Does Gaming Affect Behaviour... Will we eat each other because we play pacman?

[twitch 0]

Before I start, I want to make something clear. I do not believe that the following is an excuse for the increase in violent crimes and attitudes. I do believe that it is one of the fundamental factors, brought on by the irresponsibility of game creators.

 

For at least the past 10 years, people have taken part in heated discussions over "does gaming make us more violent". That in itself is ambiguous. Gaming doesn't make us more violent. What it does is feed our imaginations.

 

I have fallen into the trap before relasing the situation about gaming affecting behaviour, by saying "don't be stupid, people who blame gaming on behaviour are fools and don't know what they are talking about". However, that's probably because I was confused.

 

If you have seen younger ones playing on games that are child-centered learning (e.g. Dora the Explorer games) you'll see a change in their behaviour, they will become happier and may even go a little hyper. It won't last for a long period (only a couple of hours max), but it is proof that gaming affects behaviour. So, if you change the genre and the child's age - make it graphical violence and a 16 year old. What's the result going to be? Well, not as clear cut as the first example.

 

The child (16) won't necessarily start running around throwing knives at their best friends, or going into the street and start joy riding, but what it will do is fuel their imaginations - especially games that provide a storyline, even more so those that have an ending (because then the child can change the events in the storyline and resultantly change the ending). If they're prone to destructive behaviour, or even violence, then they're more likely to manifest their imaginative creations. I've seen it plenty of times with my mates, their families and even my own.

 

A recent topic in What's New...? forum, the Montreal Gunman Angel of Death played on a game which mimic-ed the events of the Columbine Masacre (?sp). He ended up recreating that scene, although didn't accomplish it as well (in a negative way).

 

Anyway, that is enough of my psycho-analysis-crap on the matter, what do you guys think?

 

Questions Proposed Throughout Topic:

 

Does gaming affect behaviour, or is it all just a fad to give people an excuse for the increasingly violent crimes?

How much does gaming affect behaviour?

How do we decrease the negative effects on behaviour?

Edited December 13, 2006 by twitch (see edit history)

[sparkx 0]

Personally I think its just a fad... First, pong (and other games pacman, asteroids ext), great games, spend an hour or so playing it the first time then play it 10 minutes a day after that. Then it was RPG games like Mario and you would play it till you beat the game then probably never play it again. Then they made platform games, Higher speed and fast but not 3D like earlier games. Just fun for some reason? They it was racing game, Very fun 3D fast and addicting. Now its violent games, Lots of violence (steeling, killing ext) Addicting to some, but not to others. Judging from the past violent games should stop soon... Whats next though? Will it really be better? Or will it be a mix of all the games (a 2nd real world type thing) You have to raise up money. Go to places (arcades vacations houses ext). All this fully interactive in some sort of a game suit as a controller. If this is what they do next... is it really better. It will probably save some kids but it will also make kids forget about real life and the problems we face outside the gaming world. Kinda scary isn't it?Also, If we stop making violent games now kids will probably become MORE violent not being able to take out there (already built up from games) anger on the system and start doing it in real life. That's no good...Thanks for reading,~Sparkx~

Edited December 10, 2006 by sparkx (see edit history)

[toby 0]

I think some of the violent games, in extreme/extreme and young cases can make a bad example/effect. People have copied games IRL, including shooting games with a real gun. It was in CSI once.

[twitch 0]

Good points guys.sparkx, perhaps the question we should now be asking is how do we decrease the violence in today's society. I have my own anwser, but I'd like to see what others have to say.

[borlafu 0]

I don't think violent games can change a normal person behaviour, maybe for a person ho tends to take everything to an extreme it could be a problem, but for those people a film of just an idea is so "dangerous" as a game.It's all a problem of the mind, if you can separate the real world from your gaming-fantasy world and asume that it's only a game and that you play for fun (you don't need the game) there's no problem.All the perturbed people that appear on the news because they killed somebody or something like that because they thougth they where inside a videogame or because they take the videogame out of the screen and into their lives, they will have done it with a videogame, a film, a card game or any other ting. They have a mental illness.PD: Sorry for my english :S

[leafbunk 0]

