September 25, 2005

No Strong Link between violent video games and aggression

This is a response to an article entitled, "No strong link seen between violent video games and aggression"

The debate over the effect of simulated violence in video games on their human players is part of the larger debate over whether violent imagery in any media (books, movies, music) tends to incite aggressive behaviors. This larger debate is really a long-standing feud between free-speech proponents and pro-censorship pundits that has been going on probably nearly as long as mass media entertainment has existed. The general formula has been something like: concerned high-profile congressperson wrings hands, cites study linking media violence to real-world aggression, urges enactment of law restricting violent imagery; rest of world does not notice, continues to buy violent video games in record quantities. At least, that's been my understanding.

The researchers in this article, much to their own amazement, have fired an unexpected salvo on behalf of the free-speechers by reporting the results of a long-term study that shows no link between violent video-game play and violent behavior. This would be a watershed indeed in the history of the video-game violence (VGV) debate if the authors appeared to have any confidence in their results. Instead, they almost apologetically report their findings before completely undermining them by saying, "I'm not saying some games don't lead to aggression. ... I don't think we should make strong predictions ... given this finding." Luckily the point is moot because their research is pretty clearly flawed.

In order for VGV to really have a chance of arousing violent tendencies in its players, it would seem that there are three aspects it would have to have:

1. The game-play should be really, really graphically violent (e.g., 3-d blood droplets and grisly limbs flying).


2. The game-play should be lifelike (i.e., it should be easily imitable and easy to identify with).


3. The game should glorify that violence (i.e., the character, and by extension the player, should seem all the cooler for having slaughtered an enemy).

A couple of games (Carmageddon or Grand Theft Auto in any of its incarnations) come readily to mind as meeting all three requirements above. Asheron's Call 2, the game that the researchers chose to study, could only be said to fulfill the first requirement above, and that seems like a stretch. Granted, I've never played it, but any game in which the following two screenshots are deemed representative (via Asheron's Call 2 Vault) clearly doesn't qualify, does it?

I can't tell what the second picture is, either. A cat-lizard cross riding a cucumber-worm-two-toed-sloth? Even if it could kick serious ass, I'd can't imagine anyone being terribly inclined (or able) to imitate it.

This may be missing the point. The conductors of this study most likely decided to choose an RPG to study because of the immersive quality of the game-play. It's undoubtedly true that RPG, especially MMRPGS, are very conducive to one's losing one's real-world identity in favor of the game's avatar, but what's lacking here is an appreciation for what it is about a game that would incite violence (see the list above). It could even be argued that, in a perhaps counterintuitive way, MMRPGs, due to their social component, might actually encourage moral responsibility. Normal individuals tend to be more influenced by social mores the more a part of their society they feel, and because of the unique social atmosphere in an MMRPG, individuals who are solitary in the flesh world but nonetheless heavily involved in their game may feel themselves to be an integral part of that society. When one is more attuned to how his actions influence the rest of the community, one is less likely to cause harm to that community. These lessons, learned in the online world, might cross over to the player's "real" world.

Even though this research wasn't conducted particularly well, the mere fact that VGV is now considered a valid arena for study may well represent a positive turning point in this debate. Future research should focus on games that are most likely to cause aggressive actions in their players due to their (the games) being most similar to real-life situations of violence. Choosing Asheron's Call 2 to study is like researching the question of whether violent movies cause violent behavior by disregarding Pulp Fiction and instead focusing on Star Wars: Episode I. The day that a light saber-wielding Jar Jar Binks incites violent behavior in viewers is the day that this debate can be considered over.

Posted September 25, 2005 10:49 PM. Categories: Reading Responses , Week 1 | Permalink

September 21, 2005

A walk around Hall's Pond

Over the weekend I visited my girlfriend in Boston, and on Sunday morning her grandmother took us to a nearby nature preserve, Hall's Pond. Three and a half acres of pond, marshland and woods are hidden there, in the middle of residential Brookline, MA, just behind the stately brownstones of Beacon Street and about 6 or 7 blocks from Boston University and Commonwealth Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares of the city. When we first approached the pond, a blue heron was at the water's edge, staring at us.

I used to live in Brookline, a little over a year ago, not far from Hall's Pond, and so I was surprised that I had never known of it before, especially because I used to take long walks all around my neighborhood. The twin realizations that raw nature can still exist in a busy city and that it can be so well-hidden got me to thinking about the balance that humans are continually striking not only with the environment but, in a larger sense, with each others' needs for space.

Even though my family moved numerous times (within the same city) when I was young, I don't think I ever had more than an inchoate sense of the way that there are options to consider and compromises that are made regarding the proximity to others, to nature, to the rest of a city, when choosing a dwelling. It wasn't until the fall after my graduation, when I moved to Boston, that I had any real experience of the conscious choosing of a place to live. (I lived on campus all four years of school and, for all their idiosyncrasies, the dorms at Pomona were all similar enough and close enough together to make the choosing of a room not that important of a decision. Certainly choosing a room was far less important than choosing a roommate, say.)

So it was after I first lived in an apartment in a city that I learned peripatetically how a housing decision can affect the structure of one's life; where one walks to buy food and other staples, to catch the T, to send a letter, to get money from an ATM, even the people one meets on a daily basis are dictated in large part by the location of that ultimate destination, the home. I am still occasionally fascinated when I see homes or apartment buildings to think about the lives of the inhabitants and why they chose to live where they do. I am especially curious on long car trips about those who live in America's smallest towns, dotted around the country. What do they do for fun? What is it that keeps them in their little villages? What do they do for a living?

I came to realize that, while the choice of a home is largely a private choice, as a society we—through our elected officials—also choose the makeup and layout of cities. Zoning plans, public transportation systems and routes, availability of green space, and so on all affect the quality of life for the residents of a community. In our urban centers land becomes increasingly precious the more community members there are that must share it, and so the questions of how best to use the land also become increasingly difficult.

Most of the time, in situations where space is in such short supply and high demand, its preservation in natural form seems to some short-sighted city leaders the least effective use of it. I was glad, then, to find that Hall's Pond had been preserved by the thoughtful council-people of Brookline. I found it an apposite complement to the city life and an excellent place to contemplate nature and one's place in it. Or, for that matter, nature's place in the city.

Posted September 21, 2005 08:49 PM. Categories: New Experiences , Week 1 | Permalink