Violent Videogames Make You Kill People

It must be a slow news days if they're dragging this one back out.  Oh well, gives me an excuse to tell them why they're wrong - let's dig in!

Two new study results have been released in the past couple days.  The first is one out of the University of Queensland by a Dr. Bastian.  He made some kids fight each other in Mortal Kombat as well as fighting the computer and then tested to see whether or not they saw their opponents, and themselves, as lacking human qualities.  He compared that result to others who played a different, unspecified game that is said to have not been a violent video game.

Alright, couple issues here, so let's break it down.  First, Mortal Kombat is a terrible game, why would you ever make these kids play it?  Second, yeah, fighting games are going to make you dehumanize both yourself and your opponent, if you thought Reptile was a real dude, we'd have an entire generation of PTSD sufferers.  Third, I want to know what the other game he used was - normal scientists use placebos, so should this guy.  Standardization and transparency is only going to help this guy make his case.

My biggest complaint with any of these kinds of tests is that they do a poor job of simulating the long term effects of a lifetime of exposure to violence.  You never hear about a study where patients were asked to abstain from video games; play only non-violent games; play only violent games; and play a mixture of both on a regular basis over a long period of time with the testing not coming during or immediately after the exposure, but much further down the road, to see if any of this has a lasting impression it's leaving behind.

I'll be the first to admit, if I'm playing a competitive game, I want to kill my opponent, but as soon as the match is over, I don't leap across the living room and begin to strangle him if I lost.  The urge is lost as soon as the stimulus is removed.  Certainly, that may not be the case in others, but who cares, I'm always right anyways.

The second study is from Michigan State by a Prof. Jackson.  She says playing video games, any kind, no matter your race or gender, will improve your creativity versus using technology for non-video game related purposes.

Now, I like video games, so I can get behind this study a lot easier than I could one that says I'm going to kill my neighbor in a fit of rage over losing to Bebop and Rocksteady in Turtles In Time.  But I'm going to justify my support - her testing was not immediately during or after their exposure to these games.  The test she uses asks participants to draw a picture, title it, and write a story about it.  That takes time, and draws you away from the immediate urges of video games, and thus, I feel it better shows the long term effects of video games than Dr. Bastian's study.

Dexter's truancy problem is way out of hand!