Violence in Video Games

Since the beginning, humans have always wanted to have a form of media; the revolutions that have happened with media are incredible. Today almost every household has a TV in every bedroom, along with the households come children. One in three children play video games regularly. Playing also occurs with young adults and adults themselves. I collected six articles, all from educational data bases and consisted of trustworthy information. Most of the articles had many experiments conducted throughout them to prove or disprove their hypothesis. Some based their article on the research found by other psychologists and sociologists.
 

                           The main questions and concerns in each article were: whether or not violent video games cause gamers to act violently, which people are more likely to be affected negatively by the video games on the market and what are the positive results from video games.  The bias of the articles varied, some proved that video games did indeed cause negative overcomes, and some went entirely the other way, to conclude the exact answers are still not known, even after the research that has occurred. All articles mentioned the importance of video gaming in our community and its relationship with harm to the mind of some individuals, but the reasons of harm surprised me entirely. Violence is not only trigger of violent actions and thoughts, competiveness and difficulty of a game also triggers that outcome.

 

 

                          The first article that answered a lot of my questions was called: “The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which characteristic Has The Greatest Influence?” written in 2011.  Overall the main points debated are: differences in violent video games other than violence and their effects. Much of the research about behaviors has failed because it is not something you can measure properly. Not many experiments equal violent and nonviolent video games on the level of competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action; that content alone is able to strike different behaviors, without violence being the main characteristic.  Previous studies have also used a measure of aggression that may determine competiveness, creating many questions about whether violent video games are related to aggression or competiveness. To have a better estimate of behavior, the effect of video game competition on aggressive behavior has to be examined.
 

                The general aggression model looks at the cyclical relationship between the individual and his/her environment. By measuring the heart rate, feelings, and thoughts of the player, a good estimate can be made of when the highest level of competiveness is in place. Aggression itself is the behavior that is intended to harm another individual and by only playing games, most players will not take action of aggressiveness. After having students play violent and non violent games, numerous said that the pace and difficulty of non violent games was higher that the violent games but it managed to keep the high on the competiveness. The relationship between video game play and aggression does not differ for men and women. Action games and shooters are considered very different in the level of violence yet they receive the same outcome of reaction from their players. The one thing that the research in this paper found was that; heart rate was the one way video games can cause aggression. In addition, research examining the effects of video game competiveness on aggression may also apply to other competitive situations, such as sports. Overall the flaw to the study was the age group did not differ and they were all from one university, to have superior results, general different age groups would be desirable.

 

                       Secondly, I came across an article called : “Vulnerability To Violent Video Games: A Review And Integration Of Personality Research.” It debates the anger reasons for the individuals after game play and the different types of games on the market.

                     Do we trust the media? The personality traits that we gain from media have been creating the base for controversy. The Columbian high shooting was a great example of video games and their unconscious consequences. Personality traits and the environment are both greatly associated to the characteristics that most shooters have. Video games have been linked to various negative behaviors such as: aggression, hostility and aggressive thoughts. Many researchers have failed to find the link between aggression and video games. The environmental exposure is the most responsible for actions; the level of an individual’s psychoticism should be looked at the most, to find the right reasons why someone’s actions are aggressive. High levels of psychoticism are most likely affected by video games. Aggressive behaviors do not come only from one form of media; they also come from several types of violent and nonviolent media. In addition it has also been proven that children are the group more likely to be influenced by the violent media and their side effects. The five factor model is used to distinguish personality traits and to create the main characteristics that testers will be looking at such as: worry, anxiety, anger, and general emotional instability.

 

 

                        Psychoticism is related to low agreeableness and low conscientiousness. Aggression is related to high neuroticism and low agreeableness. The conscious and unconscious status of a gamer differs but many times, hidden penalties may be present. Many visual representations were shown in the article to show the ratios of each trait and the characteristic that it describes. People who are primarily concerned with self pleasure than with the well being of others, will most likely be affected harmfully by video games. Studies show that the less anger someone has, the more goals they are able to reach and succeed in. The primary dimensions of personality characteristics are: neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Spherical models are used today to predict the types of people that would most likely change because of video games. Psychoticism and trait aggressiveness are both negative outcomes after playing video games. The people least affected by video games are the ones with low neuroticism and on agreeableness. Video games are rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of media consumed by children, young adults and adults. School violence has been linked to video game violence and more than half of the games on the market contain some form of violence in them.
 

                      Thirdly, the article is called: “Exposure to violent video Games and Aggression In German Adolescents: A Longitudinal analysis” , written in 2009, it is moderately recent. The article was written by German authors and it experimented on two teams for research on aggression through video gaming. In the experiment, three things were measured and tested: measures of normative beliefs, hostile attribution, and the amount of aggressive behavior. Playing video games is one of the most popular activities that young adults and a growing number of adults participate in, with an action that is so widely spread worldwide; there have to be many consequences that follow. Virtual reality and fantasy do not lead to physical harm but it can lead to emotional and psychotic harm.
 

                Many believe that the video game environment is safe because it is online, but violent scenes in most video games are more frequent that in 99 percent of violent  movies. Longitudinal studies mainly focus on two parts: the socialization and selection hypothesis (socialization is the exposure to video gaming media makes players aggressive, selection hypothesis mainly states that aggressive individuals are more attracted to violent media than unaggressive). There is no exact way to link aggressiveness and video game play because of all the types of experiments that have occurred and their flaws. Information processing, is the basis aggressive script that can lead to the development of a hostile reaction. Aggression is normative; the attraction towards violence will be more likely in more violent people or in the violent status of a person, the exposure to violence could lead to higher violent acts in some, but not all. Most agree that aggression is a useful and appropriate way of dealing with interpersonal conflict, and gaming offers a virtual world where “dealing” with the problem will not harm others physically.

