Violence in Video Games.
Violence in video games has been a controversial subject ever since it was seen in video games.
More than 200 Academics have signed a letter criticising new research that suggests a link between violent video games and aggression.
(The Findings were released by an American Psychological Association).
The Researcher concluded while there was "No Single risk factor" to blame for aggression the research shown that violent video games had some to contribute to aggression.
It is said if you play for 3 hours on a game with violence you may become pumped but, research doesn't suggest that you will go out and commit a crime.
Violent video games is often cited as a factor in motivating shockingly violent youth crimes such as high school shootings.
It is said that the student who carried out the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 used a gun which he called "Arlene" Allegedly after a character in a novel inspired by the game "Doom".
However, this isn't a strong enough subject to be against video games as most people who play graphically violent video games such as Mortal Kombat, did not resort to violence or crime.
The Content should be, and is, regulated to ensure children and minors do not play inappropriate material, which in turn isn't the games fault if a minor plays the game.
The age restriction allowed games back then to release more graphical content without being blamed for a crime, as most crimes that were committed by minors were blaming Video games it was a good idea to make the game with violence be for adults only. As it was unlikely that a grown man/woman would commit a crime based around a video game, the age restriction behaved like a age restriction for an adult movie, books or TV shows etc.
This suddenly back fired on parents in court as it was and is illegal for your child to play a game under the age restriction.
Due to many protests many gaming companies such as "RockStar" had to go court. As many developers wished not to be involved, violence in video games became more unlikely. This made the games such as GTA and Mortal Kombat standout to the crowd. These games were huge hits and today are even more violent with realistic art as its style.
A task-force said more research was now needed to establish whether violent games did lead to violent criminal behaviours.
However, the group of 230 academics from universities around the world wrote in its open letter to the APA youth violence in the US and around the world was currently "at a 40-year low".
The decline in societal violence is in conflict with claims that violent video games are important public health concerns.
Dr Andrew Pryzbylski said he focused on motives of people who played electronic games and which he found that players had a psychological need to come out on top when playing.
It is said that players can become aggressive when playing video games however, the need to master the game was more significant in the research.
In Europe, games are given age-related ratings in accordance with the Pan-European Game Information (Pegi) System.
There are five age ratings (3,7,12,16 and 18).
A Pegi 18 certificate may contain scenes of "Gross violence". Which is the most difficult to define since it can be very subjective in many cases, yet in general terms it can be classed as the depictions of violence that would make the viewer feel a sense of revulsion. (Says a Website).
Dr Coulson suggests " its kind of putting forward a solution to a problem I dont think exists".
As many minors would ignore this law, and parents not usually on top with what there child plays, this would be seen as a law that is useless. However companies are aware that people will buy their games underage as its not forced in law as much, instead the companies use this as a way to protect there content by making only a selected age group to play.
The APA taskforce used meta-analysis - combining the results of studies in order to look for patterns and correlations, rather than carrying out new research itself. Many people criticised the experiment as other correlations sometimes had other explanations. For example, a boy is more likely to play a video game than a girl, but they were also more likely to be aggressive in general.
Other experts such as Dr Coulson cautioned the work included in the study that may not have been a subject to peer review.
For many parents they are little more than the source of our children's tantrums. feet-stomping and long periods of hibernation in stuffy rooms behind locked doors may seem bad, however a new study revealed that fast-paced action games turn us into faster and better decision makers.
Scientists at University of Rochester in New York conducted a series of tests on dozens of 18-25 year old. who were not ordinarily video gamers, splitting them into two groups, the first was given an action game and a unreal Tournament. The second group were given a more sedate game such as sims 2. After 50 hours of playing a test was made. People who played the action game answered 25 percent faster than their counter parts. They also answered just as many questions correctly as their strategy game-playing peers did.
The same team also detected last year, that action games enhanced our ability to see in the dark by improving the eyes ability to detect contrast.
Audience Research:
Hypodermic Needle Model:
Implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. The theory suggest that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly using desired design.
Gratification theory
Focuses on why and how people actively seek out media products.
Arousal
Playing video games to stimulate emotions as a result of fast action and high quality graphics.
Challenge
Many people that play video games like to challenge themselves to feel a personal accomplishment.
Competition
One of most frequently cited reasons for playing video games, to determine who is best and has better skills.
