(I’m 20) I’d rather be playing (occasionally violent) video games than shooting up cocaine and drinking until I can’t remember all the boys I was with last night like the girls in this town do, for 6-8 hours. I’m able to balance drawing, writing, writing essays (I have not made under a 90 on a report/essay. Ever. The last grade I made on a final was a 99/100. I don’t want to hear, ever in my life again, that I’m going to be a failure at life because I enjoy playing games) owning and caring for a kitten, being married to a wonderful husband, and having friends who genuinely care for me and we can get together and laugh and have a good time without narcotics and alcohol.

You’re telling me, playing video games for 6-8 hours, is unhealthy? When I make straight A+’s on my papers, study psychology, write, draw, read, spend quality time with my friends and family and all of us are always cheery and happy, care for a kitten, pray and believe strongly in God, and am incredibly happy with my life and the people who surround me?

I know who I am, where I want to go and how to get there, and what I want in life, and I am happy. That’s more than most of America can say, yet I am unhealthy because I play games for that amount of time? You’re full of shit.

I am more successful than over half of the people in this country… and it’s not because of my grades, or my art, or writings, or my religion is “better” or some other nonsense you’d want to draw out. It’s because I am happy and content with who I am and who I am becoming as each and every day that I cherish passes. I don’t smile at people to look pretty and be polite. I smile at people because I mean it.
The definition of healthy, to me, is being well, within the heart, mind, and body. By that definition, I am healthy in all aspects.

I have life, love, faith, and happiness, and success because of these.

I don’t sit on my ass and flip through cable television in my laz-e-boy recliner, eating a tv dinner and looking for some reality tv show and feeling unhappy about who I am. However, if you are happy with those choices, then I am happy for you, but for the people who sit and stare off and whine and wish they were someone else, change yourself for God’s sake because you are the only one who can do something about yourself.

My mother brought me into gaming at a very young age and I have been playing since then. I didn’t, “grow up,” and then start playing games like GTA. I had access to these types of things because unlike a lot of kids here, I am/was able to decipher fantasy from reality. I didn’t take guns and knives to school; I had and have wonderful friends; I am a very family-oriented person.

It is the atmosphere in which a child grows up in and how they are raised that determines their mental stability and reliability on making sound decisions. Don’t pass it on games, especially with that girl stereotype and 6-8 hours bullshit. It’s insulting.

I’m more healthy than the majority because I am happy and content, and sound with myself and the world, as well as clear in mind, heart, and body.

I am disgusted at the lack of acceptance/tolerance in recognizing individualism. Maybe the kids down the street go out with knives, but take a look at their family and their home life and the world and area in which they grew up. Something, somewhere, went wrong: I played the same games, plus I am female, yet I never pointed guns at anyone or divulged in narcotics. It’s an individual-to-individual basis. No one grew up in the same way and to be categorized into a repulsive stereotype because of what I do and not for who I am is revolting. For the love of God, sometimes it’s about looking at the pieces that make up the puzzle, rather than looking at the finished puzzle in itself.

-Megan. shetiger21@hotmail.com

Megan, calm down. Research is about statistics, and statistics are about generalizations. Not every generalization made about gamers is going to apply to you personally. I understand your frustration, but it’s not a good idea to act like the angry gamer stereotype by writing a long defensive post on the internet. We’re lucky that some people are finally starting to write about video games from an objective, non-fearful point of view, there is no reason to take the results of their studies as an attack.

This is another subject, and I don’t have any evidence to back up the claim I am about to make, but I believe girls are far more likely to hide the fact that they play video games. Boys boast about how much of a hardcore gamer they are, girls often pretend they think video games are stupid, even if they play them every day. Often the games girls play, such as the SIMS and WOW, aren’t considered “real” games by “hardcore gamers.” So if a girl likes playing the WOWs, it’s almost as if she isn’t playing a game at all! Except she really is. This is one of the dangers of self reported statistics.

Are you saying WOW as in World of Warcraft? cause if you are i would like to point ou that world of warcraft is legit. people everywhere consider WOW one of the most hardcore games out there, demanding hours of time and dedication. I play myself and hang out with a WOW cliche at school, all of us are the basic people who play games at teh school. we haved played almost every major game out there ranging from the Sims to Gears of War and Resident Evil, Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto. and we consider WOW being the most hardcore.

“Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent video games.”

This suggests that the researchers were never angry or aggressive teens who found an outlet for those emotions in violent video games. I was that teen, and the catharsis I got from playing those games was EXTREMELY important in my becoming a functioning adult.

