An Editorial By Mr. Nevermore
posted at 9:11 AM on Tuesday, April 24th, 2001
Continued from page 1.
Those who back the movement to censor videogames, often cite psychological surveys which link video game play to increases in aggressive behavior. However, in reality, these studies are fundamentally lacking in awareness of what it means to play a video game. This issue was recently addressed at a conference hosted in February of 2000 by the Program in Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called, "Computer and Video Games Come of Age, A National Conference to Explore The Current State of an Emerging Entertainment Medium". During the course of these talks, a Professor of Psychology, Geoffrey Goldstein, who has instructed at several institutions both in the U.S. and internationally, had the following to say about what is required before real video game research can continue:
"It's very important to make the distinction between those two things [actual violence and dramatic violence]. Violence without the quotation marks - real violence - is frightening for children, has effects on them, emotional and physical effects on them. Whereas violence in Tom and Jerry cartoons, even dramatic violence, (although that can be borderline disturbing to many people, I will come back to that point in just a moment) is not, in fact, disturbing to people. They don't learn to be aggressive by playing so called violent video games. What's the behavior that may be reinforced when playing a violent video game? It seems to me the behavior that is reinforced is play rather than aggression. There is no aggression. When you talk to people who, in fact, play these games, what happens is they are conscious at the moment of not being aggressive, but of playing a game." Goldstein continues,
"Let me describe a typical study on this phenomenon with young children. A psychologist goes into a classroom and randomly divides the children into groups in which one group plays a violent video game, some Mortal Kombat or Doom type game. Another group, sort of a control group, plays a nonviolent game, some sort of puzzle game, and the third group may play no game at all. The children are then let loose on the playground where the psychologists observe their behavior - looking for aggressive behavior in particular. What they find is, after playing a Mortal Kombat style video game, kids, (especially boys) go out on the playground and they start doing martial arts moves. They pretend to be martial arts experts, and one of the important attractions of this kind of game for them is that it allows them, it even compels them to make sound effects."
/snip/
"So, the psychologists are observing these kids on the playground and there are kids doing all these martial arts things with all the noises that accompany them and they are going aggression, aggression, aggression, aggression. Compared to the people who play some other game or no game at all, it looks to the researcher as though these boys are being more aggressive and, therefore, violent video games cause aggressive behavior. Nonsense I say. Violent video games cause aggressive play. If we don't distinguish between aggressive play and aggressive behavior, we lose the whole value of play - which is to do things in fantasy that you don't actually have to carry out in reality."
Let's take a similar observation. A psychologist is standing watching these kids on the playground, and the boys are doing these martial arts things. The teachers and psychologists are saying, "Isn't it terrible that the boys are being aggressive?" Often what you see on the playground is - with some exceptions of course - girls in small groups standing or sitting around talking. Occasionally, a boy will chase them and then you get this sort of girl scream, playground scream that only you hear on the playground. But the teachers and the psychologists think that the boys are being aggressive and the girls are not. In reality, the boys are not being aggressive. The boys are playing. They are playing at fighting, but they are not being aggressive. There is no intention to injure anyone and, in fact, rarely do children get injured as a result of this kind of play. Imagine the girls are standing around saying, let's have a party on Friday night and let's not invite her. That's aggressive behavior. That's behavior designed to injure someone else. So, to the psychologist doing this research, they get the conclusion completely turned around. To them, the boys are aggressive and the girls are nice."
I think it is time that people, but mostly parents, came to one essential understanding. No one, no media or entertainment source, no educator or role model can influence your children as much as parents can. Parents who feel like they are losing their children to the unrelenting media presence in today's society are likely not providing enough attention and instruction themselves. If your children stare blankly at a television set for hours a day, but all you can think is, "thank god they're quiet and entertained", then you are part of the problem. No amount of sitting in front of a television can make a child disturbed enough to take the lives of 13 people. Lack of interaction, guidance, and the setting of limits from those who provide for a child, on the other hand, can be detrimental to a child's development. However, it is much easier for those afflicted with this American sickness to target a whipping-boy outside their own sphere of control than to turn the finger of blame back towards another like themselves. Sueing media giants will not bring your children back from some imaginary clutches. Your children are waiting patiently for you to bring them back.
I'd just like to urge all our readers to head over to the full transcript of this talk by following this link. This type of public exposure is the first step to disseminating an informed and intelligent view of video games as an acceptable entertainment medium. All mail, flame or other responses are certainly welcome. Please funnel them here.
The Corporation will be hosting a 'Sunday Night Martini Grille' on this topic on Sunday, April 29th at 6:30pm PST in our IRC channel. The channel is located on the Sorcerynet IRC network, at #corp. Hope to see you there!
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