I think that exposure to graphic video games/movies/scenes/events, etc. changes people's tolerace to violence and graphic imagery. Each individual naturally has a level of tolerance for that sort of thing, and frequent exposure to it causes them to become less concerned with it and more allowing. Of course this is basically true in any circumstance, but speaking specifically about violence and violent behaviour, I think this is a very problematic result. This is probably a stupid example, but my when my boyfriend got the game Postal, I felt very horrible watching it. I couldn't explain this feeling, because in my head I knew it was just a video game, but still, my tolerance level for that sort of graphic imagery was very low at the time. Therefore, I felt uncomfortable with what was going on in the game. Now though, because I've been more exposed to it, I have no problem at al with that sort of thing. I don't flinch or blink or anything really now when I see him going for head shots. This isn't to say that I'm going to go out on the street and try to shoot real people in the head, but I think it has affected me in a way that if I saw something like that actually happen now, I wouldn't have nearly as emotional of a reaction as I would have previous to being exposed to Postal. I think that constant exposure to violence (wherever it might be) pushes us all to a state of "numbness". If we all continue to become more and more numb to the world, it provides for a very unstable future for us all. With the increase in exposure to graphic material, our sense of things like compassion and empathy begin to slip away. I don't know about all of you, but I know I wouldn't want to live in a society devoid of those two things.

[twitch 0]

@leafbunk - You've become tolerant towards the content, but what about the form? What are your opinions on the subject on a whole. Does it make you feel disgusted that people actually devise these games? Not what's in the game itself, but the concept of it. I'm glad this has so far been an intelligent topic, maybe there is hope for the professional host

Edited December 11, 2006 by twitch (see edit history)

[chinna1405241537 0]

@leafbunk - You've become tolerant towards the content, but what about the form? What are your opinions on the subject on a whole. Does it make you feel disgusted that people actually devise these games? Not what's in the game itself, but the concept of it.
I'm glad this has so far been an intelligent topic, maybe there is hope for the professional host

hi im new to asta host.......this topic grabbed my attention .....

this is really considerable one.... young minds are getting cruel with those games......
all gamedesigners should stop this design of evilish games.....

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

true, some people are crazy enough to actually attempt to mimic a game because it just "feels so real". Some people are just that psychotic.It could be other reasons, but a person should never think that life is a game because it's not! You can't respawn after you're dead. Once you're dead, you're dead!Plus, I moved this topic to the proper location.xboxrulz

[Quatrux 4]

This topic got very interesting, I think that every normal person should recognise the real world and the gaming world, games are usually addicting, especially for people who recently started to play games, usually that is the youth. Now when going by bus I usually hear kids talking about games, about different ones and different situations, don't know if this is bad or this is just something new. When I was a small kid, usually it was enough for me to grab a plastic gun, gather up with friends and play "war" in our imagination, it was cool, but it wasn't realistic and got boring, now kids can play such games with each other, for example playing counter strike is more realistic than playing the same game with a plastic gun in your yard with friends running around.. Even though I used to play games, a lot of them on spectrum, Amiga computers, but all my childhood I liked strategy and adventure games, so never got addicted very much, more I got a lot of patience out of playing them, you couldn't always save the game or get a password in old games, but still I finished most of them, some with cheating, some by myself and I feel happy about that Today.I think kids should be controlled by parents, they don't need to be led to play 24 hours a day, only sometimes to know what it is, to know that feeling, because of the Internet, there are so much information, that I know one gamer, which got into c++ and directx and now wants to create games himself and if you want to create games you need or needed to play them etc.What I don't like about games, that gamers usually stop reading books, even though I used to say that books sucks, but that isn't true when I grew up a little, if games feed our imagination, books feed them differently and playing with toys not on the computer feed them even more differently, so a kid needs to have everything. Therefore, I feel sorry about people who only are playing games and doesn't do anything more, they can become psychopathic, mad, crazy, it is much harder to find a girl/other side for them, friends and they just usually get reserved and doesn't know what to talk about except games.