Diversion
Can be used to avoid stress, fill time, relax etc.
Fantasy
Video games allow players to do things that they wouldn't be able to do in reality.
Social Interaction
Gaming brings social interaction, as many people feel they need to be cool by getting the latest game or mod.
Passive or active consumption.
When a audience doesn't engage or question the games message/story but just accepts it. An active consumption is when the audience will engage and discuss what the game portrays.
Responses:
Participatory
When the audience can join and be part of the story.
Cultural competence
Games and other media need us to have a certain degree of cultural understanding for us to be able to interpret them. I.e. reading the language in a letter or a sign or symbol.
Fan Culture
Where an audience takes an active role in the creation of media that is based on an existing product. i.e. a mod.
Negotiated
When the reader accepts what the game is showing them but may modify it in their mind, which would reflect their own interests and experiences.
Preferred
When a player understands the message being shown by the game and agrees with it.
Oppositional
When a reader understands the games viewpoint or story that the developer is portraying, yet rejects it and has a alternative idea/view.
Effects debate:
Audience Research:
Hypodermic Needle Model:
Implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. The theory suggest that the mass media could influence a very large group of people directly and uniformly using desired design.
Gratification theory
Focuses on why and how people actively seek out media products.
Arousal
Playing video games to stimulate emotions as a result of fast action and high quality graphics.
Challenge
Many people that play video games like to challenge themselves to feel a personal accomplishment.
Competition
One of most frequently cited reasons for playing video games, to determine who is best and has better skills.
Diversion
Can be used to avoid stress, fill time, relax etc.
Fantasy
Video games allow players to do things that they wouldn't be able to do in reality.
Social Interaction
Gaming brings social interaction, as many people feel they need to be cool by getting the latest game or mod.
Passive or active consumption.
When a audience doesn't engage or question the games message/story but just accepts it. An active consumption is when the audience will engage and discuss what the game portrays.
Responses:
Participatory
When the audience can join and be part of the story.
Cultural competence
Games and other media need us to have a certain degree of cultural understanding for us to be able to interpret them. I.e. reading the language in a letter or a sign or symbol.
Fan Culture
Where an audience takes an active role in the creation of media that is based on an existing product. i.e. a mod.
Negotiated
When the reader accepts what the game is showing them but may modify it in their mind, which would reflect their own interests and experiences.
Preferred
When a player understands the message being shown by the game and agrees with it.
Oppositional
When a reader understands the games viewpoint or story that the developer is portraying, yet rejects it and has a alternative idea/view.
Effects debate:
First-person shooters
They maybe angrily condemned by critics as violent, but first-person shoots are the games that are most likely to improve reaction time and eyesight. The frenetic pace of such games encourage the brain to make faster and more accurate decisions.
Role-playing games (RPGs)
Relaxing and wholly immersive, these games maybe addictive but do little aid reaction times and decision-making, researches found.
Brain-training games
Manufacturers are increasingly marketing "brain-exercising" games at the adult market. Earlier this year, however, a test of 11,500 members of the public failed to find any improvement in mental performance after people regularly used brain-training games.
(Concerns such as excess playing time.)
There are a lot of health problems with playing games for long periods of time without breaks, some games even offer suggestions to take a break after a hours game play and repeat the warnings.
This can create depression and anxiety and ignoring responsibilities. Time that has spent on gaming can affect the activities that are fundamental to their physical, social and intellectual development.
Addiction is a severe problem in Asian countries such as China and Korea.
(Social isolation)
Social isolation is when a player spends more time on games than in the real world. This can cause huge problems that can end in extreme ways if its not handled. People that are addicted to playing video games for a long time can create a addiction, which can be severe in some cases. The higher the addiction the less likely they are to have good social skills.
(Cost)
All video games come with a price to either buy the product or to later pay in the game. Most games now a days like the idea of making you pay for it, then showing you exclusive deals you can get, for example: DLCs, game extensions, weapons. Some games are made to be that impossible to beat you would likely have to buy the products its recommending.
Theirs another way games produce money and that's the things the game requires for example:
Kinect, microphone, live, console, controller etc...
Phones especially are giving out free games that have ads that pop up and other mission which you have to unlock by a very high level or some money.
