Yet another test into Video Game Violence
A news piece on gamedev points out an 'interesting' piece of research done into video game violence: http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=368543
39 experienced gamers were picked and given questionaires about what they played then shown images, plain average day images with violent ones inbetween. What did this research find? That violent video games cause real violence? That video games corrupt our minds? That video games are the root of all evil? Nope. They found out that "violent" gamers' minds are desensitised to images of violence but their minds reacted normally to normal, real life images. Wow, they needed 39 research subjects to find that out? It's a bloody well known fact that the human mind becomes desesnitised to things it experiences regularly. If someone plays a lot of violent games then violent images are hardly going to affect them as they see scenes like that often. Does this mean they are violent people? Hell no, it just means virtual violence does not have any effect on the way their minds work. Most still would be extremely sensitive to having someone eviserated infront of their eyes in real life. It's not people being desensitised to virtual violence that they should be worried about, it's people who are desensitied to real life physical violence who should be under scrutiny. Come on, who's more dangerous? A kid who gets real excited when blowing their mates to bits on Quake or an ex-military marksman who's career has been to kill people? Oh wait, all the trained marksmen who've gone on rampages played GTA, didn't they? Obviously, games showed them how to do it *rolleyes*
39 experienced gamers were picked and given questionaires about what they played then shown images, plain average day images with violent ones inbetween. What did this research find? That violent video games cause real violence? That video games corrupt our minds? That video games are the root of all evil? Nope. They found out that "violent" gamers' minds are desensitised to images of violence but their minds reacted normally to normal, real life images. Wow, they needed 39 research subjects to find that out? It's a bloody well known fact that the human mind becomes desesnitised to things it experiences regularly. If someone plays a lot of violent games then violent images are hardly going to affect them as they see scenes like that often. Does this mean they are violent people? Hell no, it just means virtual violence does not have any effect on the way their minds work. Most still would be extremely sensitive to having someone eviserated infront of their eyes in real life. It's not people being desensitised to virtual violence that they should be worried about, it's people who are desensitied to real life physical violence who should be under scrutiny. Come on, who's more dangerous? A kid who gets real excited when blowing their mates to bits on Quake or an ex-military marksman who's career has been to kill people? Oh wait, all the trained marksmen who've gone on rampages played GTA, didn't they? Obviously, games showed them how to do it *rolleyes*