Violence in video games.

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

And which question would that be?

You know, if you want people to answer your questions, you have to actually ask some. It generally helps. What do you want to know? Facts? Opinions? And don't be afraid to go into specifics.

Because right now, it just seems like you want us to do your homework for you.

 

[lacktheknack]

doesn't ask a question
>"post your answer to the question"

Not only does he want us to do his homework for him (asking a website is not proper "research"), but he's not even doing that right.

 

[Exhuminator]

Not trying to do OP's homework for him, but for the sake of thought.

Video game sales are currently at an all time high:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2614915
http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/morning_call/2013/12/video-game-hardware-sales-soar.html

Yet real life violence levels are reaching all time lows:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2012/0109/US-crime-rate-at-lowest-point-in-decades.-Why-America-is-safer-now
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/05/us-murder-rate-track-be-lowest-century

So maybe there is a correlation. Except it's the opposite of what ignorant politicians have thought for decades.

 

[weekade]

Sorry i realize i did not make the question clear enough, do you think violent video games cause violence in society? can you post your opinions please. secondly it is not doing my homework its gathering research into peoples opinions on the matter to help prove the hypothesis correct or false.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Sorry i realize i did not make the question clear enough, do you think violent video games cause violence in society? can you post your opinions please. secondly it is not doing my homework its gathering research into peoples opinions on the matter to help prove the hypothesis correct or false.

People's opinions aren't proof of anything.

I don't think violent games increase violence in society. But, well... that means nothing. That's just the conclusion I've come to based on what little I know. You need to do hard research into the effects of playing games, not what people think. What people think is the truth is literally worthless as research.

 

[tippy2k2]

People's opinions aren't proof of anything.

And to pile onto that (because why not), is asking a video game website the best source for this?

EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!!!
Escapist forum goers research shows that "Video games don't cause violence!". In related news, NRA research shows that "Guns don't kill people; people kill people!"

I suppose to be less of a smart-ass, no, no they do not. I will concede that games can make a person more aggressive (different than violent) for a time peroiod but so does watching sports, playing sports, and just about anything that can get your adrenaline going and your blood pumping.

 

[IceForce]

can you post your opinions please. secondly it is not doing my homework its gathering research into peoples opinions on the matter to help prove the hypothesis correct or false.

That's not how "proof" works. You can't use people's opinions to "prove" a hypothesis correct or not.

Otherwise, me saying "I'm of the opinion that the moon is made of cheese", proves that the moon is indeed made of cheese, simply because my opinion says so.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Meh. Sure, I'll bite for the OP. I'm guessing he/she is looking to prove the hypothesis that a biased audience will support views in their favor. I'll do it, but at least I'll make it a little more high brow than 'those people are morons!', for the sake of the Escapist.

Stepping away from the interesting correlations between two unrelated points as pointed out by Exhuminator, which is striking and can easily refute the arguments that videogames cause violence...but then one can make just as reasonable argument that cold weather causes murders if you read off the statistics of Austin, Texas and Chicago, Illinois. Not to minimize Exhuminator's point though.

Violence caused by media is something that has been an ongoing theme since the invention of widespread literacy and the printed word. Seventy years ago Starship Troopers was billed as being the most violent book ever written and people were aghast at it. Thirty years ago Red Dawn (the original) was condemned as being the most violent film ever made. Over three centuries ago the push to make Opera accessible to the masses was ostracized as being horribly indecent. Society has attacked and crucified every form of media as it has emerged and pointed to that as being the source of society's ills and the definitive cause of a problem. Videogames are merely the latest scapegoat in a long line that holds among it's distinguished members such disturbing forms of art as Realistic art, photography, literature, opera, multi-tonal music, Rap, Rock and Roll, television, Cartoons, Comic Books and countless others.

Each one was held up as being the cause of society's downfall, each one was viciously attacked by the powers at be, and each one is commonplace in our society.

