Monkey-See-Monkey-Don’t: A Review of Media Effects Research and its Implications for Violent Videogame Mythology
Literature Review
Blair Kelly
Student #: 0358715
Professor: Doctor Faulkner
December 2008
Abstract: This review seeks to concatenate selections from a body of research conducted on the potentially harmful effects of videogaming, and in particular violent videogaming. It is discovered that the simple “violent/nonviolent” blanket categorization used to determine the effects of videogames is inadequate: content, personality factors, the bias of others (third-person perspective), context, presence, and the advancement of technology (which effects one’s sense of presence) must all be considered in violent videogame effects research. Patterns and connections throughout the selected material are identified and assessed; recommendations for further research are also made.
Violent videogames make for violent people: this concept is one that has infested the popular imagination for decades, if not centuries, in some form or another. In the 1940’s and 1950’s, because violent videogames did not exist, they had not yet supplanted comic books, which at the time were considered the culprits of bad effect. Name an era, and you’ll there find a perceived influence within the collective psyche which it blames for conjuring negative behaviour. Cold, hard data, such as that which is produced by thorough methodical research, often fails to support this notion.
And so there is a disconnect in academic circles, arguably more so between academic circles themselves and certain concerned groups of the general public. Many say violent media are implicated in the process of producing violent tendencies, and many others disagree. The focus of this review will be on the literature that investigates or discusses the effect – if any – violent videogames have in human beings.
For centuries, various concerned individuals and groups have sought to reveal the evil effects of paintings, books, comics, television, and more recently, the Internet and violent videogames (Murray 98). It is probably a deep misunderstanding of these forms of expression that initiate the anxieties proponents of censorship tend to manifest. It is this misunderstanding that caused the unfortunate parents of a Barrie, Ont. teen to immediately blame their child’s X-box 360 for his disappearance. They were certain that friends he had made online, while playing the game Call of Duty, lured him away from his home (Philip 1). The boy’s parents had taken away X-Box privileges permanently as punishment for “playing too much,” and he left the house after a verbal argument (Philip 1). At first, it may seem that the boy had been overreacting. But consider the research of Jorge Pena and Jeffrey Hancock: they found that the vast majority of communication among players of online videogames was socioemotional, and not task oriented (Pena & Hancock 100). This means, instead of messages such as “tell me how to open this door”, they were more like “good fight” (Pena & Hancock 100). If it happened to be that the young boy was rather introverted, and that he found comfort, a sense of achievement and belonging in the online community he participated in, is it any wonder he would be so upset to lose this social network?
The early 1980’s saw the first videogame objectors and subsequent investigation. Opponents argued that videogames had no “pedagogical benefit” (Griffith et al. 155). In 1983 a study conducted by Griffith et al. concluded decisively that videogame players possess superior eye-hand coordination to non-users (158). Note that the focus had not yet shifted to the violent content of videogames: the linchpin of the objectors was pedagogical merit. Indeed, this is further ground to suggest a sincere misconception of videogaming, a result of impetuousness rather than constructive analysis. Long before the focus shifted to the violence found in videogames, television and comic books witnessed their share of scrutiny. In 1980, Tan & Scruggs performed a study on almost one hundred elementary school children and the effects of comic books. The researchers found no level of increased physical or verbal aggression (Tan & Scruggs 579). Children were given either a violent or nonviolent comic book to read. Afterwards, the subjects were measured with an aggression response hierarchy adapted from a similar study involving television. The methods for detecting media effects have changed slightly but conclusions surrounding increased violent behaviour remain elusive.
There is a growing chorus of researchers who blame this elusiveness on the definitions of violence and aggression, and advocate a narrowing-down of the terms used in media effects investigations. In videogame effects research, a “violent action” is typically broadly defined as any action by which the player can harm any other character in the game. An effect can be measured in terms of a physiological or mentally reported change (for example, in excitement level). Further, levels of aggression are measured by the presence of aggressive words used by participants in their responses to word-completion questionnaires, and based on how courteous participants deem their instructor to be. Violence and aggressive responses were defined this way in two studies carried out by Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad (2005) and Chory et al. (2007). In the first, subjects who played the violent videogame ranked their instructor as less courteous and deserving of a research grant than did those who played the nonviolent game (Cicchirillo & Chory-Assad 443). However, the latter study revealed conflicting results. Players of the first-person shooter game DOOM III experienced less arousal than did those playing SSX (a nonviolent game). And the control group gave lower scores to the instructor than did those who played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (a violent game) and SSX (Chory et al. 16). This is clearly in direct opposition to Bushman & Anderson’s (2002) conclusions that playing violent videogames leads to increased aggression.
