The Violent Self: Anger, intimidation and aggression during gameplay in Online Violent Video Games

27/04/2010 Camwhipp 25 comments

Video game violence has long caused debate as to whether it fosters violent attitudes in gamers as they move in the virtual world and progress out into the ‘real’ world of interaction with others. It has been stated in research that through the General Aggression Model (GAM) violent video games can increase aggression in children, young adults, males and females and even after short exposures to violent video games aggression can increase (Swing, Anderson, 2007). This assertion is backed up by the informal accounts of players who participate in online violent video games (OVVGs) and develop tendencies toward angry behavior during gameplay. This paper will focus on the immediate effects of violent gameplay on the attitudes of the player as he/she maneuvers around the virtual space and interacts with others forming and leaving relationships.

Online Violent Video Games contain violent content in the form of interactive killing, bloodshed and actions designed to harm and injure others. CounterStrike (CS) and World of Warcraft (WOW) are two examples of OVVGs with large communities surrounding their use which display aggression in the form of bullying, taunts, ‘trolling’, ‘griefing’ and stalking between players in the game space and in forums encompassing their use. Groups are formed and Clans are an important facet of team-based operation and interaction. The anonymous nature of these online games heightens the likelihood of immediate violent behavior and contributes to fierce confrontation during play in the form of angry words, threatening messages and violent outbursts during the rush of competition.

Online gaming communities present an outlet for players to express aggression and intimidate each other in the face of fierce competition. Online gamers are participating in all the thrills of personal game computing with one crucial difference – they are probing and connecting with people in many age groups, social classes and locations using text and voice over Ip (VoIP) and forming an identity based upon their interactions. With increases in technology and visual processing power video games represent a much more graphic, rich and intricate experience than any other form of interactive media available to the consumer. The immersed involvement in the virtual world is a fluid, responsive experience that is both addictive and pleasurable for anyone from the age of 2-100 (Wright et al., 2003) The connection between violence in video games and violent attitudes is well established. ‘Violence’ in this case encompasses violent general behaviors such as anger, aggression and intimidation exhibited during the course of play and in interaction with other members of the gaming community. Swing and Anderson have described the General Aggression Model (GAM) whereby ‘person’ and ’situational’ factors contribute to an internal state consisting of cognition, affect and arousal. Playing a violent video game activates scripts running in the internal state and leads to a decision process whereby the person is more likely to show aggression in a subsequent situation, with a situation occurring sooner more likely to invite a violent response.

“One of the primary concerns is the potential of violent video games to make those who play them more aggressive. This concern is particularly strong for children and adolescents, though the research literature has demonstrated that video games are capable of exerting similar effects on many age groups, including young adults, that are exposed to them (Swing, Anderson, 2007 p3). “

Repeated encounters with violence and aggression may produce long-term changes in a person’s ability to react sensitively to violence or inhibit aggressive tendencies. For a regular gamer, this presents the problem of an in-grained tendency toward violence in play. The US Army uses OVVGs to train marines in team work, coordination and communication in a violent context as a form of ‘acclimatizing’ soldiers to the idea of warfare and combat. In brief, violent video games desensitize the player to violence and increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviors during the gameplay experience and in everyday life. Anderson et al, note that in regards to children and violent video games ‘reducing exposure to media violence will reduce aggression and violence’ (Anderson et al., 2003 p4)

The player of OVVGs competes against millions of users to kill, harm and dominate his opponents in a controlled environment of violence and is rewarded for these actions with systems of points, reputation, respect and reverence from his counterparts. His/her competitive identity is represented through a complex series of communications based on gameplay, interaction, text and VOIP and although this identity is shaped by these actions, it remains somewhat diluted by the anonymous nature of online gaming and can be hidden behind monikers, nicknames and personal ids designed to ‘craft’ the identity and give it a certain color or flavor.

Anger, intimidation and aggression are elements of play that are encouraged by violence and permeate OVVGs. Violent behavior in OVVGs is exhibited during the course of play. CounterStrike is a First Person Shooter(FPS) with estimated sales of over 10 million copies, with millions of active users. The excitement and competition of its fierce gameplay often bring to the forefront aspects of identity amongst players that would otherwise remain subdued in day to day life. Communication between people is disconnected, anonymous and abstract due to the limited identity identifiers available in CS. Players have only a name, and a text box for chat and VoIP.