One need only look at Japan, the video game capital of the world, to find that the link between video games and violence is overstated. In a country where there exist rehabilitation camps for video game addiction, one would expect that a person wouldn’t be able to walk the streets of Japan without getting merilessly beaten and/or shot. Obviously, this isn’t the case.

Does the supposed “link” between violence and video games exist only in the West, or more specifically, in the US?

I’d be interested to know whether the author of this article thinks that reading a novel for 6 hours straight is unhealthy.

On a related note, I am surprised that Megan is capable of getting 99/100 in anything, considering her poor grasp of grammar.

When Grohol says, “Playing a video game for 6 or 8 hours straight is unhealthy behavior at any age,” I believe that he is talking about physically more than socially. He already states earlier that games are a social conduit and NOT paying then with others would be something of a social inadequacy. However, believe it is a proven fact that playing a game, that is staring at a television screen for 6-8 hours straight with minimal movement, is unhealthy for the eyes and the rest of the body. Its not meant to be insulting, more a word of caution.

Also, Grohol is invalidating the causality between video games and violence, this is a good thing! Dont get hung up over one sentence.

WoW is one of those games where its hard to control how much you play. i know people who are on that game a good 5-6, 7 hours a day. that game is like a drug. once you start playing. its hard to stop. but still, the game is mad fun. so many people play it worldwide.

I’ve been an avid gamer on and off since I was about 6. I play some pretty violent M rated games (Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Gears of War, etc.) and I’m not a violent person. Never been in a fight, and probably never will. I played violent games like mortal kombat at a pretty early age, too. I would argue that violent war games lift up war heroes and could actually encourage people to go and join the army. I thought this article was excellent because it was written from a non-biased point of view. It tells what science and statistics has found and leaves out the bullshit.

“I believe girls are far more likely to hide the fact that they play video games. Boys boast about how much of a hardcore gamer they are, girls often pretend they think video games are stupid, even if they play them every day. Often the games girls play, such as the SIMS and WOW, aren’t considered “real” games by “hardcore gamers.” – flewzighte

You make a good point. I think a lot of girls hide the fact that they play games. But I don’t think its because they are playing games like the SIMS and World of Warcraft. Those are both best selling games, which means a ton of people play them. Sure, some hardcore dude gamers consider those to be wussy games. But generally speaking, they are acceptable games. I think girls hide the fact that they play games because it is not socially acceptable for them to play games like it is for guys. Think about culture and the way girls are taught what to like and what to do in their spare time, and then think about what guys do. It’s a 180 degree difference.

i just think all of this is just plain shit.
thats a good point about the not getting beaten up in japan thing. and what about in the 1800s where it was a social event so take your family (kids included) to see a criminal get hung. or maybe the 10 year old whose grown up around his hunter of a father and probably seen countless animals get their heads blown off. that doesnt make them desire animal blood. and there are countless more examples of REAL violence having no effect so why fake violence? i think that when some parents give birth to a fuck-up of a kid, they have to find something (besides the kid himself) to blame WHEN he fucks up. so they pick on his music, his movies, his video games, when really he was in control of his own life and fucked it up himself

Hm…so because I’m female I shouldn’t play Halo or GTA for hours on end with my friends, but if I had male reproductive organs it’s a healthy way for me to socialize? Interesting…

I’ve been playing video games since I was about 4 but I usually play them when I have a bad day or when I’m just bored. I know a lot of people who look forward to playing video games. They really help me get calmer when I’m angry.

“Girls especially should not play M-rated games.”

“It is uncommon for girls to be frequent, heavy players of video games, especially violent games. One third of girls in our survey played electronic games for less than an hour per week on average.”

Oh geez, guess I’m in trouble. I mostly play M-rated games, and I’m always on my 360 for man then a simple hour. That barely fits in a game of Versus on Left 4 Dead.

This topic has always really annoyed me in so many ways. When people say ‘Video games cause violence and encourage it!’ it’s like saying ‘Alcohol MAKES you drink!’ and all of those other shenanigans. Really, if a video game makes you violent then you seriously need to work on your self control.

To get some of my anger and stree out, I beat the shit out of NON REAL, FAKE, CPU ZOMBIES, PEOPLE, CREATURES, and everything else that ISN’T real on a video game. Oh yes, that tells me to go do that in real life! Please, some one give me an auto shotgun, moltovs, and a room full of zombies. Let me go crazy.

