Study: Claiming That Games And Violence Are Linked Now Linked To Violence
from the we've-gone-meta dept
You know how this usually works when we talk about major media and their comments on violent video games. One of the mindless talking heads on one of the cable news programs that I've been trying to convince you to never watch jumps to the wrong conclusion about games after some tragedy and then I make fun of them. It's been a nice, tidy, symbiotic relationship thus far: they apparently need to say something stupid and I apparently need to tear their nonsense to shreds.But now we've got a problem. It turns out that these baseless claims that video games lead to violence may themselves be leading to violence.
"Dude, bro, what does that even mean?"
Image Source
Dr Mario Vance, a psychological researcher at the Rapture Institute for headline-inspired science, conducted a seven-year longitudinal study that monitored the anger levels of more than a thousand volunteers from gaming communities. The results showed statistically significant increases in overall aggression and violent tendencies that occurred very soon after tenuous mainstream media stories claiming video games cause violence.This is something we've actually seen in our comments about these kinds of tragedies: why are we so focused on the video games, or the guns for that matter, instead of banking that the source of violence might be the violence-training some of these perpetrators receive in our military? This, of course, isn't to say that our military turns people into mass murderers or anything of that nature, but it's a much better direct link than the fact that these guys played Grand Theft Auto.
"Mainstream media have never liked video games, but it's just getting silly lately," said Dr Vance. "Recently, several media sources focused on Aaron Alexis (the Washington naval yard gunman) and his enthusiasm for Call of Duty as a cause for his brutal crimes. Because when wondering what could have made a naval reservist, someone trained by the military to engage in actions with the express intention of killing people, turn to violence, the obvious conclusion is 'video games', apparently.
The article about the "study" then goes on with some rather funny quotes that parody some other counter-examples we've heard in our comments section.
"I used to enjoy multiplayer gaming. Granted, it expanded my vocabulary for homophobic insults considerably, but I've never felt the urge to travel to war-torn regions and practise my sniper skills for real. But my mother read that I could turn violent so confiscated my Playstation. One dubious article in the Telegraph and she decides I'm too impressionable. She owns four Derek Acorah DVDs and keeps asking her fortune teller what to do about me, so yeah, I'm the main problem here."So, if it's a parody article, what's there to learn here? Well, the problem is that all the made up quotes, claims, and bullshit in this parody article aren't far off from what's being spoon-fed to the public by a mass media that would rather go the lazy self-serving route of scaring the hell out of parents than actually tell the truth about the link between games and violence, which is to say there is none. Sure, this pro-gamer article was pulled out of someone's ass, but if mass media can do it we can too.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: satire, studies, video games, violence
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The military is well aware that when it sends soldiers into combat they come back psychologically damaged. That does not stop them from releasing those soldiers back into civilian life without really addressing the damage that was caused when these men were put into these situations.
As I've said before, if the politicians and the Veterans Hospitals don't want to take care of the damage that was caused there is a real easy fix to it all.
DON'T MAKE SO MANY OF THEM IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE CARE FO THEM!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If Call of Duty has taught me anything about violence, it's that in a combat situation it's extremely easy to die. There is no way I'd want to experience that in real life.
It's only the people watching the game, not playing it, that could possibly think it was violent, or that I was enjoying the violence. No, the only thrill in the game is NOT dying.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
===============
One of the best line I ever hear on the "blame the game" mentality
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Claiming That Games And Violence Are Linked Now Linked To Violence
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'd say the more likely cause of violence is poor economic conditions. I would then go on to argue that politicians are responsible for poor economic conditions.
Therefore, the only logical conclusion is that poor economic policies passed by the politicians themselves, are one of the main contributing factors to widespread violence and mass killings.
Remember, guns don't kill people. Desperate people kill people.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
So, what do you think guns do? Make funny noises? Guess what - guns kill people, that's what they made for. Sorry, correction: guns _only_ made to kill.
And while I agree that videogames have nothing to do with murder, guns (the real ones) are very related. And yes, military training is also related.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Sure, some people are choosing to stick them in a case in a collection, or only use them to shoot inanimate objects, but their primary design function is to fire a projectile to cause damage that will most likely be fatal to a living being. You can dress it up all you want, but that's reality - even the use of a gun as a deterrent without intending to use it only gets it effectiveness because the potential criminal who sees it knows it can kill.
Oh, and if you're trying to refute the idea that guns are made to kill, you might want to find a better example than hunting (i.e. killing animals). Just saying.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
/s
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Meh.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I graduated from that to "Space Invaders" and then onward via Defender/Galaxians, etc etc to wolfenstein 3D on my Dos 6.2 computer (I fondly remember dosshell). Since then, as technology has advanced, like many other people I have played more and more realistic,violent video games.
While I still enjoy playing "legacy" games such as various versions of Quake/Doom/Halo/Wolfenstein/Call of Duty, I also enjoy playing many of the more recent games like Far Cry/Crysis and such.
Despite many years of being exposed to this virtual violence there has not been a single instance where this has spilled into my RL, I've never shot anybody, punched and kicked them unconscious, or indeed even thought about it.
I've had many attempts at Microsoft's Flight Simulator and the only conclusion I have drawn from that is I cannot fly a plane.
Seriously, computer games are exactly what they say on the tin - a game.
If you cannot differentiate between real life and a computer game then you are either sadly missing some mental faculties, or you are a politician (possibly both)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Guns
Ask yourself if you feel safer with your gun? Do you feel less same or odd without it?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Guns
Do you feel naked or odd without it?
FIFY
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I'm not sure why people bother writing parody articles on certain subject. Eventually you get the same problem The Onion seems to have with the hardcore right wingers in the US - no matter how ridiculous the idea they come up with, some real politician will suggest something even more ridiculous and be totally serious about it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Look in the mirror, maybe?
I went to your institutional learning facilities?! So how can you say I'm crazy?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]