Does Violence In Video Games Cause Violent Behaviour?

Only recently another study was released linking violent behavior to violent video games, this time from Harris Interactive. Given how often these studies appear, is it time to accept that this link exists?

If we take at look at the study it shows that 58% of adults believe there is a direct link between playing violent video games and violent behaviour. However, 71% of the adults asked were either unaware of ESRB ratings or let their teenager/child play any video game regardless of ratings and only just over 2,000 individuals participated in the all American study.

At face value these results are inconclusive, yet we will no doubt see the media jump all over these findings and hammer home the idea, misleadingly, to the non-gaming population and worried parents. In no time at all we can probably expect a horrific gun crime to be blamed on violent video games; we’ve seen it happened in the past.

[drop]Usually I would always defend the gaming world and suggest that if we are to find the real link to violent behaviour we need to look deeper into social aspects, such as parenting and mental health issues.

However, I find my opinion edging ever closer to believing that this link between games and violent behaviour exists and is, personally, worrying.

In my own experience I find gaming to be the most anger inducing activity I undertake.

Forget competitive sports, it’s online gaming, and sometimes single player campaigns, that see my blood pressure rocket and my patience wear thin. It has even reached the point that I keep a stress ball handy when I game. I’m sure other gamers can relate to this.

Whilst this doesn’t lead me to exhibit truly violent behaviour, what I have noticed is a small rising anger problem. At the moment it’s nothing major, but it’s surely unhealthy.

Of course one could suggest other reasons for this change in mind set, ones that have nothing to do with gaming. Although I’m a stranger to the stresses of the real working world, mounting university work is certainly applying pressure. Another cause may be my football refereeing, an activity where I regularly receive verbal abuse.

Both of these could easily be triggers for my anger, yet deep down I know gaming plays a role. Gaming’s an integral part of my life, so it has a significant effect on my day to day actions.

From an early age I have been allowed to play games, and watch films for that matter, rated well above my age. For example, Grand Theft Auto is one of my earliest gaming memories. Although my play time’s been limited and I was supervised occasionally whilst playing these high rated games, the fact still remains that I’ve played violent video games from a young age – wrongly some may say.

However, despite consuming entertainment rated for those older than me for years, I’ve seen no detrimental effects from those particular games and movies, and my rising anger has only emerged recently. This leads to me believe that any source of violent behaviour arising from video games, including my own recently developing anger issues, is the result of modern day gaming. By this I mean online multiplayer.

Now don’t get me wrong I think the feature is great; playing with friends online is a must these days. It also promotes healthy competition most of the time. But sometimes this competitive nature crosses the line, and you can find gamers taking the game in question too seriously (this Call Of Duty Championship is a prime example). It’s not even limited to violent games, online gaming for racing and sports games yield the same problems.

I think it’s time for these studies to disregard the actual violence in video games and focus on this extreme competitive nature shown in modern gaming.

So do I believe there is a direct link between violence in games and violent behaviour? No, but what I do believe is that online multiplayer is a direct source of violent behaviour, not the violent actions undertaken in a game. It is only natural for us to defend one of our favourite past times, particularly when attacks on gaming can be seen as unjust and unfounded.

However, I think that problems arising from online gaming need to be further explored before we truly understand if they’re having an effect on those playing them.

41 Comments

  1. The piece would be more accurately titled “Does Getting Angry Playing Online Multiplayer Cause Violent Behaviour?”. The answer to that is simply no. Gaming, and online gaming have been around for quite a while, if there was a real link then I think we wouldn’t be having this conversation, it would be obvious.

    As has already been touched on you could argue the opposite case, that gaming provides an outlet and a way to vent our aggression within the context of a safe environment. My own opinion is that we know the difference between what’s real and what isn’t. No matter how often I swear and rant and throw my arms in the air while playing CoD, once the console is off that aggression is gone and I’m on to whatever I’m doing next.

    I’ve had stressful jobs in the past – way more frustrating than any online game, and despite being exposed to massive amounts of verbal abuse, threats of violence, demanding bosses and heavy workloads it’s had no impact in the way I interact with people. It seems odd to me that we look beyond what we have to deal with as people in our everyday lives and look to works of fantasy, whether they be games or films or comics, as leading our behaviour, despite the relatively small amounts of time we spend with them.

    Also, I think you should be careful not reporting something which seems to be an opinion poll as a study. They are very different things.

    • I’m only going by my own experience. Like I said in the article I have no real stress at all in my life, so I don’t have anger to vent out so wouldn’t understand that concept of it being a safe medium in which to do so. I find that after I’ve put the controller down my frustrating doesn’t end, and it’ll continue for the rest of the day, even the rest of the week, leaving me aggressive. And for some people maybe they take that even further.
      A study can include a poll based on opinion too.

  2. Don’t know that violence in video games causes violent behaviour, but I do know that people who haven’t a clue on how to drive in the snow make me want to be violent to them!
    When pulling off, low revs not FULL THROTTLE! IDIOTS!
    (Especially all the fuck-wits on the school run)

  3. “Above all else the man seeks to exert his strength”.

    Games, films, music, books, even a front page headline can induce anger and potential violence. It is human nature and suddenly it has become fashionable to highlight such natural behaviour as a negative thing linked to at least something. Well it exists and can be linked to almost anything! Blame games makes good headlines, strikes fear in the less informed and is another example of the media being reckless.

    History is full of truly sick acts of violence long before such media existed. Put that in ya pipe and smoke it.

  4. Violence didn’t exist until gaming did obviously.
    I wish people would hurry up and get bored of this. I’ll be honest I haven’t even read the article. These articles puzzle me as much now as they did back when I was a small child playing streets of rage and wondering what all the fuss was. Meh.

    • If you read the article you would see that I present a different perspective on the situation :)

  5. Games do not lead to violence or cause violent behaviour, it does however lead to frustration, and it is the inability to channel, or even recognise, that frustration that ends up in the behaviour seen in the video and ultimately in violence – I get frequently hacked off with COD, and now I know that I’m doing it I’ll stop playing the game and jump on a different game, say Skyrim or a co-operative multiplayer like ME3, for example. I also never use a headset because my language can get rather colourful at times with COD.

    The other problem with multiplayer is that some people will use any possible workaround or exploit to their advantage and when a game gets a reputation for allowing this kind of thing to happen (hacked lobbies, god mode players, etc) it already makes playing the game a bit more volatile

  6. So I guess if I play a lot of Sims I will eventually be a mayor, right ? and of course I will do a great job like: destroying people houses to build a skatepark, relocated people at my own will etc.

    I think “experts” think up of this sh*t just to get more money from companies hiring them to demonstrate if this is true or not.

  7. lol just because a nerd try’s to act like a hard man playing call of duty it’s nothing to worry about.

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