back to article PROVEN: Violent video games mess with your head

In the never-ending battle over whether violent video games incite impressionable gamers to commit unspeakable acts – or, at minimum, become obnoxious – hardware-wielding brain boffins have pried into young men's heads and discovered that, yes, digital mayhem alters your brain. "For the first time," said researcher Dr. Yang …

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  1. maccy
    FAIL

    >>After not playing for the second week, the effects were diminished, but not eliminated entirely.

    "These findings indicate that violent video game play has a long-term effect on brain functioning," Wang concluded.<<

    Since when has one week been defined as long term. Did Dr Wang stop the study at two weeks just in case that the effect would vanish completely at three weeks? The answer, folks, is yes.

    1. The Alpha Klutz
      Headmaster

      well

      how many people do you know that play games 1 week on, 3 weeks off?

      People who can go 3 weeks without gaming will generally go months or decades without gaming.

      1. Matt_payne666

        Me?

        I can hapily binge game for a while, then totally ignore the thing for a few weeks... all depends on the weather, work, social life and the next shiny thing that attracts my attention...

    2. Vit

      Exactly. I thought this was a much better look at that study:

      http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/29/gaming-brain-studies-whos-behind-them/

    3. John A Blackley

      The corollary to that is.....

      For idiots who play shooters over a longer term than one week, the half-life of the effects would be much longer than that.

      I'm surprised you didn't draw that conclusion. Have you been playing a lot of games lately?

      1. pepper
        Stop

        A bit pre-emptive to draw that conclusion. You try and base behaviour of the brain on rules related to physics. I doubt it works like that, but if you have the numbers to prove it then by all means share it.

        Oh, insulting people does not improve your argument in any way, shape or form.

  2. Steve Jones 2
    Coat

    It's just good to know that Wang cares.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Optional

    makes me question what effect long term exposure to actual violence does to the brain? Soldiers, Police officers etc.

    Also, if the effect is just that of gaming in general or specific to violent games. More information needed here.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      As far as they've been studied,

      The effects are very much not specific to gaming. Priming and adaptation effects, like this, have been shown in numerous areas. Essentially anything that you see or do repeatedly will prime you to think and act in similar ways. Effects can be muted by contrasting stimuli, however. But essentially, if you watch lots of violent movies, or play violent video games, you're going to be more likely to condone or act in violent ways. Likewise, if you watch lots of Care Bear movies or play touchy feely games, you'll be more likely to act out what you saw. Really, it's a complicated version of "monkey see, monkey do" or "you are what you eat."

      I don't know that anyone has tried to study long term exposure to violence to anyone besides soldiers. In veterans, the problem is complicated by the fear of being killed and the stress from seeing buddies and comrades die in action. These effects seem to swamp out anything more subtle such as simple exposure to violence.

      Note: Most movies and games are not easily categorized and often have many conflicting elements to them. Also, as mentioned, people tend to get many contrasting stimuli on a day to day basis. So, violent movies and games alone are not going to make someone go on a killing spree.

      1. Franklin
        FAIL

        A title is optional

        "Likewise, if you watch lots of Care Bear movies or play touchy feely games, you'll be more likely to act out what you saw. Really, it's a complicated version of "monkey see, monkey do" or "you are what you eat.""

        Actually, that's something I noticed while reading the article and the study; this study specifically is NOT controlled for non-violent video games.

        Which kind of invalidates the conclusion, I feel. It could very well be that violent video games cause this kind of prefrontal inhibition, sure. But without a control group, the data don't support that conclusion; what the data support is that spending ten hours in a single week on a specific type of repetitive task will cause that inhibition.

        That the key causal factor is the violence is an inference, and not necessarily a good one. Video games of all kinds, whether Doom or Tetris, cause heightened types of cognitive processing, as well as changes in stress-related hormones, focus, and concentration. The data from this particular study might suggest that violent games cause inhibition of the left inferior frontal lobe...but it might ALSO support the conclusion that elevated adrenaline causes inhibition of the left inferior frontal lobe, or that prolonged periods of eustress causes inhibition of the left inferior frontal lobe, or that prolonged pattern-recognition, spatial mapping, and real-time strategic mapping of the type required to play a 3D first-person causes inhibition of the left inferior frontal lobe.

        By not including a control group that spends a similar period of time playing a video game which requires similar levels of focus but isn't violent, the authors produced a study which does not (necessarily) support its conclusions. Frankly, I wouldn't expect this level of research to pass muster in a second-year university class.

        1. Audrey S. Thackeray

          "this study specifically is NOT controlled for non-violent video games"

          Exactly. Very disappointing (and very obvious, I would have thought).

          They didn't repeat the tests with the groups swapped or with the groups split half of each swapping tasks.

          It's annoying because if this is really true it's possibly quite important and enlightening but this is too half-arsed to judge on.