[xboxrulz1405241485 0]

true games are addicting, I can admit it.These are the games that has been on my "playlist" for years.- Freelancer- Starcraft- Generals- Halo/Halo 2xboxrulz

[yeh 0]

I think the question now is how much does gaming affects behavior. To say that gaming does not affects behavior is definitely not true becoz everything affects the mind which ultimately affects our behavior. But I do not think that the effect of gaming on behavior is that great that we should be concerned about. People talk about violence in games but how about movies? Lots of blockbuster movies actually have fight scenes on them. So should we now banned all movies with fight scenes on them? You should think of movies like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings etc. before you answer yes to the above question. And to complicate matters even more, how about our everyday life? If there is someone bullying in the school, should anyone who witnessed it then turn to be a bully? And how do you stop bullying in school, or anyway? And if our behavior can be changed that easily, than i guess our society is doomed already since violence has been with humanity for centuries.

sparkx, perhaps the question we should now be asking is how do we decrease the violence in today's society. I have my own anwser, but I'd like to see what others have to say.

My take on decreasing violence is more on enforcing the law and having laws that act as a deterrent to violence. Unfortunately, that is not the case with modern society nowadays. I cannot understand how the authorities can talk about cost-cutting in the prison system. So now you have criminals given parole after serving just half or maybe even less of their sentence. Heck, then why sentenced them to such a lengthy periods anyway in the first place? You have to remember one thing. One of the functions of the law is to prevent crime in the first place. The deterrent effect of the law is of crucial importance to society. When criminals don't think that they would pay for their crime, heck... why not commit it? Hey, you might not get caught and even if you do, the jury or judge might find you not guilty. If indeed you are found guilty, well, put on your best behavior and you can be out pretty soon. Sounds like a good deal?

[HellFire121 0]

I would say not really. It could though if the kids are exposed to violent games at a young age (The parents should be watching what they are playing anyway). As the kids get older they would start to understand that they are only playing a game, not something that they should copy. I'd say after they have been through that they are fine so this shouldn't really be an excuse for crimes.Then you have the addicting side of it, if they don't get enough and all of a sudden they can then it might lead into an addiction. With games like world of warcraft (which i have recently gotten in to) it is pretty damn easy to get addicted to it so you could only imagine what the kids reactions will be-HellFire

[twitch 0]

@xboxrulz - thanks for moving it There's too many forums about so I thought I'd put in the 'safe place'. lol.@quatrux - interesting read. I have to say I had more fun as a kid being imaginative and making our own games up with plastic guns and sticks than playing on the nintendo. It just bored me, that all I would do is sit in front of a screen working out stupidly easy puzzles and not having to think.The gaming world and the real world are being combined by developers, just look at our 3rd-Gen consoles (360, Wii, PS3) they're another step closer to making it rediculously real-life.They do become socially inept. I wouldn't say that they are more psychotic though. Some 'gamers' I know aren't psychotic, far from. They're just not socially aware.@yeh - thanks for taking the topic to the next part - how much it affects behaviour.As for the violence in movies. I don't think it has changed over the past 20 years, if anything because of censoring, it's become less. However, the realism of the violence is much greater, with spectacular special effects. Whilst I find all these new horrors boring (they're all just about making the audience jump with strong drum beats). They don't leave anything to the imagination, like the recent Descent and Hostel.We can't stop bullying, and we never will. Bullying is a prejudice orientated effect, not completely behavioural like violence on behaviour.To take on your question of how much does it affect beahviour? Well, I would say it depends on the situation. Just general gaming, I wouldn't say it does a lot. I think it only provides a catalyst to augment in the result of the combined factors. However hardcore gaming on very graphical and real-life experiences, along with damaged childhood or adolescence, I would say a very important factor.***Updated topic start to include the three questions we've come across so far.

[iGuest 3]

If I got my hands on a rocket launcher then game on.Well gaming does affect behaviour, but what actually are you evaluating? Games can make people pleasant, stressed, etc and this will alter their behaviour. I'll play competitively against someone, and they could get angry if losing or smart if winning, so it's affecting their behaviour.So really, what are you delving into?I know most people look at it whether gaming will make them act like the game, it's not the game, it's what they're learning from it. Their brain is accepting things from the game, and comparing it with reality and somewhere along the line, they've had a miscommunication where it adversely seems like a decision was based purely on what they picked up from a game.Cheers,MC