Study reports violent gaming is desensitizing

bollocks, and i'll kill anyone who says otherwise...

Morder, that was funny :)

I'm kinda iffy on this issue. I play lots of violent games, all the way back to Mortal Kombat on the Genesis. Personally, I am a little desensitized to violent imagery.

I'd be curious to see how many women were involved in this study, because I've noticed that men are generally less shocked by violent imagery anyway. Men are more attracted to gory horror movies, etc.

Still, when I see real life violence--war, shootings, etc.--I do feel shock and sometimes sadness.

It's weird because I can watch Braveheart and laugh when some poor schlub gets hit in the head with a hammer, but watching the opening scene to Saving Private Ryan makes my stomach turn.

I am desensitized in some ways I suppose, but I'm still human. I know the difference between fantasy and real suffering.

This could be sort of a chicken/egg thing.

Quite possibly, maybe the people that played video games weren't as sensitive in the first place. Not everyone starts on the same scale at 0 and works their way down or up. What if certain people play violent video games because they can tollerate it already.

I can handle shooting people up in video games, but there's no way I like to see real dead bodies or people being executed ... heck, I don't even like those surgery shows.

personally, I've avoided a number of traffic accidents because of video racing games. I've gotten used to the physics, the sliding, and come across some near-impossible driving scenarios when playing videogames that nothing on the road phases me.

I don't mind admitting that watching my first 18-rated film when I was 7, then growing up playing Resident Evil has made me, as a 23-year-old, capable of watching some pretty violent films and games without being particularly bothered by it (although I am still bothered by really extreme violence). But does this mean that I would accept the same violence if I saw it in real life?! Or that I would commit the acts of violence myself?! Of course not...what a load of rubbish.

If they get rid of violent video games they better get rid of violent music and movies. I think movies are worst than games because it involves real people.

Here's a quote from an article about some of the good video games bring

http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-05/features/brain-on-video-games/

quote:

Complex video games require far more than simple hand-eye coordination. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the latest installment in a popular Tom Clancy–inspired series, taxes stealth and navigational skills as the player explores huge virtual environments in the guise of an undercover federal agent. To complete the game, you need to think simultaneously on four distinct levels.

1. MANUAL INTERFACE

To control the movements and actions of your on-screen character, you must memorize several dozen distinct button combinations on a video console handset or a PC keyboard (far left). That’s a far cry from the simple jump-or-shoot interfaces of primitive arcade-style games.

2. CHARACTER VIEW

As the game progresses, you take in a shifting landscape of information about the virtual world, such as the sudden appearance of enemies, visual cues that suggest the existence of a puzzle to be solved, and overlaid interface elements that track your character’s health.

3. INTERNALIZED MAP

Most games involve exploring vast worlds as you struggle to learn the rules. You must remember all the twists and turns you’ve made, or you’ll get hopelessly lost. Lose your bearings on this giant ship in Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and your character may end up dead.

4. BALANCING ACT

Playing complex games involves juggling multiple objectives, choosing what to prioritize and what to defer. The goals affect decision making on other conceptual levels: which buttons to press, how you interact with other characters, and which areas you choose to explore.

well I can't stand to see real people being shot but in games It's cool because it's NOT REAL! Now don't get me wrong I have seen videos from Iraq when they show a thermial Vision of a Guy exploding from a Black Hawk Bullet hiting him and thinking that was the coolest thing I had ever saw. But then again that was someone getting ready to kill other people so he got what was coming.

To each his own I guess.

In related news: Water is wet, and dying hurts!

Seriously though, I admit that I am desensitized due to my video game lifestyle... but regardless of how many gore-infested video games I play, seeing any images of actual violence makes me physically ill. I can't watch surgery on TV because I will get so ill that I will pass out. Images of people who have lost fingers or other accidents is right out! But I can go play SoF2 and blow chunks of someone's head off in a virtual environment without any remorse or ill-feelings. I guess unlike the media's representation of gamers, I have a strong foothold in reality and do not get confused as to what is real and what is 'make believe.'

Also how can they say that people who play games are less responsive to violent imagery? It all depends on the person, how they were raised, and what they were exposed to. "Game players may have reduced inhibitions and thus may be more aggressive"??? Everyone that plays video games also watches movies and listens to music. So they can't put all of the blame on games.

Video games have warped my fragile little mind. At least that's what they tell me.

In all seriousness, a game like RE 4 is messed up. No doubt about it. It's frightening, gory, and just incredibly violent. And that's the main reason it's so. fucking. awesome.

But I'd understand if a mom didn't want their 8 year old to play it.

This post makes no sense, so tell the people, yada yada...

If the study is sound, so be it. But I love how it's never mentioned in any of the writeups of these studies that the first thing that desensitizes us to violence is real violence. Like war. Ban the videogame, keep the real thing!