Its only fun to play violent video games because when I cap a police man in the head in GTA4, I don’t REALLY get in trouble. I have fake police men chasing after me. None of it is real, and I’d never want to harm anyone like that in any way.

People who use the ‘Videogames made me do it!’ excuse are just so god damn lame because they know half of the audience will be ‘You poor thing! Your mind was corrupted!’
No, you all are just stupid

I hate how people never blame the kids themselves… Something else just HAD to be involved. Columbine didn’t happen because two kids got too hyped up while playing Doom. Columbine happened because 2 unpopular kids got fed up with the social abuse of their peers. I’m not condoning what happened in Columbine, but for christs sake, video games don’t turn people into killing machines. Besides, those kids had a criminal history even before the incident. You can’t relate video games to teen crime, because over 90% of the teen male population play video games.

Btw, I’ve played GTA 4 for a time, and I’ve never killed an actual person. I’ve never killed a hooker, nor have I ever consorted with one. Shocker. By the logic of all these “studies”, I should be foaming at the mouth and taking out my aggressions by killing people, and believe me, I’m not.

And parents, if you’re really, REALLY worried about your child playing these violent games, DON’T GET THEM. Whoa, I just solved all of your problems for you. You’re welcome.

I have played violent games well over 15 years now, and they don`t make me wanna go out into the streets of New York and start shooting people up. This topic really gets under my skin because people jump on video game violence every time something bad happens.

If the people who come up with these stupid articles about how they think video game are bad for you, they are not taking the time to look into the good that they posses.

Today`s video games are helping to save soldiers lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. (I bet many people who are reading this post forgot about that war). Some of the games are used to train the soldiers to fight more affectively and avoid getting caught in crossfire and getting possibly getting hurt, god forbid.

Anyways, back to my point. These articles that are written, are about the bad and not the good. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO ON THE AFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES, USE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN PLAYING THEM FOR YEARS, AND LET THEM BE THE JUDGE OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE GOING TO BECOME PHSYCOPATHS.

Sorry, I just really get worked up about this. Just think about the positives about video games rather than just dissing them. JUST REMEMBER, ALL OF THE STUFF PEOPLE PLAY ARE FAKE, MADE UP COMPUTER GRAPHICS. IF ANYTHING, THOSE TYPES OF GAMES RELIVE STRESS. I bet many people can agree with me there.

Meh, I agree that violence in video games is overrated, but why shouldn’t girls play M-rated games? We aren’t breakable little figurines to be put safely out of harm’s way on the mantelpiece and dusted once a month. If I ever feel like real-world violence, you know what I do? I *don’t* go punch someone. Instead, I take out my aggression in a way that can’t possibly hurt anyone in the real world- by blowing the brains out of zombies in Halflife and Left 4 Dead. I’ve never been a violent person in real life, and playing video games hasn’t changed that for me.

Boo not even. Video games are the shizz.
Play then play in real life

“Sure, some hardcore dude gamers consider those to be wussy games. But generally speaking, they are acceptable games.” wow is the most played game in history. and the real “hardcore” gamers play, 30-40 hours a week raiding. Raiding in wow is probably the most time cconsuming thing possible in video games, when new raid content is released in wow some guilds spend 60-70 hours a week trying to clear the content before anyone else. ive played wow for 4 almost 5 years now and ive spent over 11,000 hours on wow… it’s more addictive than crack and probably the most hardcore game your gonna find.

you’re XD

I agree about WOW being a hardcore game but to me it dosnt seem like it beats out Gears, the Resident Evils or the Final Fantasy, especially VII. WOW just dosnt have the story line as these games do and in all the WOW’s there are, they are the same shit in each game.

I actually stumbled across this thread/article by accident, but it’s quite interesting. I studied a little psychology and the one study that came to mind was Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment. To summarize, Bandura found that children who were exposed to aggression were more likely to replicate that aggressive behavior–i.e. if a boy OR girl saw or heard the bobo doll being abused by an adult, he/she was more likely to replicate that behavior.
Similar research contributes to statistics like “Children are more likely to become alcoholics if their parents were” etc. Also take into consideration the effects of Nature vs. Nurture–which factors contribute to a person’s mental/physical state more: genetic or environmental?

The flaws in most of the research listed above is that it probably took too small of a sample size. Physical violence, as I see it (not statistically/scientifically sound or anything), is based more on location than video games. Some high schools where I grew up had a lot more fights than others, but I suspect the number of people who played/didn’t play video games are similar in proportion.