It is because of the prevalence of inconsistency in this field of research that led researchers Eastin & Griffiths (2006) to examine the impact of presence (the degree of feeling a player has of “being in the game”) across media platforms (standard desktop and virtual reality) and the content of the game. They found that a fist fighting game produced far more hostile expectations in players than did the first-person shooter (Eastin & Griffiths 452). They believe this is the case because fist fighting has a higher degree of salience to their users (note that their subjects were male-only) (452). The idea of salience ties in to cognitive priming: the majority of subjects in the study have probably been in some kind of physical altercation at school as boys, whereas the majority of them probably have never fired a gun, let alone in anger. As a consequence, the researchers recommend that greater attention be paid to the content of videogames. Similar contrasts could be seen in the study conducted by Chory et al. (2007) when the researchers isolated different personality traits such as neuroticism, intellectualism, and conscientiousness. Results indicate the more neurotic or conscientious a person is, the more likely they are to experience aggressive affect as a result of playing a violent videogame (Chory et al. 17). Therefore, the researchers call for further inquiry into the moderating role personality has on the effects of violent videogames.
Ivory & Kalyanaraman (2007) sought to hem in causes of videogaming effects by investigating, specifically, the ramifications of technological advancement in the field. They recall the statement by Schneider et al. (2004) that it is probably unwarranted to generalize the findings of video game research made in the 80’s and early 90’s to the modern experience (Ivory & Kalyanaraman 533). They were able to show that technological advancement in video games increased player’s sense of presence, feelings of involvement and arousal, but did not affect aggressive thoughts or feelings (Ivory & Kalyanaraman 547). Persky & Blascovich (2007), in a similar vein to Eastin & Griffiths (2006) study, investigated the effects of violent and nonviolent videogame play on desktop computers versus virtual reality. This time, they decided to measure artistic thoughts alongside aggressive ones. They found that playing the violent videogame in VR caused players to indicate more aggressive thoughts than when played on the desktop, but the artistic thoughts did not show the same translation across platforms (Persky & Blascovich 149). It is clear that a blanket “violent-versus-nonviolent” measuring convention for violent videogame effects is wholly insufficient.
Third-person perception may help to explain the apprehensive attitude parents (and many others) have toward videogaming. Third-person perception is the idea that other people are more susceptible to media effects than are others (Scharrer & Leone 261). Scharrer & Leone (2006) ascertained that people consider themselves impervious to the effects of violent videogaming compared to others and especially those younger than themselves (Scharrer & Leone 277). They also revealed that people consider others to be more susceptible to the aggression effects (i.e. the effect of making the user behave violently) than themselves (Scharrer & Leone 277). Add to this the findings of Nikken & Sanneke (2007), where seventy-eight percent of respondents (who were all parents) said they wanted a rating system with respect to harmful content in violent videogames (323). The same study reported that the less experience parents had with videogames themselves, the stronger their views were on negative effects of gaming in children (Nikken & Sanneke 326). Consistent with the Scharrer & Leone (2007) study, Nikken & Sanneke (2007) found parents of younger children were significantly more concerned about the content of the videogames their children were playing (324). Based on these findings, it can be said that the parents of the boy mentioned earlier likely have little experience with Call of Duty.
