Watched the Horizon program on tv tonight (well, the last 5 minutes anyway). It was all about the wealth of scientific research that has been dedicated to determining whether playing video games, specifically violent games, is bad for you. Plenty of doctors, professors, shrinks and other specialists have all looked at this for 15 or so years.
The conclusion? No, playing violent games has no impact at all on any players. None, zip, zero. Those few real life cases of murderers who spent all their spare time on shoot 'em ups are irrelevant: those perps were nutters already.
So, sorry Pap, but you need to find another excuse for your fitful outbursts, 1000 yard stares and irrational punching of walls.
I don’t really play violent games anyway. I think the last genuinely visceral one might have been Fallout. I am middle-aged now, play a lot of turn-based or abstract stuff. Even when I play GTA, I normally drive sensibly.
Besides, I have plenty of excuses for all of those things.
I don’t think games (or any media for that matter) create anything. * By that I mean I don’t think media of any kind creates something or someone in anyone.
I do however think they can help reinforce certain attitudes/behaviours. ** I also think media we consume can help change our perspectives on things. But not create something within someone that wasn’t already present. It’s sure as hell a complicated issue, that is a lot more complex than game x made this person shoot a bunch of people.
Also, I refuse to believe that books/movies/games/music cannot have a positive impact on me, or others. I absolutely believe that some media has had a positive impact on me, so I guess it should stand that it is possible for the opposite to happen also.
Not that I have ever hidden the fact, but I guess I should say I may be slightly biased in any debate here, working as a level designer for a games company.
I don’t think games (or any media for that matter) create anything.
I do however think they can help reinforce certain attitudes/behaviours. It’s sure as hell a complicated issue, that is a lot more complex than game x made this person shoot a bunch of people.
Also, I refuse to believe that books/movies/games/music cannot have a positive impact on me, or others. I absolutely believe that some media has had a positive impact on me, so I guess it should stand that it is possible for the opposite to happen also.
Not that I have ever hidden the fact, but I guess I should say I may be slightly biased in any debate here, working as a level designer for a games company.
I don’t think it causes the behaviour per se, having repeated exposure to violence, porn etc reduces the shock value and brings a degree of normalisation as a result. I certainly think that the advent of the internet has had an influence over the youth with regards to there attitudes to sex.
I just wish porn was that accessible when I was a teenager