This freeing of responsibility for one’s actions and the suffering of possible negative consequences leads to what has been described as “confrontational culture”(Cover, 2006, p4) whereby things are said and done that would otherwise remain repressed in the real world. Negative aspects of emotion and interaction will surface online in the form of verbal warfare between people as the opinion or values of one attempts to overcome the other or the heat of competition gets too much. Heightened emotional states and anxiety can also lead to incidents of threats as described by David Myers -

“Players turned to verbal abuse, hoping and offended I would log off and cancel my subscription. When Twixt celebrated his victories, lobbing messages like “Yay, heroes. Go good team. Vills lose again,” in the game’s chat box, users like Hunter-Killed responded, “U are a major sh–bird.” (Myers 2005)

Another player added, “I hope your mother gets cancer.” Yet another wrote, “EVERYONE HATES YOU.” (Myers, 2005) The anonymous nature of the interactions prompted the users to behave erratically and respond to the actions of others in an aggressive and violent fashion, that surely would have been kept silent in the real world. Competition is a major factor contributing to violent behavior. Players compete for the prestige and respect of good statistics which creates greed, fury and anger. FurJ19, an active member of the CS community has noted – “I play firstly for love, secondly for respect. My position on top of the ladder keeps me coming back” (GamertechTV, 2005)

Group identity in the form of ‘clans’ are a powerful force in OVVGs and a factor when players taunt one another and move to follow, stalk and ‘grief’ others. ‘Griefing’ is a term given to a player who ‘traps a victim and torments them throughout the game, with humiliation and belittling’ (Reuters Life, 2007) Clans respect the use of intimidation as a tool to gain competitive edge and respond to the weaknesses in players by ganging up and focusing on weak opponents with verbal taunts and aggressive tactics. Clans provide a group identity, a sense of belonging and a circle of trust for players.

This identity is worn with pride in the offline world by some with clan website Hostile stating (in regards to logo) – “Hostile is a Counterstrike clan that needed more than an aggressive name to intimidate other clans. Inspired by old military patches, the gritty logo is meant to be placed anywhere and everywhere for maximum exposure.” (Morten, 2006) Clans group together to fight against cyber bullying, with team members encouraging team work and co operation over negativity and corruption, protecting themselves from facing taunts alone. Clans also allow for the formation of relationships outside of strictly gaming, as players invariably meet up on forums to discuss gameplay, tactics and gossip. Membership is patrolled, with the CS Clan ‘Resin’ noting members have been kicked out for racism, disrespect, spamming and cheating. Clans can be likened to sports teams, work teams and friendship circles.

Alternatively, clans can turn against their own.

‘In games where there are public channels of broadcasting messages, the bully can use these mediums to defame a person constantly by broadcast accusing him of doing unethical things within the game and hence hurting the person image. Alternatively if a group of people play as a guild/faction/party/clan, they can outcast another player that they know in real life that plays the same game.’ (Chen et al., 2007, p1)

The old adage of ‘like breeds like’ applies for clans who develop cultures of anger and a ‘win at all costs’ attitude, as players take on the attributes of their aggressive team mates. The formation of identity in online gaming can happen at varied speeds and to varying degrees; a clan speeds up the process by allowing the player to ‘generate actions and intent by constantly comparing themselves to others and modifying behavior based on group interactions and dynamics’ (Chen, 2007 p2).

The motivation to play games online stems from a mix of the desire to feel emotions in a fantasy context and a decision to share that experience with others. Escapism is an age old tradition and video game addiction in general is well documented. Fantasy has long held appeal for those wishing to escape reality (Turkle, 1994 p1), and competition through social interaction is another powerful attractor for many. World of Warcraft (WOW) is pure fantasy, a world in which players take on a character or ‘avatar’ and interact with others in the form of exploration, quests and fights.

Players build an online identity to a greater degree than in CS as various actions are rewarded with new skills and upgrades to the avatar. The interactions between players include text and VoIP. In 2006 the games developers banned players from mentioning their sexuality to others for fear that it might arouse discriminatory or unkind remarks from those players, and that would violate the anti-discrimination rules of the game. (Boing Boing) With these rules in place players still violate them and circumvent by bullying players attempting certain tasks and repeatedly harassing others. Darkcm, a WOW player, notes “theres this player on thunderhorne who keeps asking me for money…and i am being mean to them saying they are a gold farmer…IM BULLYING them!!! they dont need to be a farmer for it to work…sheesh!” (Gamespot, 2004)

The slower pace of WOW allows for greater variation of interaction and repeated bullying as players face off regularly and have a clearer understanding of the identity of their opponents. Turkle (1994) notes about identity formation in WOW “They are doing this in an environment infused with a postmodern ethos of the value of multiple identities and of playing out aspects of the self and with a constructionist ethos of ‘Build something, be someone’” Players make changes to their identities regularly and alter speech, text and interaction methods to create many interweaving, intricate identities.

Bullying and causing grief for an opponent in a game is nothing new, with sports teams exhibiting these kinds of behaviors for centuries. With OVVGs however, these actions are relatively new and grow because players are relatively anonymous from each other and can fire taunts and barbs at each other without fear of retribution. Games are played with high stakes, WOW of particularly so because users pay for the privilege of online play. Although Swing and Anderson noted that ‘all age groups are susceptible’ (2003) to violent responses to video games, research shows that young people and adolescents are more likely to play games and therefore respond aggressively to situations. (Gibb, 1983) Cacha (1983) has noted that for children, violent gameplay ‘may encourage aggressive behavior, or foster undesirable problem solving skills that glamorize and glorify violence’ As children grows through the awkward stages of adolescence they respond actively to stimuli and are likely to form default responses to situations re actively in the process of learning (Greenfield et al., 1994) thus, as a child performs violent tasks virtually, the response in human terms is more likely to be of a violent nature.