Given that most parents probably do not have the same amount of time to dedicate to playing videogames as their children, the cacophony of concern surrounding their potentially harmful effects is not surprising. The parents who do genuinely wish to shield their children from the effects of videogames, harmful or otherwise, may wish to take note of Kate Fitzgerald’s (1994) findings. She found the very act of discouraging children to play videogames increased their desire to play them (Fitzgerald S-2). Indeed, placing the label “Mature” on the cover of a videogame made it even more enticing (Fitzgerald S-2). This can partly be explained using the investigation by Lucas & Sherry (2004), in which the researchers utilized the principles of uses and gratifications theory and Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation (FIRO) theory to explain variations of videogame play among the sexes. This fascinating study illustrates basic differences between the sexes and the importance they put on competition, challenge, social interaction, diversion, fantasy, and arousal. Lucas & Sherry found that males rank social interaction high on the list of their gratifications, and as such it was a frequent motivator of gaming (514). This further supports Fitzgerald’s findings in that, labeling a videogame errant may be associating the game with a social group a child wishes to be identified with, “the cool kids” as it were, or those who play the videogame, which in turn makes the desire to fulfill social interaction in this regard all the greater.
Lucas & Sherry also found that girls play videogames far less for social gratification than do males (514), and so they would probably be less motivated to play a game as a result of a mature rating. More research would have to be done to confirm this. Scharrer & Leone report females videogame far less than do males, partly as a result of being discouraged to do so socially, and this disadvantages them in terms of finding a technology-oriented career (500). This is because the girls miss out on an early socialization with computer technology (Scharrer & Leone 500). Hector Postigo (2007) conducted a study on the value of “modders” (members of the gaming community who modify their games) in the gaming industry. Some “modders” modify the games they play for fun, some for notoriety, and many for experience in order to increase their chances of getting a job in the videogaming industry (Postigo 310). The portfolios of female gaming industry hopefuls are disadvantaged from birth.
There is, of course, the other side of the coin. One study by Lee et al. (2006) concluded that role-playing videogames resulted in real-life emulation of the player’s in-game characters. The test involved a control group, and another group that played the violent videogame True Crime. Members of each group were asked to judge the real-life criminal cases of two police officers and two civilians: one severe case and one mild case for both the police officer category and the civilian category. The researchers revealed that after two hours of playing True Crime, the game-playing group judged more leniently the crimes of the police officers (Lee et al. 16). The researchers reasoned that, when playing as the police officer, the players identified themselves more strongly with the character than if they had simply been watching him (Lee et al. 16). This report leaves many questions unanswered. The Lee et al. (2006) study included only very light gamers with an average of 55 minutes experience in videogaming (with no reference, i.e. per week, month, year) (20), most participants were female, subjects were encouraged to “catch criminals at any cost,” and the top scorers of the game were promised a prize, along with a raffle draw for a PlayStation 2 which all participants had a chance of winning (11). These and other elements of this study make it hard to compare to bodies of work that deal with similar themes. There was no test that dealt with other content, such as a nonviolent game, which could have been used for comparison: recall Eastin & Griffiths (2006) report, which considers presence, priming, and salience of actions in context within videogames (see above). The possibility that other game-types could encourage positive behaviour was only very briefly discussed. And an untrue assumption formed the basis of some of their main hypotheses: that violence in videogames always goes unpunished. In one of the most notorious games of current times, the Grand Theft Auto series, dispensing violence (especially gratuitous violence) warrants a quick response by authorities. In cases where a player’s character becomes out of control, the military is called in to “take care of” the character, with the efficiency the military profession affords.
Later research has emerged which continues to discount the claims made by Lee et al. (2006). Simkins & Steinkuehler’s (2008) extensive ethnographic study interviews participants, and asks them to recount particularly interesting moments, in-game, where they had to exercise some kind of ethical reasoning. Their findings lead the researchers to hypothesize that violent videogames, actually encourage empathy, tolerance, and understanding for others (Simkins & Steinkuehler 352). They further add to the chorus of researchers calling for consideration of game content and context (Simkins & Steinkuehler 334). Additionally, in Devane & Squire’s (2008) study, the researchers found that the teenaged gamers they interviewed were fully aware that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was not reality (343). The researchers posit, “In short, values and norms that shape and legitimize meaning making are fundamentally social and enacted through discourses” (Devane & Squire 348). One group of interviewees, from a reputedly rough neighbourhood, strongly rejected (and appeared nearly to be offended) that the very-real violence occurring in their communities could be the result of a videogame (Devane & Squire 345). Perhaps it is the effect of the third-person perspective, discussed earlier, which causes so many people to undervalue the ability of young people to decipher reality from make-believe.
