Does Gaming really cause violence? Help me become more knowledgeable

[Nouw]

Now before you scream 'No', stop and read the post.

I'm kinda worried if there really is legit evidence that gaming causes violence. Now this thread's purpose is a bit more than that, please help me get into that right mind and help me become familiar with the topic.

I realized just now that I want to become more of an 'Alpha' arguer after reading that thread about the categorization of opinions and argumentation. (At least in video games and violence.)

So help me Escapist get into that right mind, so I actually have something to say besides 'There is no real evidence' because to be honest, I just said that because it seemed to be true =P

I'm sure I'm not the only one that wants to be more familiar with the touchy subject.

 

[gabe12301]

In 15-20 years the old people will be gone and we wont have to listen to this.

Yes, some gamers have killed but the news always fails to mention that most of the killers already had mental conditions before they started gaming.

 

[squid5580]

Was there violence before the invention of video games? Since there is how many millions of consoles out there and how many copies of overly violent games are floating around out there? If they did cause violence then shouldn't there be all out global war by now? Why is there just as many incidents of violence involving non gamers? Were they just walking by an arcade and glimpsed a cabinet and that set them off? Or could it be due to a variety of external sources (bad childhood, bullied ect ect) and internal forces (brain chemistry gone bad) that causes some people to become violent? Ooops sounds like they might have to do a little research before spouting nonsense and dear lord parents might take some of the blame. Fuck that blame video games instead. They can't sue or feel bad.

 

[Krythe]

My friends, I'd like you to all sing along:

-In the 16th century Enlightenment, after printing presses were becomming widespread and the first novels were comming out, the elderly said that novels were corrupting the children.

-When TVs came out, suddenly those were corrupting the children and novels were ok.

-Nowadays, TV is ok and video games are what's corrupting the children.

Technology people didn't grow up with is always distrusted as a rule. It's a sad, sad archetype.

The moral of the story: Keep an open mind in twenty years when they develop brain-plugs or whatever and your kids are all over them.

 

[chaos order]

to be honest video games may cause some desensitization towards violence at best. But no more than movies, or tv shows today.

 

[Haakmed]

My problem with this is that while a game may be linked to someone violent there is still the fact that both movies and books can have the same effect on a person that a video game can. As long as we have people someone is gonna say "This is bad because I say so!" and there is always going to people who agree because they do not understand or know any better and do not want to take the time to learn.

 

[Nouw]

My problem with this is that while a game may be linked to someone violent there is still the fact that both movies and books can have the same effect on a person that a video game can. As long as we have people someone is gonna say "This is bad because I say so!" and there is always going to people who agree because they do not understand or know any better and do not want to take the time to learn.

And I'd take all the time in the world to learn.

I guess you could say I want to be enlightened.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

video games vent rage what the f*ck do people have against the newer generations happiness??!!!?

 

[Jim Grim]

I'm kinda worried if there really is legit evidence that gaming causes violence.

I'm interested now, can you give an example of this evidence? In your original post you just kinda said it existed and left it at that.

 

[Haakmed]

Good for you! Your one of a few people that is not just jumping on the bandwagon lol. But like our Krythe said. [paraphrasing here] Its just the march of technology at work. Whenever the next big thing comes out, we will take that movie Surrogates for example. People will say that that is evil and corrupting because now their kids can go out and have sex and not have to worry about STDs or children.

If the person playing the game has been raised correctly to understand that what he/she is doing in call of duty or Grand theft auto is bad and they should not do that then the person will understand that its for entertainment only and not something to do when they decide to leave the house.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

There was an article a while back that stated that a couple of professors ran tests on their students with this same question. The results said that, no they did not cause violence, rather they served as a form of therapy for violent thoughts. I'll find the actual article once Hotmail stops derping.

What I've realized is that it's not actually the games that cause violence. It's the lack of parental leadership combined with the "alternate reality feeling" in gaming that can cause violence. It's really the parents' fault for not teaching their children right and wrong.

Edit: Found the article.

http://www.tamiu.edu/newsinfo/7-08-10/article5.shtml

Hmm. I was wrong, it wasn't violence they were talking about... It was stress.

 

[Nouw]

I'm kinda worried if there really is legit evidence that gaming causes violence.

I'm interested now, can you give an example of this evidence? In your original post you just kinda said it existed and left it at that.

Okay sorry that wasn't my intention, I just wanted to be more familiar with the subject instead of being helpless and saying something everyone else would say. So if someone that can be argued with comes up to me and says such a thing I'll be able to give them a solid argument.

 

[Booze Zombie]

All of the studies into games causing violences are correlational, meaning the researchers who find the results can't actually be 100% sure if what they're measuring is the cause of any results they've recorded, not to mention the issue of researcher-bias (the researcher's expectations affecting how the results are recorded) and who is funding the research into this sort of thing.

 

[Critical_Sneeze]

As far as I'm aware, all scientific studies conducted on the topic have shown no significant correlation. Even questionable studies that have been commissioned to try and prove it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yes and no.

There's an awful lot of cultural influences on people's behaviour, and games are a part of culture. But everyone jumps straight at games, and not everything else around that glorifies violence.

You can see cultural effects on people more with porn. Everyone has to be shaved down there because it was popularised by porn, anal sex has become alot more common (with endless "my girlfriend doesn't like anal, how do I get her to do it?" stuff in various parts of the net), crazy amounts of cosmetic surgery gets done by women who feel unnatural because their bits don't look the same as porn stars (who, in some places, are legally required to have nice tidy bits). It's well established that porn has had a great negative effect on sexuality in our culture. But to simply take one medium or other subdivision and ask what it's impact by itself has been isn't likely to get you too far.

 

[Numachuka]

I play violent games all the time, and I'm not violent at all.

From studies there is plenty of "evidence" either way.

 

[Woodsey]

No.

The amount of people who play games is massive, in this group there will be some people prone to violence, who would flip out at anything. Reports that they're violence is created from the games they play is nonsense.

I've never seen a study that has come to the conclusion that games influence people in that way that hasn't either been full of holes, or conducted by a biased party.

All that's happening is that games are getting the same treatment as TV, comics, and Elvis. You know, that guy all the old people adore, and whose parents hated. Swings in round-abouts.