OVVGs represent a specific fantasy of interaction, where violence plays a key role in proceedings. This violence has been shown to increase the likelihood of a violent response from a player as the game is being played, particularly in the early stages of adolescence though adults have displayed signs of aggressive behaviors in some studies (Segal et al., 1991) Anonymity factors in to identity in the gaming community, as players are mostly anonymous and free from being aligned with their comments or actions. This fosters attitudes otherwise hidden by the players real identity such as taunting others, griefing, trolling and generally harassing users.

Bibliography

Craig A. Anderson, Leonard Berkowitz, Edward Donnerstein, L. Rowell Huesmann, James D. Johnson, Daniel Linz, Neil M. Malamuth, Ellen Wartella. (Dec 2003) The Influence of Media Violence on Youth Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 4, No. 3 pp. 81-110

Cacha, F. B. (1983). Glamourizing and legitimizing violence in software: A misuse of the computer. Educational Technology, March, 7 – 9.

Bryan CHEN Shenglong, GOH Chong Sheng, KOH Zi Han, LIN Jiaqi and Dominic SIM Kuangwei. (2007) CyberBullying in e-gaming, an emerging social threat Retrieved 12/2/10 from http://www.ssagsg.org/LearningSpace/EntertainmentGaming/CyberBullying.htm#What_is_it.3F

Rob Cover. (2006) Gaming (Ad)diction: Discourse, Identity, Time and Play in the Production of the Gamer Addiction Myth Game Studies The international journal of computer game research volume 6 issue 1

Cory Doctorow. (2005) World of Warcraft: Don’t tell anyone you’re a queer Retrieved 14/3/10 from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/27/world_of_warcraft_do.html

Gamespot Forums : WOW, Do you ever enjoy bullying people in WOW? Retrieved 15/1/10 from http://au.gamespot.com/pc/rpg worldofwarcraft/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-45524764&pid=534914

Gibb, G., Bailey, J., Lambirth, T. & Wilson, W. (1983) Personality differences between high and low electronic video game users. Journal of Psychology, 114, 159 – 165.

Greenfield, P. M., Camaioni, L., Ercolani, P., Weiss, L., Lauber, B. A. & Perucchini, P. (1994) Cognitive socialization by computer games in two cultures: Inductive discovery or mastery of an iconic code? Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 15, 59 – 85.

Tyler Morten. (2002) Counter-Strike Clan Identity Retrieved 3/2/10 from http://www.tylermorten.com/?page_id=56

David Myers. (2003) ‘Twixt’ becomes game’s most hated outcast courtesy of Loyola professor Retrieved 4/3/10 from http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/07/loyola_university_professor_be.html

Reuters Life New York. (2007) A new type of cyberbully hits online gaming world Retrieved 23/2/10 from http://www.reuters.com/article/id

Segal, K. R. & Dietz, W. H. (1991). Physiologic responses to playing a video game. American Journal of Diseases of Children, 145, 1034 – 1036.

Storm. (2006) Dont miss this player – Counter-Strike Gamertech Retrieved 14/1/10 from TVhttp://gamertechtv.com/?p=234

Shelley Turkle. (1994) Constructions and reconstructions of self : Playing in the muds Mind culture and activity vol 1 no 3

Talmadge Wright, Eric Boria and Paul Breidenbach. (2002) Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games Playing Counter-Strike The international journal of computer game research volume 2, issue 2

Identity in Communities and Networks aggression, Anger, Cyber-Bullying, cyberbullying, gaming, identity, intimidation, Online Communities, virtual communities

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Written by KiYanC about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi,
Thanks for your paper.

I think it is hard to say whether online violent games would lead to violence exhibited in offline life or not because there are many factors that would affect one’s behavior. I think it really depends on how people think when they play such games. If they treat it as a way of entertainment, I think they would have less affected by the games. Indeed, for children and young people, playing these games would cause negative effect to them as the violence in the games may change their ideology, thinking violence is acceptable.

However, I do think that if game players are addicated to the game world, they would possibliy behave in a way that could harm themsevles and other people. I think in Asia, game addication is a great problem in the society, because there is news about young people are being too into the game world and they could not get out of it and end up with bad results. There are serveral cases in Asia that young people died after they spent over fifty hours on playing computer games (BBC, 2005). I am not sure whether these cases happen in Western society or not, however, they obviouly tell us the risk of playing too much computer games.