Fear of the effects of various media has permeated the human psyche for as long as media has existed, and for just as long, there has been no hard evidence to justify this suspicion. Despite this, there remains intense disagreement amongst academic circles and the public over this debate. Research, which seeks to debunk the mysteries of media effects, is produced in larger quantities every year. Part of the drive for this research is fueled by the fear proponents of videogame censorship have about the evil nature of videogames. A recent news release quoted parents as blaming the disappearance of their son on the friends he made in an online gaming community. As there were no grounds to support this conjecture, it simply revealed their lack of understanding of their son’s pastime. Indeed, one of the only studies done on the nature of communication in online settings found that the majority of it is positively socioemotional.
The first analysis of the effects of videogaming began emerging in the early 1980’s. Before that, comic books and television had been investigated for quite some time. The general method of aggression-detection was to use a catchall categorization scheme of violent or nonviolent actions found within a narrative, and then rate a respondent’s answers to a word-completion (or similar) test as aggressive or non-aggressive. In the study of videogame effects, violence has most commonly been defined as any action that the player can take to harm other characters in the game. Participants would often be asked to complete an evaluation of their instructor, and their level of aggression would be calculated from this. Using this setup, conclusions have always remained elusive. Studies and hard data often conflict with each other.
As a consequence, researchers have begun to narrow their searches. Studies have begun to include factors such as presence, identification, content, action salience, platforms, technological advancement, and personality traits, such as neuroticism, intellectualism, and conscientiousness. Preliminary results of isolating these variables have been promising. Still, consistency is lacking: oftentimes the effects of exposure to violent content do not translate to other forms of content. Researchers call for further inquiry into the moderating role of various factors in the gaming experience.
Scharrer & Leone have demonstrated that the third-person perspective assists in forming people’s anxieties regarding the effects of videogaming: they have shown that most consider themselves impervious to the effects of violent videogames compared to others, especially those that are younger. They also showed that people tend to believe others are more susceptible to aggression affects than themselves. Nikken & Sanneke found that parents who had little gaming experience held the strongest views on negative effects of gaming in children. The instinct to protect one’s children combined with ignorance can be a powerful force.
Indeed, Fitzgerald has shown that labeling a videogame as violent often serves only to increase a child’s desire to play that game. This ties in to a person’s need for social inclusion, as illustrated by Scharrer & Leone using FIRO theory. Further, that women are discouraged socially (and otherwise, the games are often not girl-oriented) from videogaming, they are put at a disadvantage when compared to boys, who gain an early socialization with technology.
Some feel that the role-playing aspect of videogaming affords this medium a potent power to influence the judgement of players. One study found that players who played a corrupt police officer in the videogame True Crime judged the cases of real-life police-officers-turned-criminals more leniently than did those in the control group. Beyond the questionable methods of this study, there is plenty of new research that continues to discount its claims. One study has even gone so far as to suggest that role-playing enhances a player’s critical ethical reasoning faculties. Yet another study has shown that young adults are able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality.
The author of this review proposes that a research initiative be undertaken to reveal the level of ability children (and all people) have to tell fantasy and reality apart. It is believed that the answer to this question would reveal a great deal about the effects videogames have upon humans. And in joining an ensemble of other researchers in this field, the author also recommends that the above-mentioned test be repeated as videogaming technology advances. It would be naïve to suggest that media has no effect on people. It is important that society be aware of any negative effects that could be a result of videogames, and any media for that matter. Armed with this knowledge, the human race stands equipped to improve its quality of life by avoiding the dangers, without unnecessarily restricting the freedoms of an enjoyable pastime.
Works Cited
Chory, Rebecca, et al. "Does Personality Moderate the Effects of Violent Video Game
Play on Aggression? an Exploratory Investigation." Conference Papers — International
Communication Association (2007): 1-.
