In the wake of the controversial and influential study recommending sweeping changes to UK game rating systems, often known as "the Byron Report," video game violence has once again fallen under the spotlight of mainstream media outlets.
Today, a brand-new study conducted by Jane Barnett at Middlesex University has reportedly "killed off" the link between online gaming and real-world violence, but not everyone agrees that violent gaming is benign; In fact, the backlash against virtual violence can be clearly felt in several articles hitting presses today. Rather than sensationalize by butchering their well-thought-out objections to our favorite pastime, we'll simply provide excerpts so you can judge for yourself:
1.) Telegraph columnist Jenny McCarthy -- "There is a majority against vile video games, and it is moral."
It might well be true, as we are so often told, that most children who immerse themselves daily in violent video games will not go on to commit real murder. For that, I suppose, we must all be grateful.
But the instinctive objection remains, and it is indeed rooted in morality: the sense that it is wrong for anyone, child or adult, to spend long hours electronically rehearsing the prolonged agony and detailed humiliation of other human beings for their own amusement. It is insidiously corrupting to their view of themselves and other people.
No one is saying that all video games are damaging, even if they depict fighting. I am not under the illusion that we can, or should, attempt to confine older children to a play world made up entirely of group hugs and communal co-operation. A significant vogue in video-games, however, is to put the player not in the role of a character who combats wrongdoing, but of the wrongdoers themselves: the mass murderer, the torturer, the street thug, drug dealer or pimp.
The selection of protagonist is no doubt ironic, with these strutting miscreants representing the fantasies of nerdy little middle-class boys, but when one considers the prevalence of gangs, drug dealers and teenage violence on the streets the irony doesn't seem quite so amusing.
2.) Times contributor Giles Whittell -- "Video games - I'll never buy one."
I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.
This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents. It's not even because of game-induced homicide or web-grooming of little girls by perverts - serious problems, but statistically low-risk. It's because, compared with everything else on offer in a kid's life, video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time.
Dr Byron says a third of ten-year-olds in England spend more than three hours per school day playing video games. In England, maybe. In my house, only when I'm dead. Meanwhile, I want my kids to overdose on wind, rain, mud, gravy, tents, mountains and overcooked bacon. (Oh, and do their homework.) Why is that suddenly so weird?
3.) Boston Globe online chat room conversation with Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Boston educator and mother of actor Matt Damon:
c__Guest_: I won't let my son buy the game Halo for Xbox. I'm sure he plays it at friends houses, but am I a bad parent for being witholding like this? It appears to be violent and I'm a little uneasy about all of the shooting
Nancy_Carlsson-Paige: I am very wary of violent video games. Research shows they desensitize kids to violence, even more because they engage kids in committing violence. But if you can talk with your son, have honest dialogues about why you don't want him to play this game, that will help him understand more than if you simply forbid it. In my new book I try to help parents see ways to work WITH their kids on some of these troubling issues. Good luck.
4.) Daily Mail charges TV presenter Anne Diamond with producing amusing but thought-provoking mini-reviews of violent games. Here's just one:
Regardless of where your opinions on video game violence fall, in the United States at least, games' influence for good or ill is tremendous and only growing larger over time -- the NPD reported today that 72 percent of the US population played video games in 2007, up from 64 percent in 2006.
Correction 4.4.2008: GameSpot reports the NPD's figure of 72 percent was inaccurate with regards to the entire US population; in fact, the number is closer to 59%. Still a sizable chunk, but it doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
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