A different voice about violence in computer games

We have been exploring the values of computer games and trying to legitimatize gaming’s role in learning. If we talk about the downsides of computer games, the first thing most people would sue computer games for is violence. Though not all computer games are violent, violence existing in some computer games makes people associate computer games with bloody scenes. For example, after Virginia Tech. massacre happened last year, violence in video games was blamed. Even in academia, people would have the same response. In “forward” of Gaming Lives in the Twenty-first Century: Literate Connections (Selfe & Hawisher, 2007), Gee (2007a) mentioned that no remark about violence and gender in his book angered some of his colleagues more than when he wrote.

The news today Computer games make players less violent lets us hear a different voice about violence in computer game. The researcher, Jane Barnett from Middlesex University, found that a session in front of World of Warcraft made players “less stressed and more calm.” In this study, 292 online gamers of World of Warcraft between 12 and 83 were questioned about anger and stress. After they played the game for two hours, they were retested and the result showed there were “higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger.” But, the researcher adds that it to a large degree “depended on personality type.” When it comes to personality of gamers, this news mentions another study by Dr John Charlton, of the University of Bolton, and Ian Danforth, of Whitman College. It is found that people who are heavily involved in game playing is more likely to suffer from autistic spectrum disorders than those who are not interested in gaming.

Gee (2007b) emphasizes that technologies, such as movies, television, or video games and so on, “do not have any effects, good or bad, all by themselves.” What must be considered when we evaluate effects of a certain technology is its contexts. In Gee’s words (2007b), “[t]echnologies have effects – and different ones – only as they are situated within specific contexts” (Gee, 2007b, p.15). To discuss if violence in video games, it is dangerous to say that violence in virtual world causes violence in real life. Though Barnett’s study of World of Warcraft gamers’ stress needs more examinations on its validity and reliability (e.g. Is that possible some gamers intentionally hide their stress in retest? How about more than two hours of game playing? How about having the test in a longer term?), it demonstrates other factors, such as personality, cannot be ignored.

References

Gee, J. P. (2007). Good video games + Good learning. New York: Peter Lang.

Gee, J. P. (2007). Foreward. In L. S. Cynthia & G. E. Hawisher (Eds.), Gaming lives in the twenty-first century. New York: Palgrave macmillan.

Selfe, C. L., & Hawisher, G. E. (Eds.). (2007). Gaming lives in the twenty-first century : Literate connections: New York: Palgrave Macmillan.