When someone says the words “video game”, what comes to mind? For many, images of kids in basements playing violent first person shooters or of friends online hacking away at goblins come to the forefront and indeed these types of experiences are common in games and greatly shape the way they are perceived by the general public. It seems that whenever there is a horrific act of violence, someone finds a way to blame video games. Not only are such claims largely erroneous, but they detract from more concerning issues in society such as depression and various other mental health issues that much more commonly lead individuals to infamy. Further still, it is believed that a vast majority of gamers are young men when in actuality the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has found that women make up approximately 48% of the gaming population and that the average age of a gamer is thirty-one. If even the average gaming demographic is not well known, how then can complex psychological dilemmas that surround the medium be understood? Society has yet to progress enough to see games as they exist today: as an art and a form of media comparable to film, television, and literature. As a result of this misconception, along with conflicting and misleading studies, video games are believed to increase violence in those who play when the correlation between the two is minimal at best.
Footage of Doom gameplay featuring the game’s head designer and one of gaming’s first celebrities, John Romero. In 1999 Doom was famously blamed for being part of what spurred Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to murder their classmates in the Columbine Massacre, though claims the two had created levels resembling the school for “practice” were later proved to be false.
An important way to dissect the nature of how violence in games affects the player is to study how the player interacts with a game and the thoughts they ascribe to the experience. When someone sits down to play a game the goal is often to become immersed in a world more interesting and fantastic than our own. Just because of this fact, however, does not mean that the in-game actions and morals of the player speak of the player’s nature. When I decide to choose an evil action over a righteous one it is nearly always the case that I am looking to find out how the game reacts to that choice, other times it’s simply to fit the character of the game’s protagonist. Just because I’m a moral person playing as Darth Vader doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a nice guy. The very fact that a game is in a world other than our own removes it from the everyday, “…the deliberately outrageous nature of violent games, though disturbing, makes them easily discernible from real life and suggests that the interactivity could potentially make such games less harmful”(Cooper). Cheryl Olson, co-founder of the Center for Mental Health and Media writes, “young people know [the ridiculous nature of video games]: as one 13-year-old said during a study I conducted at Harvard, ‘With video games, you know it’s fake.’
Taking a step back, it helps to look at overall trends in the nation. From the 1980s to the present, games have exploded in popularity, with some well established franchises and developers making up to one billion dollars in a single day of sales, and the overall market earning far more than Hollywood (Lynch; Sherry 2). With the increase in the popularity of games, many would be led to believe that real-world violence should follow suit, however that is not the case. As Jonathan Freedman, Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, asks in his work Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression, “If violence in the media causes aggression, how can real-life violence and crime be dropping?”(Freedman 8).
Some argue that without violent games crime rates would drop even faster, but then why not eliminate violent forms of media altogether? After all, wouldn’t it be for the betterment of mankind? That line of thinking, though logical in some respects, is not only unreasonable culturally but narrow-minded as well. Looking outside the United States we find many other countries with similar gaming cultures and far fewer shootings. Japan, when corrected for the population difference, has a similar market for video games compared to the U.S. (Tassi). When compared with the amount of firearm related homicides, however, the U.S. has around eighty-five times the amount of Japan (Planty 1; Tassi). What Japan does have are significantly stricter gun laws (gunpolicy.org).
What then can be made of the claims that vast amounts of research have concluded that violent media does in fact lead to violent behaviors? Organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) claim that over 3,500 research studies have examined this correlation and of that number only eighteen found no connection between violent media and violent behavior. The numbers sound quite intimidating, but in actuality there have been nowhere near that many studies. “If an organization of economists asserted that there were economic problems in 150 states . . . no one would bother asking for their statistics, since if they were so sloppy as to think there were that many states, who could possibly trust the rest of their statement?”(Freedman 9) As seen with many such research organizations it seems as if people want to believe that violent video games and other forms of media make people violent, but with current findings, that correlation is simply not true.
In 2011 the Supreme Court backed up this assertion. A law in California was struck down that was to make the sale of mature video games to children illegal. In his majority opinion Justice Antonin Scalia stated that, “Like books, plays and movies, video games communicate ideas . . . [there is] no tradition in this country of specially restricting children’s access to depictions of violence . . . Grimm’s Fairy Tales, for example, are grim indeed”(Savage). Rather than banning the sale of explicit games, many suggest a more simple method of keeping violent games from kids: parental oversight. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rates every game that is released on a scale from Early Childhood to Adult Only (though most games fall between “E for Everyone” and “M for Mature”). These ratings are clearly labeled on every game and the ESA has found that 88% of parents of gamers find these ratings helpful when choosing games for their kids. In the same manner that parents control what their children see on TV, they may monitor what kinds of games are played. As a kid growing up with games I remember the constant struggle to get more and more mature games, the problem in my case, however, was not that I wanted to play such games for their violence, but rather I was drawn to their stories and to the technology that brought them to life. Just as many of the most realized and well-produced television shows, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Breaking Bad, tackle mature themes, the best games are often the most violent. But my parents understood this correlation and did a fine job finding great games that fell outside that trend. As more and more people like myself, individuals who have grown up with or around video games, become parents, there will be a similarly greater understanding of video game content.