As a side note, I do play computer games once in a while, but I feel better about what I’ve accomplished if I exercised and worked outside rather than sit in front of a screen.

I’d like to point out that there is a difference between hardcore gaming and obsessive gaming. I dont know that WoW is really that ‘hardcore’, perhaps it is in the context of how much time people spend on it, but the game play itself, i dare say, does not quite make it to the level of a hardcore game. It has a lot of people who play, a lot of content, but I think it really depends on how you think of ‘hardcore’. A little late in the game, i know, but what the hell. My two cents.

Overall I understand what you’re trying to say, and I think you’re right on the spot. This article is un-bias in almost every way, except for this part.

“Girls especially should not play M-rated games ”

I know that’s not what you’re saying directly, but the sexism in that research seems like a general bias towards women. I don’t see how men could play violent games and women can’t. I know a fair amount of women gamers that enjoy a good first person shooter.

As for the 6 hour limit of gaming, yes I understand that is a long and appropriate time to call it obsessive. Most studies I’ve found usually say anything above 2 hours is overdoing it. Which is odd because reading or physical activies for 2 hours in encouraged.

I feel like out of the mass of people that there is an increasing amount of children who are susceptible to the violence, where the majority has enough frontal lobe to stop themselves from acting on their fantasizing, there is a small population who do not. I believe the issue then is whether video games push those who could be reigned back into society, over the edge. I believe that I was one of those fucked up children who was weak and sick as a baby, nearly dying who grew up weird and unaccepted between two worlds. In my rage i fantasized killing those who harmed me and i fought with a fierceness of sick wild animal. I had great grandparents who loved me and raised the best they could however and my rage was funneled into the military. When i was active in Iraq I couldn’t believe how similar killing people had been to playing video games. While the intensity was far greater than any drug could ever offer; it felt like the ultimate game. The Marine corps training is a series of repetition from day 1 in bootcamp through my 1 year of fleet training into the combat zone was all repetition. Not too disimilar from dying in a game and trying the level again and again. By the time i was in combat my body was the joystick; when you become fired upon the world sort of slows down as the adrenaline sets in and your brain becomes highly active your senses become incredibly sharp, like a virtual crosshair your eyes create a tunnel vision closely accurately portrayed by the game COD5. WHen you see their body go limp from your doing you win that round. It ways on my heart now and I would never wish it on anybody. For me I wouldn’t risk one child to that sort of hell if I could help it.
when I play Nazi Zombies and see the blood and hear the machine gun ripping i can feel it activating those memories. I know I have little control over my actions and suffer from them constantly. I see your posts and wonder how you all seem to hold it all together. I think of how much wrong is done to humans by humans and i want to get those responsible but never will and all I see are a mass of peoples complaining without any will to actually lift a finger. I have such upmost respect for the founding fathers for fighting their vastly superior tyrant and yet we honor them by playing games and giving up, turn a blind eye and criticize and tear down anyone who holds an ideal. I knew so many in the Marines who were like me. Then is the issue: are video games part of the soldier glorification propaganda to boost recruitment? Or is it only one part of the training? From youth it is story, then comics/ cartoons, movies, now realistic gaming all part of the military’s campaign to hire them later on?

Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and so on. In many games, kids are rewarded for being more violent. The act of violence is done repeatedly. The child is in control of the violence and experiences the violence in his own eyes. So, I think kids need to stop playing violent games.

I think that by girls he means small children, not grown women…

I find it highly ironic that the majority of girls who posted here exhibited aggression in their comments while they were discussing violent video games..

Megan and others have failed to grasp the correlation between violent video games and increased irritability, yet they have demonstrated it superbly in their comments. Bravo, girls.

I think everyone has made good points. I stumbled onto this site by accident because I am trying to find some information to send to my uncle, to help with my cousin. Maybe you all can help.

I read in someone’s comment about there being a difference between hardcore gaming and obsessive gaming, I completely agree with this. You can say you play 5-6 hours at a time, but how often? Also, I think the background of each individual plays a big role. Ex.If you were raised in a strong minded family full of people with good self esteem and you picked that up as well, and then you sit and play for 5-6 hours, then you’re probably alright and you still fill your day with other face-to-face social things to keep you sane. If you were raised in a single parent home (I’m not referring to everyone, just introducing some different scenerios)where the one parent was absent very often, working hard, trying to make ends meet, self-esteem is a little low, not a lot of time for social get togethers, etc. Your self esteem may not be as strong as the first individual, your social skills may not be as developed, and it’s no longer 5-6 hours of game play but 10-12.
This is the issue my uncle is having with his son, my cousin. He moved here when he was about 14 from another country and in with his father. He (the father)had been absent for most of my cousins 14 years until this point so……he did what he could to make him happy, to make him fit in, etc. He is now 20, and he LIVES in the on-line games. He has no friends, he has no drive, he sits all day in front of the T.V.

