Violence In Gaming By: Vamsi Garghi What Is Violence In Video - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Violence In Gaming

By: Vamsi Garghi

What Is Violence In Video Games

• Definition of violence from Merriam-Webster Dictionary: The use of physical force

so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy.

• Violence in video games have been a factor since the 1990’s and it has continued to

rise in popularity.

• To understand this we need to talk a closer look at the history of violent video

games…

History of Violent Games

• In the 90’s there were a lot of games that had violence and gore in them.

○ Wolfenstein 3D, Golden eye, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D.

• As new consoles were released like the PlayStation 2 and Original Xbox, more and

more games were released that followed the same themes. ○ Star Wars BattleFront, Call of Duty Modern Warfare

• This era of gaming was the beginning of franchises that would focused on the

violent aspect of the games.

History of Violent Games Cont..

• After the PS2 and original Xbox, the main console that was used was the PS3 and

Xbox 360.

• This paved the way for game franchises to release games every year

○ For example: Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto

• These Franchise games were released every year, but always followed the same

themes because that's who they were targeting the content for.

A Case Study:

• A study that was published in March 2018 looking at the effects of violent video
• The scores for this study was based on questionnaires.
• 3 groups
• This results of this experiment showed little to no changes in the baselines scores
• f the subjects before and after the experiment.

Another Case Study

• A meta analysis research concluded that violence in video games does cause a

increase in aggressive behavior

• This behavior was more present in western cultures than eastern cultures

providing a link to ethnicity and geography as stressors for being influenced by violent games.

Effects on the mind

• Violence in video games mainly seem to affect the emotional and behavioral aspect
• f the brain
• A study published in 2017, that collected results from 116 scientific studies

showed that gaming actually improves your sustained attention, and selective attention.

• A study done in 2019, researched the effects of desensitization in college

students.

Gaming Addiction

• Gaming Addiction is a clinically proven disease that is most common in adolescence

teen.

• It is most commonly related to the same as gambling addiction.
• The increase of dopamine in your mind after you get a reward is what causes this problem.
• In violent games this reward would usually come from doing bad things like killing, or

stealing.

How its portrayed in the Media?

• Violence in media has always been used as a scapegoat for mass

shootings.

• One of the biggest shooting that has happened in the last three decades

is the Columbine School shooting ○ Doom was portrayed as one of the reasons for their actions ○ USPP has a personality profile of Dylan and Eric supports this.

• Since the Columbine shooting, other event such as Parkland shooting

have had the same themes.

Ethical theories

• Subjective Relativism

○ Each person can choose what is right and wrong.

• Cultural Relativism

○ We as a society has stated that violence in video games is ok as long as its restricted to certain age groups.

• Ethical Egoism

○ Each person should focus exclusively on his or her self interest

Conclusion

• Violence in video games is glorified in today's world because of gaming franchises

that have established themselves through the years.

• There is evidence that violence in video games cause aggressive behavior, and
• ther changes.
• There is also evidence that violence in video games have little to no effect in a

person brain.

• Violent video games are often the scapegoat for the media to blame mass shootings

when there is little connection to them.

Thank you!

Resources

• Kühn, S., Kugler, D., Schmalen, K. et al. Does playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal

intervention study. Mol Psychiatry 24, 1220–1234 (2019).

• Kühn, Simone, et al. “Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggression? A Longitudinal Intervention Study.”

Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 13 Mar. 2018, www.nature.com/articles/s41380-018-0031-7.

• Anderson, Craig A. “Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions.” American Psychological

Association, American Psychological Association, Oct. 2003, www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.

• Lovell, NIcholas. “If Video Games Cause Violence, There Should Be a Correlation between Game Sales and Violent

Crime, Right?” Gamesbrief, 6 Aug. 2010, www.gamesbrief.com/2010/08/if-video-games-cause-violence-there-should-be-a-correlation-between-game-sales

• and-violent-crime-right/.
• Dodgson, Lindsay. “There's Even More Evidence That Video Games Could Be Making Children Violent.” Business

Insider, Business Insider, 2 Oct. 2018, www.businessinsider.com/video-games-make-children-violent-according-to-study-2018-10.

• https://www.pnas.org/content/115/40/9882#ref-6
• Prescott, Anna T., et al. “Metaanalysis of the Relationship between Violent Video Game Play and Physical Aggression
• ver Time.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 2 Oct. 2018, www.pnas.org/content/115/40/9882#ref-6.
• Palaus, Marc, et al. “Neural Basis of Video Gaming: A Systematic Review.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 26 Apr. 2017,

www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00248/full.