The real problem with video games and their relation to real world violence is the dearth of conclusive information available. Though there have been many studies on the subject, their conclusions are often conflicting (Sherry 1). “We know virtually nothing, for instance, about how youths who are already prone to violent behavior, such as those exposed to violence at home and in their neighborhoods, use these games. Do they play them differently from the way other children do?”(Olson) Such questions show that the amount of variables included in conducting research make it very difficult to come to a reliable conclusion. It is only from personal experience, from growing up alongside friends who had troubled homes that I can even begin to unravel this Gordian knot. The handful of kids that I knew who grew up in dangerous neighborhoods or had access to violent games from a young age are well-adapted, productive members of society. Two of these friends played games like Resident Evil and Grand Theft Auto from the time they were six, but now one is pursuing a business degree and the other a degree in computer science. Though I have not conducted any formal tests these friends are some of the most happy-go-lucky people I know, but the question remains: how can we possibly know if those who cite video games as inspiration for violent acts were not already predisposed towards such actions and would have committed them regardless of weather or not they were exposed to violent media?
Though a majority of games feature violence in some form, there are many that convey an impactful experience void of bloodshed.
Despite the fact that the general statistics lean towards discounting any kind of correlation between violent media and actual acts of violence, until more conclusive studies are completed it can not be said for sure which side is right. There have in fact been isolated events in which perpetrators of violent crimes have cited games in their inspiration (Leung). Indeed, it is easy to understand where claims denouncing violent games come from as many games feature grotesque violence, it seems natural then that this violence should have a severe impact on behavior. Certain studies support this theory:
A lab experiment showed that individuals low in violent video game exposure [VVE] behave more aggressively after playing a violent video game than after a nonviolent game, but that those high in VVE display relatively high levels of aggression regardless of game content . . . repeated exposure to video game violence increases aggressive behavior in part via changes in cognitive and personality factors associated with desensitization. (Bartholow)
Other studies however, disagree entirely.
This back and forth of who is right or wrong makes it very difficult to discern the truth, especially as new studies are completed daily, but think of your friends. When gamers are compared with non-gamers is there much difference in temperament? And even if there is, how is one to know if violent media leads to violent behavior or if those who are predisposed to violent actions are simply drawn to violent games? Such are the questions that leave research unclear and make it difficult to come to a conclusion. From years of playing games, from the hyper-violent to the educational, I find myself to not only be a more understanding and well rounded individual, but someone capable of appreciating the many facets of game design. Many friends I have made in the industry not only play games but instruments as well. Many code, but more love to read, and though many games do portray graphic acts of violence, the men and women behind the games are passionate individuals, driven by an artistic fire, not a violent one. By looking at the concrete information that is available, the best conclusion that can logically be made is that though video games may be startling in their violence, there is ultimately no reliably proven connection between them and any large scale impact on society’s aggression.
Works Cited:
Cooper, Roanna, and Marc Zimmerman, Ph.D. “Do Video Games Influence Violent Behavior?” Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center. Michigan Youth Violence Prevention Center, 24 Aug. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Freedman, Jonathan L. Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence. Toronto: U of Toronto, 2002. Print.
“Game Player Data.” The Entertainment Software Association. The Entertainment Software Association, 2014. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Leung, Rebecca. “Can A Video Game Lead To Murder?” CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 17 June 2005. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
Lynch, Kevin. “Confirmed: Grand Theft Auto 5 Breaks 6 Sales World Records.” Guinness World Records. Guinness World Records, 8 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Olson, Cheryl K. “It’s Perverse, but It’s Also Pretend.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Planty, Michael, Ph.D., and Jennifer Truman, Ph.D. Firearm Violence 1993-2011. Rep. no. NCJ 241730. United States Department of Justice, May 2013. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Savage, David G. “Supreme Court Strikes down California Video Game Law.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Sherry, John L. “The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression: A Meta-Analysis.” Human Communication Research, Perdue University 27.3 (2001): 409-31. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. <http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~kwanminl/courses/comm631/readings/Sherry%282001%29_Effects%20of%20Violent%20Video%20Games%20on%20Aggression_HCR.pdf>.
Tassi, Paul. “The Numbers Behind Video Games and Gun Deaths in America.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.