 

 

                The experiment showed a lot of cross sectional outcomes, boys and girls are both prone to the same reactions after playing the same games for the same amount of time. Aggressive behavior and hostile attribution bias were shown, but the overall pleasure of the gamers was also at high. Violence can be the outcome of sport playing as well, it’s been proved that after competitive game play online and on field, the aggressive behaviors were the same. Many strategies have been followed to eliminate aggressive behavior outcomes in gamers but video gaming has become a norm not only in the United States but also worldwide.
 

                Fourthly, the article was called: “Violent Video Games Prime Both Aggressive and Positive Cognitions.” The article did make experiments as well as consisting of  tests that argue whether or not video games prime aggressive or positive cognitions.  Violent video games facilitate access to aggressive thoughts, motives, and behavior scripts, that has been supported many times which does not make it a theory. The article goes by the GAM (General Aggression Model), which is an in depth description that applies to video games.
 

                Normal negative reactions have been known to be the product of a GAM but the question is: what is normal? Seeing and enacting to violence, triggers the negative emotional state. It is also controversial of whether or not a player knows and understands that the aggressive stimuli are not real and not hazardous but only cyber and virtual. Game reality distinction is the process in which the gamer does not understand all the differences between the virtual life and real life. Many cases of engaged play fighting and slow or fast development of social and other competencies have been shown.  After an experiment of gathering students and having them play violent video games for certain amounts of time, behavior directed towards intensions of harm.
 

                 The reason why individuals become aggressive may not only be because of the video game itself but also at the amount of competiveness that is distributed throughout the game. After having students play two very competitive games: one violent and one that was not violent, they ended up with the same amount of anger in their psychotism. Words that were said to students also affected their reactions; neutral words were slowest at causing angry responses as opposed to fast responses by negative words. The degree of “fun” between; the game that was violent and one that was not, yet shared the same competitive amount, was very equal. After some surveys, some individuals even said that the games that did not involve too much violence were more fun. The unseen effects of video gaming is what bothers many, does the blood and gore disrupt students from their regular friendly environment?

 

 

                Next, the research changed a little when I found the article called: “ My Avatar Behaves Well And This Feel Right”. Ideal and Ought Selves in Video Gaming.” This article was mainly about the avatars and the connections that the gamers have with their avatars. A video game that has an avatar representing the player is much more likely to succeed in becoming more popular than a video game that has not. Today, even the networks that are used for multi player video gaming have the option to create your own video gaming avatar, many create someone they wish they would look like and some create someone that represents them very well in appearance.
 

                Many gamers believe that even if they are active in doing bad things online, it is considered okay because it is in the cyber world. There is a thin line between the cyber world and the world that they actually find themselves in physically. The gamers find themselves a lot being a character that does violent things that are illegal in the actual society. Whether you are doing good or bad in the game connects to the subject of empathy, people exhibit empathy towards the positive characters in the media, while displaying counter empathy toward characters they evaluate as bad. Self perception is the process of optimal experience. Most people play video games not just for a good time but also to create a new world for themselves.
 

                The difference between the self perceptions is that self fit and flow differ from pro-social and violent characters. The violent characters are most likely to perform acts that are against society in their game time. The method of the experiment was to get video gamers in a “Kill or be Killed” situation and see their self perception outcomes. Most gamers ended acting as their “ideal” self and as an eager character. Overall, the effects of playing different types of video games can result in differential affective states of self perception and their outcomes.
 

                Last but not least: “A Free Speech Challenge For Parents.”  To have a growing concern from parents, towards children becoming addicted to video gaming, had a lot of officials concerned. California was the first to restrict minors from buying violent video games and it later became national. Restricting the minors from buying violent video games is much like restriction against porn and R-rated movies. In contrast, restricting the children would argue the first amendment of the constitution.
 

                In today’s video games, graphic movie quality images of gore and death are portrayed, unlike a movie, the player actively causes the death and the gore. Even though video games are considered pretend, they do affect the way people think.  Anders Behring, who was charged for killing 76 people was a steady video game player, the fault with that statistic is that most people are active in game playing. Even though games are considered virtual training for mass murder, it is not enough to be a main cause for such actions. Criminals deserve their fate; it is their fault for not being able to differ between a virtual world and the real one.

 

 

                Video games can also be a great use of free time, research shows that children who play video ages develop better spatial skills and hand eye coordination. It is not only for the benefits physically, it is also considered just plain fun. Multiplayer video games also can teach social and management skills as well as team work and leadership skills. We all have the right to free speech because age is not defined in the constitution and the right to play the video games we wish, this argument was proven, yet the government was still able to restrict age on the market of video games.
 

                Video games are dominating the free time of most children; the creation of the gaming avatar, the online multi player option and much more has video games even on adults’ favorite list. Many sociologists and scientists have been trying to prove that violence in video games causes violent thoughts and actions in individuals, some have and some have not. The amount of competiveness is also very important to determine the outcomes of the actions of a video game player. There are also many graphics that could represent ways to conduct information on anger, violence and competiveness, such as the longitudinal sphere. When creating experiments it is very difficult to not have flaws in the research because of the different age groups, gender, environmental background and the character him/herself.
 

                The articles created great controversy between many important points on this topic, bias was shown but enough to make the articles untrustworthy. Media occupies so much of our attention spam and influences us in countless ways, even with the knowledge of the negative consequences; people would still not discontinue their exposure to it. The benefits and the feelings we get from playing certain games would never be possible anywhere else but the virtual world. The creation of the double life possibility altered the lives of millions, some for the better and some for the worse. People with psychotic problems will always psychotic, people that are competitive will always be competitive; video games are just there to supply the gamers with a fictional and perfect world.