Sorry if I went out of topic.
Cheers,
Ki Yan
Written by KayeE about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi – thanks for your paper – I really enjoyed reading it and it answered a few questions that I have had about online gaming and violence. As the mother of a son who has been playing online games (especially WOW) for the last 7 years I have always been concerned about the effect that the gaming has on him. Although he has not played continuously – only when his budget would allow! I would hope that it has no negative effects, however your paper convinces me otherwise.
You also say that, “The US Army uses OVVGs to train marines in team work, coordination and communication in a violent context as a form of ‘acclimatizing’ soldiers to the idea of warfare and combat”. I have read reports and seen articles on television that have indicated that the US army also uses online gaming as a recruiting method.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/30/eveningnews/main609489.shtml
What do you think about the US army using it as a recruiting method?
Written by FransiscaMS about 2 years ago. Reply

Yes Im agree with your thoughts, nowadays there are lots of violent games been created, supposedly used for adult users but children could access it easily, moreover not only children would be affected but adults as well. However this type of game could be use as releasing the self anger, in your opinions how could this game be effective enough to release your anger inside? And do you think would it be harmful to you self as well instead of other people?
Written by jhiroberts about 2 years ago. Reply

Hi,

Thanks very much for a very interesting paper.

I have never personality played a OWG, and I had no idea that such bullying and taunting went on inside these games.

I see games as something fun to share with friends, not something to get one up on them.

I found your paper informative, and very well researched. The style of writing made it clear and i did not get lost.

I agree with your point that violence is not caused by the use of video games, there has to be an underlying factor.

Again great read.

Cheers

Jhi
Written by TessaG about 2 years ago. Reply

Thanks for your paper – it was interesting reading about a topic I have absolutely no experience in.

It would definitely be a frightening prospect if people were so influenced by OVVG’s that they committed violent acts in real life as a reactionary response.

I know that some tragic high school masacres in the USA (like for example Columbine), were reported in the media as being committed by students who played violent video games and/or listened to violent music (searching my meagre memory shards for the info).

However, I believe that like other areas, a lot of the negative influence of OVVG’s would depend on what sort of personality a person had. For example, a person who was more easily persuaded by friends may succumb to reacting violently to situations offline. It is only my speculation though – I haven’t researched the topic as thoroughly as you have.

Thanks again for sharing your paper – thoroughly researched and well-written
Written by JenQuinn about 2 years ago. Reply

Thanks for your paper, it was great to read and learn about something that I have had almost no experience with. You presented a really well structured and researched paper on such a relevant and complex issue, and you have made me consider this issue on a deeper level.

I don’t tend to agree with the generalization that online violent games inevitably lead to violence exhibited in offline life, and although I don’t play them myself, I know a few people that do (including my partner), and I believe they find it to be a great stress release precisely because they can say and do things that they can’t do in real life, like killing strange dwarves or zombies or whatever else!

Thanks again for the paper and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading these comments! It shows that this is certainly an important topic to discuss.
Cheers!
Written by Bryce Sheehan about 2 years ago. Reply

As a gamer myself, I have some important points to raise on top of the other gamers who have commented.

They will go here. But alas, my train ride is coming to an end, and they will have to wait until this evening.

“But in real life, i believe that it isn’t as simple as “they are violent because they play violent games”. I think values, attitudes, personal experiences, upbringing, family and personality variables are a stronger influence in real life in terms of whether someone is more likely to be violent or not.”

I think this sums up the entire argument well; it is currently impossible to prove whether games cause violence or not. Ultimately, if the player is not mature enough to distinguish between acts of virtual violence and real life, gaming can be a component of violent outbursts. However it is important to note that influences such as drugs, alcohol, violent sports and day-to-day life can be just, if not more, influential on violent behaviour.

A great abd well supported paper which has changed my views to slightly supporting your argument.
- Written by Bryce Sheehan about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  It seems it’s not possible to edit a previous comment, so I will continue.
  
  “Playing a violent video game activates scripts running in the internal state and leads to a decision process whereby the person is more likely to show aggression in a subsequent situation, with a situation occurring sooner more likely to invite a violent response.”
  
  One would hope that gamers are not being exposed to violent video games outside of the ages set by the Classification Board. Considering we don’t have a R rating for games, violent titles bought in Australia should be no less than MA15+, suggesting that players would be at least 15 years old (of course this is often breached). A certain level of maturity is expected, which most players show; even if their online actions counter this, their aggressiveness rarely leaves the virtual and enters the real world.
  
  However, violent reactions are not limited to adolescents; according Craig Anderson (2003) “these effects appeared to be about the same for males and females, for
  youths less than 18 years as well as older participants, and for experimental and correlational studies” and “There still is not a large enough body of samples in this domain for truly sensitive tests of potential age differences in susceptibility to violent video game effects”. Additionally, Kirsh (2003) presents empirical evidence that video games correlate with aggressive behaviour, but not necessarily violence. Further, he outlines how adolescents with a violent history and traits have heightened reactions to games.
  
