Violent games reduce anger - discuss

[MK-2]

John Carmack (developer on the original Doom among other things) has stated that violent games calm people, not make them angrier. What are peoples thoughts?

 

Doom dude says violent games lower aggression ? reghardware

Edited August 2, 2011 by MK-2

[localzuk]

I think the key thing is age appropriateness of the games. Letting a 5 year old go on a shooting spree in GTA IV or sneak up on people with a knife in Bad Company 2 is a bad idea, as their brains are developing and that sort of thing can and could make them think it is acceptable.

 

But an 18 year old playing such games? They should know right from wrong, and it is a good way to let off steam.

[MK-2]

I think the key thing is age appropriateness of the games.

 

Oh of course, I totally agree. If the media want to blame GTA for little Johnny doing something bad then the game is not in question, it should be the parents decision to let him play that game.

I meant legally (as in 18+ play 18+ games) I see the benefits, although some of the comments on there suggest that although we feel more relaxed after the game, we are in fact angrier

[SteveBentley]

There's some research just been published by Huddersfield Uni that suggests that violent games don't make you any more aggressive than non violent ones.

 

http://www2.hud.ac.uk/news/2011news/07/videogames.php

[JoeBloggs]

Nothing makes me more mad than coming off Black-Ops with 0-30 score!!! 30-0 would make me very happy but won't ever happen!!! Damn kids...

[Haptic]

Personally I've only ever felt violent after taking a thrashing at Fifa.

 

I could play COD/Tekken/GTA for hours in perfect serenity....

 

Joe

[Butters]

Black ops infuriates me at times and makes me smash things and games in general when they dont go my way cause the same effect.

[pcstru]

I'VE PLAYED VIOLENT GAMES ALL MY LIFE - IT NEVER DID ME ANY HARM AND I'LL SMASH YER FACE IN IF YOU SAY ANY DIFFERENT.

[thepineapplehead]

i get angrier playing racing games. It's fun to run around blowing stuff up

[jamesb]

Absolutely - after a frustrating creeper encounter in minecraft the first thing I tend to do is dive into a simple blood 'n' guts game to unwind.

[X-13]

Personally I've only ever felt violent after taking a thrashing at Fifa.

 

 

I remember seeing a paper on how less violent, more realistic games cause more aggression in gamers than violent games. [For example: football and driving games make you rage more than GTA.]

[thepineapplehead]

I broke my keyboard after losing one race too many times in Most Wanted. However I love the puzzle and exploration aspect of games like GTA and playing through the stories of first person shooters. Does TF2 count as a violent game? Cos its bloody funny and doesn't make me violent, it makes me happy

[pete]

If it's a console port in which it's impossible to actually miss, the story runs on rails and all the "hidden" items stand out against the background like a neon pink hippo, then more violent.

 

If it's actually a tricky game that requires an ounce of skill and maybe detective work to find stuff, then less violent.

[sonofsanta]

Absolutely. There are charts around showing the steady decline of violent crime in America plotted against the upward trend of video game sales, where a large majority of said sales are violent, 18 games (COD etc.). I think the long term trend is very clear.

 

The problem is that any studies that have been done - and there have been a few, in all fairness - all concentrate on short term effects. They then inevitably show an increase in violent tendencies or anger issues, because after spending 3 hours completely focused on an online deathmath, getting repeatedly shown up by strangers, you do tend to be a bit wound up. I don't think I've ever personally broken a controller throwing it against a wall but I've come pretty close in the past.

 

As far as I'm aware, though, none of these studies have ever taken someone who is already a gamer and is already in a foul mood and got them to play a violent game. I suspect if they did, you'd see a clear drop in whatever markers were being used. I think the important part of such a study would be "already a gamer" - someone who habitually uses games in this way anyway. A middled aged lady is just going to get more wound up because she won't have any idea what is going on or how to do anything, and the feeling of empowerment is the significant factor in the relief of the stress, because so often what gets us riled up is out of our control.

 

Very interesting dissection of the issue at RPS, related to the stupid Fox News comments that Bulletstorm would turn you into a rapist: Fox News | Rock, Paper, Shotgun: not making jokes about what you think we are - in particular the article on analysing the evidence, iirc. It'll take you a while to read but it's one of the most joyous pieces of video game journalism in the last year, and thoroughly recommended.

[sonofsanta]

If it's a console port in which it's impossible to actually miss, the story runs on rails and all the "hidden" items stand out against the background like a neon pink hippo, then more violent.

 

If it's actually a tricky game that requires an ounce of skill and maybe detective work to find stuff, then less violent.

 

You'll enjoy this article on Ars today, then.

[X-13]

The problem is that any studies that have been done - and there have been a few, in all fairness - all concentrate on short term effects.

 

Any time I've seen videogames blamed for violent behaviour it's usually a case of "%person did something extremely violent, they play %game, %game caused this."