(Separation from reality)
Separation from reality is when the player doesn't know what's the real world, this usually happens to those that are addicted to gaming. These people will not interact with anyone and can be dangerous depending on how bad their addiction is. Which can result in tragic endings.
Some examples of this are games that include things such as, stealing cars, racing, violence and even murder. An example of this is the game "Manhunt" in which you play a character in a strange and dangerous situations, this was also related to a murder in the UK after someone playing the game was claimed to be obsessed with the game.
Benefits (hand-eye coordination, brain training)
A growing body of research indicates that playing first-person action games, particularly shooters, improves brain function. Studies cited by Scientific American Mind found that players who played shooters often fared better in tests of abilities such as spatial reasoning, spatial focus, visual acuity and decision-making.
Games can help the brain improve with English and Maths though simple objectives, a good game which is a good example for helping you with English is "The typing of the dead", which makes you have to type certain words to kill the zombies (18+)
(Thinking and strategy skills)
A new British study finds that some video games can help to train the brain to become more agile and improve strategic thinking.
From biological and chemical research doctor said
"Previous research has demonstrated that action video games, such as Halo, can speed up decision making but the current work finds that real-time strategy games can promote our ability to think on the fly and learn from past mistakes,"
Strategy games such as war games were the player has to think of a strategy to play the game help players develop thinking skills. Instead of actually controlling the player through a game time needs to be taken to make the correct decision to guide the main game playing character through the game
(Future impact)
Their are positives and negatives when playing video games for sometime.
The positives is that:
gaming has seen benefits for hand-eye coordination in various sectors. Some reports say that surgeons who play games have become more skilled after they have practiced gaming over a period of time. Other simulation games such as pilot or driving games have advanced so far recently that virtual environments are used to train pilots and drivers.
Specific brain training games have been developed in a range of subject areas so that hand held consoles can be used as brain training games. It is thought that by giving players challenge and fun activities in game format that they are challenged using a platform that they are used to and find learning more enjoyable.
(Impact on 'mainstream' application development)
Game development is constantly requiring more advanced hardware, an example of this is the iPhone gyroscope shown below.
iPhone gyroscope link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzjnZsQc7M
Its shows it from different angles as if you where inside the game and physically looking round, by using things such eyefinity we are tying to immerse ourselves in the game more.
Game development is progressing rapidly and are producing more games with high quality.
Game development is progressing rapidly and are producing more games with high quality.
(Sound)
Sounds in games are used to give off different emotions, to make the feeling of the games atmosphere come out. Sound is very important to make the game seem funny or scary.
Their are two different types of sounds:
Non-linear sounds which is a sound from a living thing or a instrument, the sounds can change depending on how the noise is edited.
Non-linear sounds are used in a load of different types of horror games:
Silent Hill, Resident Evil and F.E.A.R
These games are great examples of making dramatic sound affects.
(High score listings)
High score listings on games are very important if the game wants people to still play their game when its getting popular. People fight to become first place or in the top ten in most games which makes the games make a good amount of money, this is annoying for players yet will keep them playing the game.
Making a high scores available in games make players want to continue playing and to beat others while their at it. This boosts the players confidence and also makes the player like the game.
In fact, this so-called “big-fish-little-pond Effect” which proves that game designers want people to feel better on a higher rank.
(Competitive games)
Most games are competitive which makes players want to show you their skills yet wanting to win. In these games for example call of duty, Borderlands, Skyrim, Star craft 2 are all games that compete in different ways, to levelling up to having the best gear to completing the game or even having the highest kills at the end of the game.
Everyone likes to seem to be better than their friends when something they enjoy is on. Competitive games are very good at selling as their target audience is huge.
(Peer pressure)
Peer pressure is found to be a case for most games to be sold, this can come from your friends that want you to get it so they can play with you or it can be the business which wants you to buy it. For example GTA 5 was said to be a great game from the company Rockstar which advertised the game greatly which made people want to buy it, it also gave out an online few weeks after which made even more people buy it as the company Rockstar had shown things that most people would want to play online with friends, which results into peer pressure from friends and family.
(Fun)
Every gamer plays a game because its fun, their are a range of different types of games which will have your type of game in it. Every game is aimed at a certain target audience to horror or adventure everyone plays a game because its enjoyable and its something that they like. We enjoy video games the most when we share similarities with the characters we play as which a new study has found. More generally, we love video games because they're the best way to try out characteristics we'd like to have, or they allow us to try on different hats, a study from Essex University has found. Gaming is also fun for those that find it hard to socialize with people, which makes them feel more confident when playing a game or behind a screen.