  Anderson, C. (2003). An update on the effects of playing violent video games. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 113–122. Retrieved from http://medi506.pbworks.com/f/sdarticle-4.pdf
  
  Kirsh, S. (2003). The effects of violent video games on adolescents:: The overlooked influence of development. Aggression and violent behavior, 8, 377–389. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.122.4671&rep=rep1&type=pdf
- Written by Nora about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  I agree with Bryce I too do think that point sums up your paper very well. People don’t get violent from playing violent games, as you said, it’s also because of their values, attitudes, personal experiences, upbringing, family and personality etc. that has an influence on it. Nice paper, I found it interesting
Written by Zohara Ibrahim about 2 years ago. Reply

According to your research herer, “violent video games can increase aggression in children, young adults, males and females and even after short exposures to violent video games aggression can increase (Swing, Anderson, 2007).” i 100% agree, violent video game can increase aggresivion in children, young adults, males or females. As we know, violent video games are popular with male and female children adolsence and adults. According to Buckely & Douglas,aggresion refers to measure as varies as behaviour that harmed another person. there are three type agression, physical and agreesive violence is including causing harm by direct physical means such as hitting, tripping, stabbing or shooting, in my opinion, thise type of violent can effect for young children, it seems they are practice how to shoot and stab using the video game and may cause to real life such as they will take advantage what they learnt and practice thru video game use ion wrong way for bullying and other bad thing. verbal aggresive where is like harm tru wriotten statement tru webpage or email that are intended to harm the target person and relational aggressive for example children who spread rumors exclude peers and eggaging in the relatiosjip oriented aggressive often are different from those who hit or kick to harm people like i said before.
Written by Stephen Harris about 2 years ago. Reply

Question Posted by Stephen Harris (to Camwhipp).
Hi Camwhipp,
You outline a compelling argument here. I wonder if the level of aggressive behaviour is the product of the user rather than the game, or possibly a combination of both? I imagine there are psychological, biological and social reasons that predispose someone to violence, rather than just being the product of a video game (Raine, Brennan, Farrington, Mednick 1997, p.2).
I would like to point you to research conducted by Raine, Brennan, Farrington and Mednick (1997) which examines the biosocial bases of violence (Raine, Brennan, Farrington and Mednick 1997, p.1). This research considers psychological factors such as impulsivity and intelligence as contributing factors, these are being derived from the genetic makeup of the individual ((Raine, Brennan, Farrington and Mednick 1997, p.2).

Reference
Raine, A., Brennan, P., Farrington, D., Mednick, S. (1997), Biosocial Bases for Violence Available: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~raine/BiosocialBasesViolence.pdf
Written by JoG about 2 years ago. Reply

I liked how your paper extended the arguement about violent gaming to multiplayer online gaming and described the additional impact of interacting with others while in game play.

Although a little off topic, I thought I would share the findings of a recent study into the impact of personalised gaming characters in aggressive video games on aggressive behavior aggression (Fischer, Kastenmüllerb, & Greitemeyerc, 2010). This study used the Wii sports boxing game as the aggressive stimuli. They found that participants who played the game using their own, personalised Mii character exhibited higher levels of aggressive behavior than participants who played the game with a non-personalized character. They found that participants playing a violent video game with a personalized game character experienced more arousal and self-activation than they did when playing with an impersonal, default game character, which in turn increased aggressive responses. Interestingly, the participants were blind to the experiment and thought they were produce testing the Wii game and then later a hot chilli sauce. The aggressive response was measured as the amount of hot chilli sauce they poured out to give to a taster (who did not actually exist). They were able to chose any amout they wanted, with the awareness that the person tasting it would have to eat the whole amount, and that it was a very hot and unpleasant tasting sauce.

Sometimes we think of aggression as being a direct physical (towards people or objects) or verbal attack and when not observing these charactistics in ourselves or others make the assumption that there isn’t a link between aggresssion and violent gaming. It is interesting to note that aggression can represent in more subtle manifestations such as giving a bit more hot sauce. What do you think?

Thanks for the interesting topic.
Jo

Fischer, P., Kastenmüllerb, A., & Greitemeyerc, T. (2010). Media violence and the self: The impact of personalized gaming characters in aggressive video games on aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (1), 192 -195.
Written by Joshua Atlee about 2 years ago. Reply

Your argument against gaming is quite direct to the point i am an experienced first person shooter player for over 8-10 years now playing games like Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike, in each of these games you always see people verbally attacking other people but this is just for fun to throw the other person from concentrating and to give themselves a sense of power in the game, most people in these games like laughing or telling how they owned that person when they are good players, normally good players will bag out new players but this has to do with power and not violence, yes it’s true they are violent games but just because I play Counterstrike 5-8hrs a day does not mean i will re-enact shooting people at some public area or school. It’s true someone who loses in this game can get upset but thats natural towards losing any game, I do not believe in anyway no matter what age group that your going through that it will make someone become violent.

I myself have been angry while losing, i have even been hassled inside these games but in no way it has made me or the people i know become violent, Watching violent horror movies does not make someone violent so why would playing online games?

I know a lot of people are trying to tie both gaming and violence together but truthfully its all a myth. (Peters, F. 2009)

Peters, F. (2009). Counter Strike does not teach teen violence. Retrieved May 2nd 2010 from http://www.welt.de/english-news/article3391625/Counter-Strike-does-not-teach-teen-violence.html
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago. Reply

I find overall the paper to be well written and argued fine. The quality of this paper lies in the use of resources, very well done and interesting.

I cannot agree that every game or movie incites violence. I do agree they can encourage beliefs and behaviours, especially if one is not skilled in weighing up arguements in this world. For example, many might watch United States Hollywood action movies and admire the shoot everyone messages of many films. That is a long way from performing the actions. Then again some have.