Violet gaming desensitizing - A deplorable thing until you're 18 years old. Then Uncle Sam wants you!! First-person sims are used all the time in the military. So, violence is only alright if it is in the culmination of killing others...

Oh, in the name of the United States. Otherwise, no soup for you

I play violent games, and I know for a fact I'd turn a colour beyond white if someone put me up against an army.

That is funny. Ban violent material in games, but let us watch and hear it on tv.

In related news, studies reported that individuals who are exposed to large amount of water have a tendency to become wet.

I know I for one like to jump on turtles and then kick their shells...and after eating mushrooms and bright flowers I'm bigger and can throw fireballs.

Probably something to it.

:)

Thats a bunch of rubbish I've been watching rated R, NC-17, to X-Rated movies since far back as I can remember (maybe 10 years old or younger). And playing mortal kombat and violent games of such. It doesn't affect me when I watch violent or play violent movies but its because I know in back of my head its just fantasy. But if I watch a video of something real a person getting killed or blood it does shock me, even if someone gets punched at the bar, I still go into some kind of shock. There are so many variables involved, to the person already being proned to violence, abused, low self esteem, I mean I can go on!

I'm a medical professional working both ER and prehospital, and we discuss dinner while picking body parts off the highway or stuffing guts back into a patient on the stretcher. On the other hand, when I watch a flick like Saw2 I'll still cringe.

I've been hit by two drunk drivers and will gladly testify that improved eye-hand coordination is why I was able to walk away both times.

I would be very interested in reading (and may track down the Journel of Experimental Social Psychology) the study since it sounds like their controls were questionable.

After seeing Goat-se for the first time, nothing else is shocking, and or disturbing.

And how can they be sure that all their test subjects weren't "desensitized" from watching the Iraqi War on TV, or watching movies or violent television shows? How can they be sure these people weren't exposed to ANY other violent images except those in video games?

Further, maybe their conclusion is backwards. Perhaps people who play violent video games are ALREADY desensitized to violent images, and choose to play the games BECAUSE of this. Perhaps this desensitization is a built-in thing, like people who can't taste certain flavors, or people who can't handle vertigo. There's no way for them to know it wasn't a pre-existing condition unless they've been testing these gamers from birth and also testing a control group who never saw ANY violent images.

This is a BS study. `Too many holes, in my opinion.

I think be desensitized can be an advantage. Imagine getting in a car wreck. Now, instead of freaking out because someone lost and arm and is spraying blood, if you're desenstized you'd just throw a tournaquet on that, and possibly save the guy's life.

The only thing that got me recently was watching some TLC show on heart surgery and the doctor just plopped the old heart right there in a pan, and it was still twitching. That's a bit disturbing. Otherwise, I'm good to go!

So, why is the generation that has never known a world without video games less violent than its predecessors? The violent crime statistics make it clear that a teenager in 2005 is less likely to be involved in a violent crime than in 1985 despite that teenager of yore having very little video game exposure or only to games that made things very abstract.

To what are kids exposed to simulated scenes of violence being desensitized other than more scenes of simulated violence? When the original 'Dawn of the Dead' hit theaters I was 14 and it was by far the most shocking thing most audiences had ever beheld. (The first time I saw it almost two-thirds of the audience had left before the last reel.) Yet I would still be deeply shocked if I saw anything remotely like that in real life. I've consumed a massive volume of cinematic violence but far, far milder events in real life, like a fistfight unexpectantly breaking out nearby, still produces a reaction.

I couldn't begin to count the number of cars I've seen destroyed on sreen in ways that could mean death or horrible injury for the driver or passengers but the sight of a far lesser crash with an ambulance or paramedic nearby still evokes concern.

In my youth, nuclear war was depicted so frequently it seemed a certainty but to this day nuclear weapons have only been used in war twice. You'd think after all the mushroom clouds I've seen in movies and TV my generation would be desensitized and inclined to use them against anyone who pisses us off. But no, somehow we know the difference between entertainment and real life.

As has been pointed out before, violent crimes have actually been declining with the progress of video games. Perhaps we're not de-sensitized, but are instead educated.

DOJ Violent Crime Rates Declining
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/viort.htm

This is what you call "political bullshit". The statistics show that violent crimes have declined with the advancement of video games in the youth community. People just like having something new to debate/bitch about. I agree with jACK (#23), 20 years ago compared to today we're more educated with crimes and the consequences that come with commiting those crimes.

From my personal experience, that does not seem to be the case at all.

The majority of games I play are first person shooters - yet I'm still freaked out just as easily by REAL bodies, real people hurt. I'm just as shocked by the news about murders, etc.

It's not games that desensitize people.