My survey results
I asked 10 different confirming my audience and questions surrounding Violence in video games.
My research supports that claim however, it doesn't cause everyone to act the same.
All had a good response to their feelings about video games as they think it can make a game seem more realistic/interesting, others suggest it stops the game from being dull. Little suggested that violence is okay but needs to be put down a little in some cases, such as Mortal Kombat. In my opinion violence in video games shouldn't affect you and the player should know the difference between the game world and reality.
Conclusion.
By the research I made and the final results of my survey, my conclusion is that playing violent video games do not push people to commit crimes. Due to the research against violent video games not giving actual relevant results and not being able to confirm that violent video games are bad makes the argument weak. An expert explains that the violent video games do contribute to aggression however, this contribute would not be enough for them to commit murder or a crime. Movies and games that have no violence can still contribute to aggression, and yet video games are blamed. As its proven that first-person shooters are good for you, as it makes your eyesight better in the dark and makes you respond quicker proves that the games are better for you than actually bad for you. When social isolation is involved the game in my eyes is not the problem its the person playing. It is said playing for too long can cause problems which is correct, however, so does anything with a bright light i.e. a TV or tablet etc.
My survey result backups my conclusion of my research as many other people agree that video games do not make them angry or violent and that they dont mind the violence if it suits the games style. If anything violence in video games can make it better (Said someone).
Overall I think that violence in video games do not effect your mentality.
My survey results
I asked 10 different confirming my audience and questions surrounding Violence in video games.
This Survey has more male responses, which would be took in consideration in the conclusion. This is to get a basic idea on what type of person has answered the questions.
This shows that the audience i'm asking is mainly above 18 but with some people younger also taking part. By asking this question i'm aware on what age range i'm getting answers from
With 61% responding with 10 to 12 we know that the audience were past gamers and may still be gamers. It also gives us an idea on where they started gaming and how long they have continued the cycle.
The average hour of play time a week between 20 people is 21 hours showing that these aren't casual gamers.
Making any statements/opinions about video games more valid.
With many people saying yes, they explain that the idea to compete with other people with skill can feel like an achievement and stops the game from feeling dull.
One or two people said they prefer relaxing/casual games as they dont have to work so hard.
The responses were close to being even but with "shoot 'em ups" was the top selected.
Other was the lowest pick following horror.
This gives us the idea on what the audience likes to play and where the violence is scene in those genres.
85% said yes to being frustrated when playing video games, research suggests that many things in life can be frustrating and wouldn't result into violence and so why would video games be an exception.
Most people responded with no (55%), however the answer yes was not far behind (45%).
This has been the topic of discussion when violence in video games are involved. Some responded that it can affect people with already bad mental issues.
Many said no, the people that responded with yes was only shocked rather than distress about the violent scene. Suggesting that many gamers are now use to violence (Bad Point-Against gaming magazine) however as its close to being even, the point doesn't really matter.
Research suggests that if person has played a violent game then watches a violent scene, they a more likely to not be distressed, rather than people playing a fun happy game, which would make them feel distress when watching the scene.My research supports that claim however, it doesn't cause everyone to act the same.
Conclusion.
By the research I made and the final results of my survey, my conclusion is that playing violent video games do not push people to commit crimes. Due to the research against violent video games not giving actual relevant results and not being able to confirm that violent video games are bad makes the argument weak. An expert explains that the violent video games do contribute to aggression however, this contribute would not be enough for them to commit murder or a crime. Movies and games that have no violence can still contribute to aggression, and yet video games are blamed. As its proven that first-person shooters are good for you, as it makes your eyesight better in the dark and makes you respond quicker proves that the games are better for you than actually bad for you. When social isolation is involved the game in my eyes is not the problem its the person playing. It is said playing for too long can cause problems which is correct, however, so does anything with a bright light i.e. a TV or tablet etc.
My survey result backups my conclusion of my research as many other people agree that video games do not make them angry or violent and that they dont mind the violence if it suits the games style. If anything violence in video games can make it better (Said someone).
Overall I think that violence in video games do not effect your mentality.
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