I also think the paper by Wright et al (2002) is worth reading. Player names often reflect the violent nature of a game. We see this in wrestling e.g. Mad Dog, Killer etc. But underneath they seem to be almost like jokes and parody. Generally, the person who adopts such a name may be likely to view Counter Strike as fun and left online. Some do not.

So it seems that this is a vexed area and quite up to the individual to decide if the games do cause agression. You have argued very well. I would like to have seen just a bit more on why the developers have banned disclosure of sexuality. Even with more powerful online servers and laptop computers, people still do all night Counter Strike and other sessions, I know in Brisbane there are two in the city. The language that I have observed, though I make a disclaimer that I have not been to one in over 6 years, but what I heard was not only sexuality comments, but threats of violence, rape, being called a pederist, beastiality and many other things. Yet, the code I remember observing was when someone needed to get drinks and pizza everyone became friendly. My nephew used to go and to my knowledge there was no agression after the game.

Just think it makes it interesting to speculate is this agression limited to the time in the environment or does it in some people continue, some even to the extremes. Harris, one of the Columbine shooters, was a fan of Dome, but that was just one facet as to why he might have behaved as he did (West, n.d.). I think this arguement will go on forever as both new technologies emerge and what we think of as acceptable to be depicted is shown in movies. To think that John Carpenters original Assault on Precent 13 showed an upclose shooting of a child in 1976. When shown now people laugh at the girl with the ice cream. Times change but to me the debate about game violence causing real world violence may be inconclusive for some time to come.

West, V. (n.d.) Columbine. Retrieved 29 April, 2010, from http://www.members.tripod.com/~VanessaWest/columbine-4.html
Written by Damien C about 2 years ago. Reply

I found myself drawn to this paper because of the title and, like some of the others have noted, because I’m a gamer myself and this is one of those issues that seems to pop-up often misunderstood by the media. With that said, you made some very clear points and have some good references to your points.

As Jordanna mentioned, a lot of the behaviour that occurs in gaming where competition is allowed, such as your quoted examples of Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft, occurs equally in sports and yet we stigmatise it much more heavily when we see it in video games. It’s repeated that it influences youths but there are just as many youths who look up to sporting icons who get regularly drunk and disorderly, among many other vices, and while they get a slap on the wrist for it, there is little further done to prevent it. With video games we see groups asking for certain games to be banned or censored, in a way that movies and music aren’t. Indeed, for the past few years certain games haven’t been available legally in their uncensored form (One that springs to mind recently is Left 4 Dead 2, a zombie shooter) precisely due to pressures from certain government officials.

CNN recently aired a very late report on a Japanese game called RapeLay that had not been in production for nearly three years due to pressures that had been placed upon it when it first popped up in the social conciousness of the internet. The game was focused around what the title suggests, the act of rape and while we would be hard pressed to say that such a game is worth praise of any sort, it did raise an interesting question of correlation.

The CNN report essentially accused the game as being an indicator of a certain ‘acceptance’ of such crimes within Japanese culture, as further evidenced by their fairly thriving production of ‘hentai’ (cartoon pornography). A creator of such manga responded to this report quoting statistics that the rates of both general and sex crimes within Japan were several times lower than those of the U.S (Takeshi, 2010), thereby dispersing the claim that the games had any real effect on the attitude of those consuming it.

Of course there are factors to note such as how rape is believed to be less likely to be reported in Japan due to social pressures, but I find it hard to believe such a disparity could occur even including non-reported cases.

It is an interesting point to observe, then, that games do not provoke such serious emotions universally. It’s worth looking into whether being in certain cultures and environments, such as having a lower socio-economic background or living in a neighbourhood that could be considered as such, play a role in how much video games can affect one’s behaviour rather than the video game being a means to an end of bringing about anger.

References

Takeshi, N. (2010). An open letter to CNN. Retrieved from http://www.tsurupeta.info/content/open-letter-to-cnn-by-nogami-takeshi
Written by Amy Bear about 2 years ago. Reply

I’m wary about discussing violence in games because it seems to me (but only from my personal experience) to be both over-represented and misunderstood – in many cases it’s the misunderstanding that’s being over-represented.

There seems to be a social desperation to find causes for violence, and games really are a flaming red flag, but I continue to question whether that’s justified, or if games are just a convenient scapegoat.

Not to question your discussion, of course, you made some good points, especially regarding bullying in groups, ostracism, and how the social pressure / game mechanics can shape behaviour.

My concern is that it seems research into violent behaviour is based on text extracts from game sessions. Long-term, ethnographic research might yield some different results than interpretation of text exchanges taken outside game play context.

I can speak from personal experience that when my guild and alliance get into PvP Arenas, they hurl the same sorts of insults, at each other, their opponents, their AI henchmen, their mothers, brothers, and pets. And they’re laughing – in good humour with each other.