Videogames are merely the the latest one, and like all the others it's evil is in the eye of the beholder rather than it's merit or flaw. Show me a sane person whose violence can be linked to video games and there might be merit in that discussion. But for the overwhelming majority of 'violence caused by videogames' the cause rests in the damaged mind of the beholder, and not in the subject of his obsession.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

While I can accept that games don't change people in themselves, I have to admit that gaming has become very gory. Mortal Kombat was a very graphic, very gory game and bloody games have been in demand ever since.

We've become more than desensitized - we actually find it distasteful if a game has violence without gore.

I don't blame gaming as the sole cause for any kind of escalated occurrences of violence within society, but I do think that modern gamers ignore whatever effects that gaming may have on people. Why? Because many people use it for an escape and we don't want people regulating our leisure time.

 

[weekade]

Thank you for all your replies so far this has relay helped, but some of you have been saying that opinions don't prove anything however if those opinions support facts then it is helped to prove the hypothesis, secondly if the opinions contradict the facts then that proves that the widespread opinion is contradicting the facts and something must be influencing the opinions of people to believe in those opinions. anyway i don't mean to rant but thanks again for all of your answers they have been very helpful.

 

[w9496]

You know, doing this kind of 'research' on a website that's dedicated to video games and the culture surrounded them doesn't make a lot of sense. It comes off as incredibly biased.

Personally, I feel that video games are no more responsible for violence than movies and TV are. Playing video games and watching The Walking Dead doesn't make you want to hurt people, Being a crazy person makes you want to hurt people.

 

[Talvrae]

Like Exhuminator pointed out there, is little evidence that there is a link... I have heard of some bullshit study who pushed on the subject but when you look at the test they make you realise that don,t old much water. Like the Hot sauce test. They divise the focus group in 2 and make them play some videos games, some play violent one, other non-violent, then they ask each test partipent to offer a selection of sauce to offer to the tester. They summerise that giving spicy hot sauce is an agressive bahavior, so if thouse who played the violent game give a more spicy sauce than the other group it mean they are agressive, but that's bullshit because poeple tastes are different, i love hot spicy sauce, for me giing some to someone is not an agressive move, it's sharing something i like.... So yeah... Thouse test don,t mean much to me...

 

[Maximum Bert]

Wait im confused is your research on whether people think video games causes violence in society or whether video games cause violence in society?

For the second one asking people is pointless for the first I suppose you could get something out of asking but you are asking a very biased source its like going to an anti video game website and asking them only in reverse.

For what its worth I believe video games can cause violence in society I just dont think they are the root source of that violence. Pretty much anything can cause violence in society its always there and will rear its head from time to time regardless. I dont think that since gaming violence in society has suddenly escalated, likewise I dont feel that it has dropped hugely either, trouble is im not really old enough to remember a time without gaming so my perception is incomplete anyway.

 

[IceForce]

some of you have been saying that opinions don't prove anything however if those opinions support facts then it is helped to prove the hypothesis, secondly if the opinions contradict the facts then that proves that the widespread opinion is contradicting the facts and something must be influencing the opinions of people to believe in those opinions.

Okay, and who will be providing these "facts" that the opinions are going to be compared against?
You haven't asked anyone here to provide facts, only opinions. So this naturally leads us to assume YOU'LL be providing these facts.

In that case, I'd like to see the source you're using to get these facts from, if you'd be so kind.

 

[IceForce]

Also, conducting "research" in this way is going to be horribly biased. So much so, that the results are going to be inconclusive and pretty much worthless.

It'd be like asking a Republican website what they think of the Republican party.

 

[weekade]

In reply to IceForce the facts have been gathered from lots of places such as news reports in newspapers and on TV, along with psychiatric studies, other forum posts and primary research i have done my self on the affect games have on people who are playing them, this was done by filming their reactions to look for signs of emotion and to see their reactions to violence in the video game, also the idea is to ask gamer's to see if their view is different to those of non-gamer's i am not only asking gamer's i have asked people who are non gamer's and people who are casual gamer's this forum post is not my only method of research this widens the audience and having the data come from multiple sources and social groups helps with the authenticity of the answer to the hypothesis because by having many sources it makes the data gained more valid. Thank you all for your answers these have really helped with my research.