Examined effects of violent video game play and personality, on aggressive cognition, affect, arousal, and behavior. Research shows violent video game play associated with higher levels of aggressive thoughts, feelings, behaviours, increased physiological arousal, lower levels of pro-social behaviour. Establishes a need for moving beyond the practice of identifying existence of negative effects of violent videogames, and on to examining potential moderators of relationship between violent video game play and aggressive outcomes. Posit that no research examines basic personality as moderator of violent game effects using experimental design, and this study seeks to change that. Employed Anderson & Bushman’s 2002 general aggression model. Violent videogames defined as games in which player can harm other characters in the game. A measure of personality test was taken, four weeks later subjects randomly assigned to one of four situations: playing first person shooter violent videogame, third person violent shooter game, nonviolent videogame, and control. Videogame play interacted with neuroticism, intellectualism, and conscientiousness to predict aggressive cognition, affect, and arousal. It appears the more neurotic or conscientious a person is, the more likely they are to experience aggressive affect. The latter is perhaps a result of the individual identifying more intensely with the plight of in-game characters. This research is headed in a direction that promises to be more fruitful than the oversimplified nonviolent/violent game interaction model.
Cicchirillo, Vincent, and Rebecca M. Chory-Assad. "Effects of Affective Orientation
and Video Game Play on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.4 (2005): 435-49.
Study examined the influence of violent videogame-play on aggressive thoughts and behaviours, and the moderating role of affective orientation in the perceived violent videogame-aggression relationship. The authors are concerned with the potentially damaging effects of violent videogame play and seek to further an understanding of any relationship that may exist in this regard. Cited are facts outlining the prevalence of violent depictions found in videogames, even those games that are designated as suitable for all audiences. Researchers hypothesize that affective orientation and the video game condition will interact to predict aggressive thoughts and behaviour such that individuals who are higher in affective orientation and play the violent game will report more aggressive thoughts and engage in more aggressive behaviour after play, as opposed to those who played the nonviolent videogame. A Sony Playstation 2 and 32-inch flat screen TV were provided, along with the violent videogame Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and nonviolent videogame Tetris Worlds. Affective orientation was measured, two weeks later participants played 10 minutes of their assigned game, and then were asked to fill in a word-completion essay. They were then asked to judge the researchers courtesy and deservedness of financial support. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants in the violent video game condition rated the researcher as less courteous (M=9.81) than did participants in the nonviolent game condition (M=10.31). Affective orientation predicted how violent videogame players would rate the researcher’s courteousness but did not affect evaluations of researcher’s competence or their own aggressive thoughts. Is it possible that ratings of the instructor’s competence were being made more fairly? Could it be that those who played the nonviolent videogame are giving the instructor an “easy ride”? How would a female researcher have been rated?
Devane, Ben, and Kurt D. Squire. "The Meaning of Race and Violence in Grand Theft
Auto: San Andreas." Games And Culture 3.3-4 (2008): 264-85.
Concerned with the meaning-making of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas players, particularly concerning violence and concepts of race. There is a notion that those who play games such as GTA:SA gain their enjoyment solely by relating what they experience in the game back to real-life experiences that they obtain from their environment. Those concerned with this notion feel that players who enter the world of GTA:SA (and similar games) need to mould their lives to reflect the criminal ones they role-play. The researchers posit that players use their own experience and knowledge to interpret the game – they do not passively receive the game images and content. Three different ethnic or social groups of four participants each (white social “outcasts” known as the “gamers”, black basketball athletes, and casual gamers) were interviewed by the researchers in a focus-group setting. The gamers felt that the videogames could negatively affect the “wrong person”; the athletes disagreed with the gamers. For the athletes, “the notion that violence in their neighbourhoods, which had very substantial and real underlying causes, would actually be caused by playing a videogame was unbelievable.” The gamers immediately called out the negative stereotypes of black people. The athletes again had a very different view from the gamers: they felt the game adequately portrayed races, and accurately portrayed the police as racist. All groups are convinced that the game is in large part a satire of media representations. The researchers conclude that research which looks solely at decontextualized play and refuses to acknowledge the agency of players in making meaning is ultimately insufficient.
Eastin, Matthew S., and Robert P. Griffiths. "Beyond the Shooter Game: Examining
Presence and Hostile Outcomes among Male Game Players." Communication Research 33.6 (2006): 448-66.