It’s an expected behaviour in the circles I’ve moved through and observed. Competition expects intimidation tactics, but the person working mouse and keyboard is probably not foaming at the mouth with bulging neck and brow veins; if they’re anything like my gamer friends, they’re typing expletives about ‘your mother’ between handfuls of popcorn.

I’ve seen, and experienced, the same frustrated ‘anger’ from a messy PvP match (I’m not a keen PvPer, so I’m not especially good at it) as I have when my computer beats me at Solitaire. I get more ‘violent’ urges when IE won’t comply with my CSS. PvE (player versus environment) can frustrate me more when I can’t figure out a puzzle or a quest.

I think what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think the word ‘violence’ has ever been properly applied when it comes to discussing player behaviour, but I freely acknowledge that as a player I do feel called upon to question such a negative stigma. I can also say that my choice of games has always been ’soft core’ as far as violent content is concerned.

You hit a monster hard or often enough, it falls, presumably dead. Come back in a while and it’s back again, so death doesn’t have a sense of permanence in games as it does in life. When a character dies it comes back to life again, perhaps with a penalty or at some inconvenience to the player, but otherwise intact.

All players know this. If the death of a character was actually a permanent condition of dying in PvP or PvE encounters… well, the game wouldn’t be so much fun to play! Knowing that when I kill an opponent the worst I’m doing is putting them out of a battle until they resurrect makes the game fun, much like getting the netball through the hoop earns my team points. The character isn’t ‘dead’, it’s just sidelined in time-out.

Anyway, I think I’ve rattled on long enough. I can imagine a lot of discussion on this topic – there’s plenty of opportunity and opinions about it.
- Written by Camwhipp about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hey Amy,
  
  Thanks for reading. What valid points you make –
  
  1. People (especially politicians and right wing activists) a desperate to find causes for violence. Games are a very convenient scapegoat. Events like school shootings make the public beg for answers and demand that the perpetrator be shown in the media to be an affected soul full of anger pressed onto him/her from entities unto themselves. Violent games are a likely and probable answer for uneducated authorities on ‘behaviour’ and ‘motive’
  
  2. Research into violent behaviour is mostly based on text extracts from game sessions and there is no evidence stemming from long term ethnographic research. In my opinion, long term research would likely yield results against the theory that game violence breeds life violence. I could find little to no quality research arguing that games are a catalyst for violent behaviour. The one paper that was clear in its argument for my case was inconclusive in its evidence and was consistently using words such as ‘may’ ‘possibly’ and ‘can’ increase aggression. Overall, I would say the Anderson and Swing paper was inconclusive in evidence and in summary.
  
  3. Taunting and insulting each other in the PvP arena is all part of the fun. If gamers dont like it, they find a new server, or they hurl insults back – as you said – in between mouthfuls of popcorn
  
  4. I relate to your anger in PvE games over PvP games. A difficult section of a single player game is far more aggravating than a minor scuffle online
  
  5. Violence is defined as
  ‘behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.’
  I do not believe this definition applies to actions in a virtual realm. Virtual reality is about fantasy, and all of the elements of life must be included to create any fantasy the developers and gamers wish to escape into. Death is a part of life, violence is a part of life. If the violent behaviour of gamers is to be studied, it must be studied during and immediately after gaming so that the General Aggression Model can be implemented correctly. I believe that the responses demonstrated by gamers must be understood in the same way as the responses given by admirers of artwork or music. Shouting, shock, glaring, astonishment, wonder and the full range of emotions are demonstrated but not believed to be permanent or dangerous facets of an individuals personality.
  
  I dont think you rattled on long enough. You could have kept going, because I enjoyed your well informed and educated response.
  - Written by Amy Bear about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    I wish I’d come back to read your reply to my comment sooner – I suspect we could have gone on for days in this discussion! I mentioned being wary because it is such a ‘hot potato’ in some circles, and a ‘hot tamale’ in others. Not talking about it is usually the safest route, but in hindsight, isn’t that what this conference site is all about?
    
    You summarised my points perfectly, and better than I could have, I suspect. You’ve definitely done your research here, well done and great effort.
    
    I recall that, in the not too distant past, role-players were the tried and true scapegoats for violent offenses amongst ‘the youth’. If you spent more than one evening a month locked in your friend’s parents’ basement rolling die and gleefully clasping a character sheet.. well, you were a social deviant! A miscreant! A potential perpetrator of violent crime!
    
    It’s not a great leap to see how graphic interface games have taken over that stigma, so many of them are based on the same, or similar stats-oriented systems. Only, now when you kill another character, it’s not a character sheet that’s taken from a player and added to a horded pile of dead characters in the dungeon master’s stash, there’s an elaborate ‘death animation’, with simulated blood, a canned ‘death cry’, and experience points awarded to the winner.
    
    Much easier to blame that for a child acting-out than, say, parents failing to adequately nurture a child, or bullying at school, or an emotional set-back in a relationship. Games are ‘easy’, because no individual has to take responsibility.
    
    I would really like to see an ethnographic study on this, a long-term research project across different types of games and gamers, including interviews and live observation rather than sifting through text extracts. How many different ways are there to interpret a ‘keyboard smash’? Is it rage, or is someone laughing just that hard?
    
