Design Methodology

When going through the research that has been gathered there are many things that stood out for both sides of the argument over the link between video games and violence. The main thing that stood out was that in an article written by Margaret Robertson on the BBC news website she mentioned that any repetitive action eventually becomes second nature and that surly this is the same with video games. This can easily be seen as a double edged sword though, using this people could learn new useful skills but if someone is able to learn useful skills in this way would they not pick up bad habits in the same way, though through violent video games obviously any bad habits picked up may have more long lasting consequences and sometimes damaging consequences. “I know that, if I've spent an entire weekend playing Halo and you stick me behind a crowd of slow-moving tourists, there's a split second when I wish I had my pistol.” (Robertson 2007) the writer here has only thought about this, fortunately thinking about something is 1 thing but actually carrying through with it is a different story but what would happen if someone mentally unstable had these thoughts, would it provoke a violent response? This isn’t an entirely farfetched idea, if someone doesn’t think their actions through and consider the consequences the situation is highly likely to get violent.

If the violent video games are affecting adults through the repetitive actions and “hyper-violent content” (Jenkins 2007) then surly they would affect children in the same way, this is where the debate is most intense, since children, being younger and less experienced, have the same control over their actions as an adult would in a situation where they would be tempted to cause someone physical damage? Many parents say that they would not, 2/3 12-15 year olds admitted to having violent behaviour according to a survey carried out by the Daily Telegraph. There is a problem with this though, according to Henry Jenkins author of The wow climax: tracing the emotional impact of popular culture violent behaviour is merely being a part of a boys childhood so automatically that 2/3 can be cut in half near enough due to the fact that both boys and girls were used and because it can be claimed that they are just acting normally for children their age. “Nineteenth-century “boy culture” was sometimes brutally violent and physically aggressive; children hurt each other or got hurt trying to prove their mastery and daring. Video-game culture displaces this physical violence into a symbolic realm. Rather than beating each other up behind the school, boys combat imaginary characters, finding a potentially safer outlet for their aggressive feelings. We forget how violent previous boy culture was.” (Jenkins 2007) this shows that not only is violent behaviour in boys normal for their age it can be argued that it could be a lot worse. Jenkins also mentions in his book about child warfare and how it was common in the 19^th century, the only difference now is that it occurs in plain sight due to the invention of video games.

The problem with video games is that they are addictive, online gaming addiction is a big problem for a lot of people, it is not unheard of for people to neglect themselves, their families and their friends because of online gaming addiction, the additional problem here is that because of this addiction it can cause people to play more often and the more often they play the more likely they are to pick up violent habits.

This chart is what is known as Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs. This basically documents the needs of the human psyche. Part of the reason video games are so addictive is because a lot of them fulfil this chart so in effect a gamer is for filing their own psychological needs by playing the game but with games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt could it be that they for fill the requirements of the chart too well and people are getting too into the game. If this occurs it would mean that those addicted to the game are more likely to develop violent tendencies from not being able to detach themselves from the game. In other words their psychological needs are so great or so deprived that they get completely hooked on a game. This also brings up the point that computer games stimulate the reward centres in the brain, because of this it is essentially rewarding certain behaviour, if the behaviour is killing someone then it is rewarding the player’s action. This technique is often used in the training of animals and is known as positive reinforcement (rewarding good behaviour) but this would mean that if someone is playing violent video games at a young enough age they would have been constantly being rewarded for violent behaviour and this would logically lead to a very violent and unstable person.

Again the game manhunt, the player is rewarded for killing people and the aim of the game is to survive, this would full fill the safety portion of the chart and if someone plays a game long enough or dose anything long enough it becomes second nature, the problem here is that if this occurs and it does become second nature there is a danger that the player my want to kill to full fill their own safety needs.

To read more into video game’s full filament of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs here is the link to the video used to write about the above chart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_kr4nOsn3Y

there should be more to add to this but i am stuck here at the moment.

Research Methodology

As everyone knows video games and violence is a rather controversial topic, there are many mixed opinions on whether there are or are not any effects on the minds of young children and adults alike, according to an article in the guardian newspaper there was a study that said that there may have been beneficial effects of violence in video games. Through all of this there is still a heated debate on this topic.

Due to time restraints on this paper it contains no original surveys; the main bulk of the numerical information has come from numerous sources and papers previously written. Though it would have been preferable to create questioners and to have had people fill them out it just was not feasible in the time permitted.



Additional: due to the fact that there is a lot of work that needs doing i am going to put each section up as i complete it so that i get feedback on each section individually.

Literature Review

It is well known that if you play or do something over and over it sticks in your mind but this also means that it can happen with video games? “Tony Hawk's fans find their eyes searching out fantastical skateboard routes among pedestrian walkways and telephone lines.” (Robertson, 13 August 2007) this is showing that just because you have switched off a consol you can start labelling things around you in a game context without thinking, the same writer also states “I know that, if I've spent an entire weekend playing Halo and you stick me behind a crowd of slow-moving tourists, there's a split second when I wish I had my pistol.” (Robertson, 13 August 2007) this is only a mild response, it’s one thing to be thinking about it, it’s another thing entirely to actually act upon it. Though this is stating that there is a bad influence on peoples’ minds, there have also been results from other studies finding no link between video games and real life violence, in fact it has been shown to help children learn and develop important skills, “At least one study argues that make-believe violence helps children 'conquer fears and develop a sense of identity', as gruesome fairytales once did.” (Hinsliff 21 May 2006). Both of the above sources state different findings about the reaction on people’s mental well being and actual well being so the main thing to be bought forward is to think about the context in which video games are played.