Seeks to establish current models of testing for videogame effects are inadequate, underestimate complexity of contemporary videogame play, and that “violent” and “non-violent” interaction categories are too broad. It is thought violent games affect short-term outcomes such as aggression. Test virtual reality environment versus standard console/television setup for increased presence and aggressive affect. Investigated possibility of heightened presence in multiplayer combat scenarios. Found content of games made large impact on degree of presence and hostile expectation biases. Games that require more familiar forms of aggressive behavior, such as fist-fighting, elicited greater hostile expectations beyond that of shooter games. Data indicate that although the shooting game produced greater presence, the fist-fighting game produced significantly greater hostile expectation. Interactions suggest that as gaming technology continues to advance, the complexity of the videogame research agenda needs to be examined beyond the simple console games and broad categories of violence. It is clear from this research that game interface and game content do influence presence and hostile expectations. As this research was conducted, Internet voice communication in videogames was beginning to become popular: it is suggested by the author of this review that voice-communication be a necessary avenue of investigation in the future to determine its effects on presence. Overall, a very thorough analysis.
Fitzgerald, Kate. "Protecting Kids from Games a Tender Trap." Advertising Age 65.7
(1994): S,2; S-6.
Griffith, J. L. "Differences in Eye-Hand Motor Co-Ordination of Videogame Users and Non-Users." Perceptual and motor skills 57.1 (1983): 155-8.
Take note that this article was published in 1983: “Recent” proliferation of electronic videogames caused researchers to respond to public outcries from those who questioned the merits of videogames, while others maintained the games improve eye-hand coordination. Those who were opposed to videogames questioned their “pedagogical merit.” Data in this study supported the improved eye-hand coordination claim empirically. Two groups of people were taken into test conditions: those who reported extensive videogame experience and those with none. The data clearly showed that videogame users have substantially superior eye-hand coordination than a matched sample of non-users. It may be fruitful to take note of the videogame opposition’s evolution over the years. In 1983, researchers were responding to blanket outcries against videogames – there was not even a distinction between violent and nonviolent games yet. This suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of (or apathy toward) the videogaming community by a large portion of the population.
Ivory, James D., and Sriram Kalyanaraman. "The Effects of Technological
Advancement and Violent Content in Video Games on Players’ Feelings of Presence, Involvement, Physiological Arousal, and Aggression." Journal of Communication 57.3 (2007): 532-55.
Issue centers around debate concerning effects of violent videogames on cognition. Seeks to understand the effects of technological advancement in videogames on various experience factors such as presence. Bushman and Anderson claim that enough evidence exists to conclusively link violent games to real-life aggression, but others maintain there is not sufficient support. Recalls Schneider et al. (2004) conclusion that it is probably unwarranted to generalize the findings of video game research in the 80’s and early 90’s to the modern experience. Method employed a two-by-two experimental framework to examine interplay of technological advancement by exposing participants to either a newer or older version of a violent or nonviolent game and measuring these factors effects on player’s sense of presence, involvement, physiological arousal, self-reported arousal, and affective and cognitive aggression. Results show that technological advancement in video games increased player’s sense of presence, feelings of involvement, and arousal but did not significantly affect aggressive thoughts or feelings. Violence had no significant affect on presence, involvement, arousal, or aggressive thoughts but may have increased participants hostility. These findings are in direct opposition to Anderson et al.’s findings concerning the same experiences of violent videogames and further call for more specific research inquiries such as this one.
Lee, Kwan Min, Julian Klein, and Wei Peng. Will Role Playing Video Game Influence
how You Judge? Favoritism Towards Similar Roles and Social Judgments Towards Criminality. International Communication Association, 2006.
Article concerned over the influence role-playing games will have on how players make social judgements concerning criminality. If their conjecture is true, it has somewhat concerning implications for the jury selection process and health educators. Researchers posit that role-players develop identification with the character whom they vicariously adopt as themselves, and such identification can cause cognitive rehearsal of the beliefs and values embodied by this character. Subsequently this leads to increased acceptance of criminal behaviour in the cases where role-players assume the identity of a violent felon. The researchers employed a two-by-two mixed design experiment: participants in the experiment group played True Crime, the videogame, assuming the role of a violent police officer. A control group did not play the game. Afterwards, both groups were asked to assess the real-life crime cases of two police officers and two civilians. The researchers found those who had played True Crime beforehand deemed the police officers deserving of lighter sentences than they received in real life. The researchers conclude that violent videogame playing results in a more lenient attitude toward crime. There appear to be dozens of problems with this research experiment. Firstly, the differences between the control group and the play group are extremely small; less than five percent difference in assigned prison sentences. This research also goes against the majority of other research in this area. For example, their hypothesis is partially built on the notion that viewing violent material on television makes people more aggressive, an idea which is heavily contradicted by the findings conducted around Gerbner’s cultivation theory.
