Violence in Video Games
UK Study Says MMORPG Online Games Do Not Lead to Violent Behavior
Researchers at Middlesex University in England found that MMORPG players are more relaxed during and after play sessions.
Video game gamers and their programmers have known something for a long time that science has just recently discovered. The discovery will shock the religious moral crusaders who believe that violent video games increase aggressive behavior. A study conducted at England's Middlesex University has shown that violent video games can actually calm people and curb aggressive tendencies.
The game the Middlesex researchers tested was World of Warcraft. The portrayal of violence in the popular mmorpg is actually milder in comparison to many of the first-person shooters and fighting games mentioned above, but this is the first formal study conducted that shows no direct link between violent video games and increased violent tendencies in gamers.
What the Violent Video Game Study Suggested
The study, conducted by Jane Burnett and her colleagues, asked 292 players of the popular mmorpg to take a survey before setting down to a gaming session at the popular Blizzard game, and participants were asked to take the survey again after they had logged off, according to Develop Magazine.
Burnett and her colleagues found that while people in general were less prone to anger and violence after a video game session, factors such as personality and gender affected how an individual responded to violent video games.
While Jane Burnett hopes to develop a study to determine the type of personality which is likely to be influenced negatively by violence in video games, a GamePro staff column takes a different view and states that video games do not affect the behavior of an individual. The author of the GamePro editorial states that if “if you're an aggressive [ex. del.] before you play a game, you'll still be one after.”
Did the Middlesex University Study Choose the Right Kind of Game?
World of Warcraft may center around combat, but the violence in the game is not realistic. Many players choose classes that have offensive spells that cannot be imitated in real life. This is true of many of the most popular mmorpgs with fantasy or science fiction massive multiplayer online games. The study, while useful, should be conducted with more aggressive games where the violence is realistic, such as fighting games like Street Fighter and popular shooters like Counterstrike.
The Middlesex University study is a promising lead in showing that there is no link between video game violence and real world violence, but the game chosen, while popular, was not the best choice to determined if video game violence affected people outside of the game. That is, at least until how someone figures out how to hurl lightning from their finger tips. Even the Tauren shaman, William Shatner, has not solved this arcane mystery yet.
Sources
“Violent Video Games Make Pepole More Relaxed.” GamePro Staff. GamePro. April 4, 2008.
“Link between Violence and Online Gaming Killed Off.” Friday, April 4, 2008. Develop Magazine.