    I especially appreciate your comparison of enjoying games as you can enjoy and admire art. The emotional response and investment in a book or film can be expressed with the same awe or frustration. Perhaps the difference in MMOs is there’s a live audience?
Written by Jordanna Epp about 2 years ago. Reply

This paper was really interesting! As a gamer myself (off-line mostly) I tend to get a bit arched-up when the subject of violence in video games arises, I like to think of myself as I rather nice, polite and calm individual. I am confident in my ability to leave the gaming world at home in my xbox when I leave the house and interact with my fellow man in a ‘normal’ manner. What irks me about this subject is that I never seem to see any evidence of real-life game-related violence in the news (not saying that it absolutely does not happen).
‘Competition is a major factor contributing to violent behavior. Players compete for the prestige and respect of good statistics which creates greed, fury and anger.’ Reminds me of the world of sports. I think a major difference though, in which you stated above was that gamers are more likely to express violence through anonymity whereas people of all ages – whether professionals or not – express violence onto each other in public all the time. I remember there was rioting in Vancouver years ago when their hockey team didnt make the final!
I really enjoyed reading your paper, you cover a lot of information on the study of violence in gaming; although I would love to hear the other side of the argument; what would the die-hard players have to say in their defense? And what about off-line gaming? To what extent does it effect the human psyche?
Cheers for picking this topic, it has really got me thinking!
Written by Cathy Brzeski about 2 years ago. Reply

Wow this paper was really really detailed.

I was attracted to read it because i wanted to learn more about violence and bullying in gaming. This is because my partner is a huge gamer, he loves all shooting/violent games especially Counter Strike (which you talked about).

I often hear him swearing and mumbling to himself when he plays these games. And i say to him “why are you getting so angry, its just a game”! He will respond by criticizing a clan he is versing or swearing about a opponent he is versing!

This sort of behavior is what you spoke about. The fantastic thing is that you gave deeper reasons as to why gamers behave this way.

I totally agree with one of your main points. That anonymity factors strongly influence gamers to show aggression and violence towards other players. This is true for my boyfriend, he feels totally comfortable abusing another player because the other player doesn’t know who he is, he doesn’t know where he lives or what he does or what he looks like. This anonymous status he has been given makes him feel comfortable with behaving violently. I’m sure if a web cam was compulsory in these games, he wouldn’t feel as comfortable. If he knew he was being watched and seen, he wouldn’t have as much of that ‘anonymous’ status, and he probably wouldn’t act as violent. An interesting thing to think about

You have focused on violence, bullying and aggression within the game space but i am wondering… do you personally believe that if a gamer is violent in the game space they are more likley to be violent in real life? Do you believe there is a direct link?

I think that violence within the game is influenced mostly by the structure of the game, and whether the person can be anonymous or not, and whether the game is actually based on violence. But in real life, i believe that it isn’t as simple as “they are violent because they play violent games”. I think values, attitudes, personal experiences, upbringing, family and personality variables are a stronger influence in real life in terms of whether someone is more likely to be violent or not.

Thankyou for this really detailed paper. It has opened my mind to the issue and the next time i hear my partner swearing at the monitor of a CS game i will have a much deeper understanding of why!
- Written by Camwhipp about 2 years ago. Reply
  
  Hi Cathy,
  
  Thanks for your comments. They are very encouraging!
  
  I do not personally believe that if a gamer is violent in the game space they are more likely to be violent in real life. On the contrary, I believe games offer players an outlet for emotions that may be considered dangerous if expressed in other ways. For example, games such as CS and WOW are great for letting out anger and aggression. However, 99.9% of the time I think the violence stops there. Only in severe cases can violence in real life be linked back to a love for shooting people up on a computer or TV screen. I agree with you when you say –
  
  “I think values, attitudes, personal experiences, upbringing, family and personality variables are a stronger influence in real life in terms of whether someone is more likely to be violent or not.”
  
  I think, If it happens (violence in the real world), It was gonna happen if video games were involved or not!
  
  That is why I tried to focus more on anger during the gameplay, which you have stated your partner experiences quite regularly. Though I think my essay went through a few unnecessarily complex turns. But you live and you learn
  - Written by Cathy Brzeski about 2 years ago. Reply
    
    Hey thanks very much for your comment
    Yeah i totally agree with you, i think many un-educated/ignorant people directly and instantly blame video games for violence. Its so silly. Especially in Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine Documentary, they mentioned how the shooters played violent video games therefore that must have been a main influence.
    
    But you’re totally right, if violence occurs, it has to exist within the person in the first place, before they even touch a video game.
    
    I think people saying “they are violent because they play video games” is just like saying “you’re asian therefore you must be good at maths”
    
    Its a huge generalization. I would really love to look into research of cases where it has been a direct influence on a person’s violent behaviour. I believe in Bowling for Columbine they attempted to make a link between the shooting and the boys playing video games but it didn’t have enough solid evidence behind it to prove anything
    
    Once again another interesting case to look into!