Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Video Game Law Blog

Intellectual Property Law

: Video Game Law Blog

DO VIDEO GAMES MAKE YOU VIOLENT?

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

Reports came out earlier this week of a study of Japanese and American kids testing whether exposure to violent video games led to more "violent dispositions" (coverage at: GameDaily.com). The study by Dr. Craig A. Anderson of Iowa State University suggested that children who were exposed to violent games tended to be more aggressive.

Today a reported academic rebuttal from Christopher Ferguson, Psychologist from Texas A&M University challenges Dr. Anderson's study, stating that "there are numerous flaws in the literature review, methodology and conclusions that greatly reduce my enthusiasm for it, and call into question the meaningfulness of the study" (coverage at: GamePolitics.com).

Who is right? I'm no scientist but I know that after facing a losing campaign in Rise of Legends (at the allegedly "medium" difficulty setting, which I say is not properly calibrated, but that is another story), my wife reports that I get grumpy. But the failure effects are short-lived and far from violent and, more importantly, I argue in my defence, video games for me are an efficient stress reliever. Mind you, Rise of Legends is far from being a truly violent game.

For what is worth, the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), the non-profit organization which represents the rights of video and computer gamers, has also rebuked the Anderson study. Hal Halpin, president of the ECA, has reportedly stated that "For the better part of the past decade we - game consumers, makers, sellers and creators - have been waiting for the results of an unbiased, longitudinal and comprehensive study to be done which will inform us about the potential harmful effects of entertainment products on our children. Unfortunately, with the report published in the latest issue of Pediatrics, we remain wanting [...] The problem has been, and apparently continues to be, that the agenda of the researchers supersedes our want and need for inclusiveness of all media... not just games" (coverage at: GameDaily.com).

I guess this will continue to fuel (help?) the debate between the balance of parenting -vs.- legislation of video game content.

Bookmarks: Delicious, Digg , Facebook, Google, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo

Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on November 04, 2008 (boomark / email).