Critically evaluate extant research on videogames, aggression and violent behaviour.

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Critically evaluate extant research on videogames, aggression and violent behaviour

The media of video and computer games is a phenomenon, which has developed rapidly since its first incarnations of simple graphical games, to today’s 3D rendered worlds which players are able to inhabit and explore as they wish. The gaming culture which has followed plays an integral part in contemporary society not just for the youth market but also for many adults, as a gateway to escape their everyday lives and express themselves within a gaming environment.

This is the new media format much like television and radio with their introduction into the mainstream, the need to study and explore the implications has attracted scholars, and business’s to explore this new media, attempting to understand its effects on contemporary society.

The amount of money and time spent by consumers on these game platforms and software has pushed them to the front of the entertainment market place, with several multinational companies vying for market dominance within this expanding industry (Calvert 2002).

The research into violent video games and post play aggression is one of the key study points for this media source. The idea of played aggression transferring into real world situations generates a moral panic within society, and so researches are keen to discover any links with play and real life aggression or to dispel the fears of the public which have been scare mongered by the mass media. Moral panics such as video nasties are similar to the notion of game panics, both are especially aimed at young children for whom society deems to be susceptible and vulnerable to impressions from the mass media, and in this essay’s case their exposure to violent video games.

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The key to the difference with the notion of game panics is the interactivity between the player and the game mechanics, the player is able to decide what happens within the game as long as its within the game boundaries, for violent games this includes the abundance of killing computer generated characters, and this is the concern of the parents and oppositions to the graphic games available. Recent events such as the school shootings in Columbine, America have led to increased magnification on the topic and therefore more studies are being conducted trying to theorise a link between play and ...

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