*It is affecting him phisically –
I remember when I was 20 you couldn’t get me to come home, and I was active! Strong, Fast, involved in all kinds of sports with friends. He looks like a strong wind would blow him over, he doesn’t run, he doesn’t do anything active!

*It is affecting him socially –
His only friends are the ones on the other side of the head-set, and when my uncle tries to take him out, anywhere, to play pool whatever, he doesn’t leave his side. He doesn’t go anywhere alone, he doesn’t go anywhere period.

*It is affecting him mentally –
He is using these games to live his life, he has no life without them. He thinks he’s THE MAN because his name is number one on the players, so I ask him, so what? What does that get you? We took him to a gun range, to see if he would develope a new interest, he likes shooting in games, why not? He shot a real gun once, the recoil hit him in the shoulder, and he looked petrified and wouldn’t shoot again. Went back home and onto the internet game. It’s like he thinks it’s REAL.

My uncle paid the internet bill a couple of days late. My cousin came out, in a complete sweat, and didn’t know what happened. He woke up and it wasn’t working! My uncle explained what happened and that it would probably be on in a few days, and my cousin almost had a panic attack and only calmed down when my uncle called to see if the payment had arrived and was told it would be on that day. I told my uncle that he needed to do something quick, he needed to limit his play (i don’t think taking it away would solve anything)or do something because he was going down a bad path. He can’t take his car away (even though he would be completely unaffected) because it would be the only way to get him out, and socializing.

I agree that these games do not make people violent or more agressive if that was not already present, with someone that is a hardcore gamer, but if the person is an obsessive gamer, do you think the lines between reality and fantasy become blurred? If the line does become blurred, would this person start behaving differently in reality? Do you think this would ever possibly lead to violent acts, including killing, (as they do in games) especially if they feel there are no consequenses?

Please don’t take offense with anything I have written. I am mostly putting my thoughts out there to see what people think, and to see what kind of help would be recommended by fellow gamers. I myself am a supporter, I bought my godson his first game system 8 years ago. Now he is an awesome gamer, probably one of those 4-5 hour a day players right now, 2-3 when school is in, but he still takes part in normal everyday activities, and goes outside to play. Granted we have to lock him out to go, but he has friends to skateboard with etc. We are also trying to instill good things into him concerning his self-esteem, being open-minded, making good decisions, and recently, we are trying to instill some good work habits (he’s 14). I just don’t want him to end up like my cousin, even though my cousin still has time to turn around.

Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated! Thank you, gamRgrl

“It must be emphasized that correlational studies, including ours, cannot show whether video games cause particular behaviors. Far too frequently, this important distinction between correlation and causation is overlooked.”

I agree with the fact that research into subjects like this yield statistics that are generally hard to define and does not fit well into the model; whether or not video games causes violence.

A previous comment stated that a person’s violent behavior is very much influenced by his upbringing which can shape their psychological well being. I believe that this is true. Personally i grew up in a family with a strong moral background and my parents never condone any form of violent behavior.

I play games on a daily basis such as those M-rated games with an ample amount of blood and gore. it never really affected me and my behavior because inherently i knew this was all virtual and not real.

If anything i would say that:

1. Video game provides a form of release of aggression for some individuals. “catharsis” or the “release of tension” as stated by the greek philosopher Aristotle. Therefore playing these violent video games would be a way for some aggrevated individuals to release tension.

2. Violent video games might actually increase violent behavior in some teens, if and only if those violent tendencies already exist. Therefore feeding them with more violent depiction in virtual games will only make it worse.

3. If it is true (somewhere down the line), that violent video games do invoke and increase violence tendencies in teens, then it will be necessary to control the sale and distribution of such material.

From the way i see it, violent video games do not seem to increase or bring about violent behavior. There are a lot of factors such as their socio-economic background as well as psychological factors that account for the behavior of teens. Trying to judge whether or not violent video games cause violence behavior is a tough one to gauge.