so just think about the implications of what this shit does!

[00XJ]

....meaty....come on man, I didn't say anything like that.

They military is using games to help desensitize soldiers to pulling that trigger, and it works. That is a real effect of it. It doesn't mean that they are going to become psychopaths, it means they will have a whole lot less trouble pulling that trigger when the time comes. That is a real fucking effect, man.

What games did the soliders in WW2 play?

[Joshua]

While not used as much as MW2 suggests, abbreviations are used some what frequently...

As a solder what his MOS is, there's a chance he'll use military phonetics.


Well, at least all the people I've know who went into the military have (though, they've all been doofy too  )

I'm only a civilian and I use phonetics for certain things. Usually when saying part numbers over the phone to parts stores from my job. Ford numbers especially, for some reason. Echo 7 Tango Echo - 26015 - Alpha Bravo or some other combination like that is not uncommon.

[Onyx Dragon]

What games did the soliders in WW2 play?

Daemon is right, there is a desensitizing agent to it all.  However, that can be said about TV as well.  Here's the thing, though.  It's not a bad thing all the time.  Someone breaks in your house, you're less likely to hesitate defending your family.  It DOES have an effect on folks already prone to sociopath behavior, however that is where parenting comes in as well.  Desensitizing someone to violence doesn't mean that it's going to make someone with non-sociopath tendencies turn into a sociopath.

[Meatywand]

There's nothing bad about being a sociopath along as you don't have homicidal tendencies, it just means you don't empathize with other people.

[Onyx Dragon]

There's nothing bad about being a sociopath along as you don't have homicidal tendencies, it just means you don't empathize with other people.

Throw a violent video game into that....   But like I said, even if the kid is a sociopath, GOOD parenting can help alleviate the violent video games.