Lucas, Kristen, and John L. Sherry. "Sex Differences in Video Game Play:: A
Communication-Based Explanation." Communication Research 31.5 (2004): 499-523.
Study examined gender differences in video game use by focusing on interpersonal needs for inclusion, affection, and control, as well as socially constructed perceptions of gender and game play. Videogame playing can have positive technology-socializing affects, giving players an advantage in tech-savvy jobs in the future. Females play far less videogames and are simply not enjoying the advantages that boys do in technological fields. Lucas and Sherry developed a comprehensive player based videogame uses and gratifications scale and invoked Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation Theory (FIRO) to hypothesize that: young women will be less likely to be video game players than young men or vice versa, young women will be less motivated to play VGs by the gratification of social interaction than young men, young men and young women will be highly motivated to play video games by challenge, young women will enjoy non-mental rotation games more than men, and so on. Results were based off of a large scale survey (n=534) of young adults reasons for video game use, preferred game genres, amount of game play reported and so on. Females reported less frequent play, less motivation to play in social situations, and felt less oriented in the game world (that they did not have a “place”). All eight hypotheses were confirmed. Part of the problem, as the authors posit, is that videogames don’t meet women’s needs according to FIRO. They also suggest that so called “girl-games” must be created but that is not as simple as it sounds.
Murray, J.H. “Immersion.” Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in
Cyberspace, Murray, J.H. Mit Press, 1997. Pages 97-125.
Nikken, Peter, Jeroen Jansz, and Sanneke Schouwstra. "Parents’ Interest in Videogame Ratings and Content Descriptors in Relation to Game Mediation." European Journal Of Communication 22.3 (2007): 315-36.
Research aims to clarify issue of conflicting reports regarding parent’s involvement and concern about their children’s videogame selections. Anderson et al. has established that 90% of parents do not care about their children’s videogame selection. The issue is of potentially grave concern if some research establishing links between violent behavior and violent videogame playing are to be believed. The authors established several research questions, asking: to what extent do parents want to be informed about the age level and possible harmful content of videogames with regard to children up to 18 years old, which types of videogame content are important to the parents, what are the relationships between videogame behavior of both children and parents, what is the relationship between the parents interest in videogame ratings and the content descriptors, how the parents education level is a factor, and so on. An internet survey of 765 parents examined these questions. The sample of parents consisted of more mothers than fathers. Parents level of education was assessed according to categories used in the Dutch school system. The vast majority felt age ratings necessary and 78 percent wanted a rating with respect to possibly harmful content. Parents who had less experience of playing videogames themselves or had children that played less, had stronger views of negative gaming effects on their children. Anderson et al. findings were rejected outright by this study. Findings and conclusions of this study probably carry a high degree of accuracy; an anonymous internet survey does not present a high degree of possibility that parents would lie to save face regarding concern for their children.
Peña, Jorge, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. "An Analysis of Socioemotional and Task
Communication in Online Multiplayer Video Games." Communication Research 33.1 (2006): 92-109.
Many research initiatives which seek to understand the effects of violent videogaming, take only into account the task-oriented aspect of the games they study. This study investigates the socioemotional and task-oriented content of text messages produced by participants of an online video game. Invoking the principles of Social Information Processing Theory, the researchers predict that online video game participants will produce more socioemotional than task communication, that it will be more positive than negative in nature, that more experienced gamers will express more socioemotional communication than less experienced participants, and the more experienced gamers will use computer mediated communication (CMC) conventions (such as emotes) more often than the less experienced. The researchers collected 5,826 text messages produced by 65 participants while interacting in “Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast”. It was found that the “vast majority of messages were socioemotional and positively valenced, despite the ostensible game objective of fighting other participants.” The researchers posit that all future research into recreational CMC needs to involve the goals and levels of communication that underlie recreational interaction. This study adds to a growing body of research that suggests the purpose of an interaction, rather than the medium in which it takes place, is more important in determining how people communicate. This is extremely relevant research, as a huge proportion of videogames released today are multiplayer-oriented. Take, for example, “left4dead”, a videogame that was released in November of 2008. It is a multiplayer only game, and it is wildly popular at the time of writing (December 2008).