 

Never any questions on how mentally stable a person they were or if they have ever had violent episodes in the past.

 

Plus, they usually end with something like "%person has %Mental_health_issue."

Which, when you look into it more, could be the real cause of the violent behaviour.

[gshaw]

FIFA has cost me more controllers than any shoot em up, nothing winds me up more than people quitting because they're losing or the in-game referees deciding to bias completely towards the other team...

[sonofsanta]

Any time I've seen videogames blamed for violent behaviour it's usually a case of "%person did something extremely violent, they play %game, %game caused this."

 

Never any questions on how mentally stable a person they were or if they have ever had violent episodes in the past.

 

Plus, they usually end with something like "%person has %Mental_health_issue."

Which, when you look into it more, could be the real cause of the violent behaviour.

 

Rinse and repeat with comic books, rock n roll, television, movies, the printing press etc... any new development gets to go through this fun. I think we're coming out the back end of it now with the recent First Amendment decision in the Supreme Court though, that was a big putdown for all the legislative bullsh*t that was being dredged up for political means. If so, we've even gotten away without the equivalent of the Motion Picture Production Code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia or the Comics Code Authority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - I don't think the voluntary ratings system is anywhere near as restrictive as either of those were, and the damage that the CCA did to graphic novels is untold. They've still not really hit mainstream acceptance as an art form, even despite recent Marvel films - how many people are still ashamed to admit to reading comics after their teenage years?

[pete]

You'll enjoy this article on Ars today, then.

 

Heh, I was channelling a bit of Kuchera actually. And I agree with his points.

 

That and the Diablo 3 news (dumbed down the "fiddle with stuff, cos it's rpg-ish" and requiring you to be online to play) hacked me off.

[mthomas08]

Tough one this, like many things a bad driver behind the wheel of a car can cause some serious problems. A person who has had a real bad day can decide to go 100MPH down the motorway and really not care.

 

When it comes to games, I have played my fair share of them - including blood, gore, explosions, call of duty (Including the scene where you gun down innocent civi's). Yet am I a psycho or do I have anger issues - Nope. My other half does not play games (Or enjoy Die hard films) but wind her up and she can seriously pick up some anger (worse then I have seen in most women).

 

My nephew can play some violent games and he is 12, but he is very responsible and only jokes about gunning down with a machine gun. He is a Soft heart as well, he could be a real bully because he is so tall compared to his year but because he has a loving family he has not got any anger issues.

 

My boss not long ago said that Anger, Hate, Death and Murder has been around since the dawn of time and we as a people will always be violent. It will not take over night to remove it, so when some kid copies a game then he mentally would probably copy a film or a tv program just as much.

[happymeal]

As I was growing up (Physically, not mentally ;o) ), I was given my first console which was a Spectrum 128k. I spent a few hours on there playing all kinds of games from racing, puzzle, shoot-em-ups, all whilst supervised by my parents (One was army and wasn't around as much as he'd like, the other was) who made sure I wasn't spending too long on them and knew the difference between reality and gaming. At the time, I remember hearing how music and books were the latest evil (This was 80's-early 90's).

 

Fast-forward a few years, I was then on the Commodore and the Sega Master System - again, playing all kinds of death-dealing games, racing around, etc, again under the watchfull eye of my parents. Around this time, films were the latest baddies (Child's Play was in the papers over the Bulger/Venables killings, etc, parents leaving kids in front of the TV watching 18+ films with no0one around, etc).

 

Near the end of 95-00, I was playing GTA (Original and London!), Doom, Duke Nukem, and other 18+ games, but always supervised by my parents who made sure I knew that the games were just that - games. They would buy them me every now and then (I'd save up, they'd get them), but they always took a vested interest in what I was playing, when I was playing it, and if they thought it was too much, they took would ban it. I think films and music were in the news again - Eminem had just started out and people were up in arms over his views on drugs/women/violence.

As I got older I would then start playing Resident Evil, heading over to my mates to play Goldeneye - we were then trusted to play games ourselves, and to know the differences between gaming and reality.

 

Enter 2000/2010, I'm a mature-ish man who still plays games, plays games with his nieces and nephews, takes an interested view at what they watch/listen to, and they also know the difference between gaming and reality (The reality is that they REALLY are rubbish at COD, and I've someone I can beat!). Their parents will buy the odd 18+ game for them, but will make sure that it's not too much for them, and at least one adult is around for them.

 

No matter what game I played, someone was around to make sure it wasn't going to make me into a piano-string-carrying-loon, or have me mowing down hookers for money.

Too many parents now will buy their children an 18+ game (I see this at a youth-group I run) and will just leave them to their devices. For the most of them, they turn out ok. But the odd one I've had to have words with.

Sadly too many parents will just sit their kids in front of a game and leave them too it.