Persky, Susan, and Jim Blascovich. "Immersive Virtual Environments Versus
Traditional Platforms: Effects of Violent and Nonviolent Video Game Play." Media Psychology 10.1 (2007): 135-56.
Study focused on the effects of game platform (desktop versus immersive virtual environment, IVE), content (violent/non-violent), and player sex on videogame play influence. The idea that videogame playing, particularly violent videogame playing, causes aggressive thoughts and behaviours has been a contentious topic and the authors seek to shed more light on the topic. The authors made no hypotheses prior to executing their research. The method involved two platforms (desktop and IVE), both males and females, and two types of games: violent and non-violent. Interestingly, the authors developed their own videogames the benefit of which they could keep elements of gameplay experience consistent across subjects, and even keep the appearance of the two games similar. Results included enjoyment and boredom data, which indicated that subjects enjoyed playing the violent videogame more than the nonviolent game. Physiological data reported more arousal and aggression whilst playing the violent videogame; although, subjects did not agree that they felt any more aroused than they were after playing the nonviolent game. Subject reports indicate more aggressive thoughts after playing the violent videogame in IVE versus on the desktop, but artistic tendencies did not show the same increase across platforms. This is a glaring inconsistency, which begs for more research, and the researchers agree: is there something special about violent stimulus? The simple violent vs. nonviolent approach to videogame categorization is inadequate. Indeed, the authors suggest that more attention needs to be paid to the game content and the platform on which the games are played.
Philip, Elizabeth. “Internet Addiction a Costly Habit, Experts Say.” CTV.ca. October
22nd, 2008. Accessed: December 2008. <http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081022/internet_addiction_081022/20081022/>
Postigo, Hector. "Of Mods and Modders: Chasing Down the Value of Fan-Based
Digital Game Modifications." Games And Culture 2.4 (2007): 300-13.
Scharrer, Erica, and Ron Leone. "I Know You are but what Am I? Young People’s
Perceptions of Varying Types of Video Game Influence." Mass Communication & Society 9.3 (2006): 261-86.
Simkins, David W., and Constance Steinkuehler. "Critical Ethical Reasoning and Role-
Play." Games And Culture 3.3-4 (2008): 333-55.
Tan, Alexis S., and Kermit Joseph Scruggs. "Does Exposure to Comic Book Violence
Lead to Aggression in Children?" Journalism Quarterly 57.4 (1980): 579-83.
Purpose of investigation is to determine whether short-term reading of violent comic books causes aggression in children. In 1975, more than 400 million comic books were sold in the United States. The potential for comic books to influence children is vast. By reading comic books, children could learn how to behave in more aggressive ways. The experimenters used a two-by-two factorial design to test the hypothesis. Independent variable manipulated was reading of violent or nonviolent comic books. Subjects were also analyzed according to sex. A sample size of 95 children was taken. Results showed that there are no subsequent physical, verbal, or physical plus verbal aggression increases found within children after reading any kind of comic book. This study does not support the hypothesis that reading violent comic books leads to greater aggression among children. There are several issues with this study that make hard a comparison to the other sources in this literature review: there was no affective orientation test given before the children read the comics and further, the comics that the sample read were not consistent; each child had a separate comic book with a different storyline. Nevertheless, the existence of this study is a testament to the worrisome nature of violent print media when comic books were the dominant form of storytelling among children. The hunt for a perpetrator of violence among popular media has been in progress since the printing press was invented. Could it be that the nature of these pieces of media offend a portion of the population’s sensibilities, religious or otherwise, and this keeps them from recognizing perhaps it is human nature that creates the content of the story – and not the other way around?