        2. Ru
          Unhappy

          "NOT controlled for non-violent video games"

          This is the single most important take-home message from the results. I'd also like to see a comparison with, say, brain activity in people who play team sports, especially of the aggressive, contact type... and perhaps comparing solo games with adversarial ones where there's a clear winner and loser.

          All this study shows is that video game violence is a sexy topic for study and results will be widely publicised regardless of their worth. Its very tedious.

        3. Tom 13

          Don't "feel," THINK it!

          Your criticism is valid and rational. Don't couch it in touchy-feely jibberish!

  4. KamL
    FAIL

    A load of Wang....

    I believe that the frontal brain regions which are, "are important for controlling emotion and aggressive behaviour", are also tested during other activities such as gardening or DIY.

    Video games are not the only ones on trial here. Whatever the outcome of video games needs to be extended to films, music, plays, social holidays such as Halloween and Bonfire Night, how to mow your lawn, etc, etc.

    Also, can we have some statistics on number of perceived, "video game nasties", against violent crimes. Then put that up against alcohol induced violent crime?

    So I ask the question: When do we become responsible for our actions?

    What's next? Statutes enforcing breastfeeding because Hitler, Pol Pot and Idi Amin were famously bottle fed? Get Wang on that one...

    (I don't know whether those three were actually bottle fed. I used that statement as a hypothetical. But I'm sure I could find something equally banal but true if I had to.)

    1. Thomas 4

      I have no strong feelings one way or the other about this test.

      It's probably because I play a lot of violent video games and therefore have no empathy any more. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to torture small children and cute fuzzy animals.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Really, that's the traditional free will vs. determinism question. From a philosophical point of view, if you are merely the sum of your experiences and do not have any real control over yourself, then you're not responsible for your actions.

      This is, of course, a useless position to take. Many people would argue that your pet dog does not have free will (cause only humans were granted the gift of free will by their creator), but would not hesitate to discipline the dog for peeing on the carpet or digging up the flower bed. Even if we discover that people are not philosophically responsible for their actions, we would still punish them the same way as we do now... Well, maybe we'll have found a more effective means of discipline by then.

    3. Ronny Cook
      Boffin

      Commonalities

      What do Atilla the Hun, Alexander the Great, and Oscar the Ground have in common?

      THE SAME MIDDLE NAME.

      Clearly there is a pattern here. All three are known for acts of senseless violence. Ban the definite article!

      If we banned anything that ever made people feel somewhat more violent we'd quickly run out of things to do. For a start, people who run around banning things that make people violent, probably make people feel violent...

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "So I ask the question: When do we become responsible for our actions?"

      This is Never a question, you are Always responsible at All times.

      Shoot em up's are banal, couldn't think of anything more boring, well maybe David Cameron.

      1. Audrey S. Thackeray

        "This is Never a question, you are Always responsible at All times."

        As well as being irritated by the wrongness of this statement I found the capitals anoying.

        1. Figgus
          FAIL

          The problem is, the statement should not be wrong. The entire "mentally fit" thing is a load of crap invented to let people get away with murder. Literally.

          It's akin to hate crimes. The WHY does not matter, only the fact that it was done should be of any consequence.

  5. JimC

    The sports scientists did a lot of the work required many years ago...

    Look up visualisation: mental techniques where, by repeatedly imagining yourself in a given situation, achieveing a goal for instance, it makes it easier to achieve...

    Its very hard to believe that similar effects don't occur when you imagine yourself in other situations... Personally I've largely given up reading certain kinds of literature and playing certain computer games because I find it adversely affects my mental outlook.

    Of course I might be unusually weak minded - one experience is not evidence - but it is my experience that very many folk grossly underestimate the power of the subconcious on their behaviour.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

      1. John G Imrie
        Happy

        and when was the last time you saw a film that didn't suck dick

        When I stopped watching pornos and went out to the cinema

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        well. There's some.

        I knew a guy in Bosnia, he used to drive his wife mad by playing half-life 2 for days on end after he demobbed. Serious PTSD case, he used to find that it gave him an outlet, something to think about.

        He stopped playing when his kids came along, two years later lost it and set fire to the family house. Always did have a fire thing going on though. Even I barely recognize him now. Prison wasn't kind to him but at least they gave him psychiatric care that he couldn't get in civvie street.

        A few of the old crew still team up on various versions of Halo and Splinter Cell. I join in for SC (and love the Assassin's Creed series) but can't play true FPS because they make me puke within 5 minutes of playing. Go on, read something psychological into motion sickness, I dare you.

      3. TonkaToys

        "Nobody who had been to a real war prior to gaming would want to come back home and play the game. How many WW2 vets do we have playing Call of Duty for 9 hours an evening and slavishly buying every new version for a price that they admit is more overpriced than a movie ticket "

        I shouldn't think there would be many WW2 vets out there playing these games, as the youngest of them would probably be about 82 years old.

        However, I know plenty of ex-forces (US and UK) who do "slavishly" purchase these games and play them every night. They are all family men and women, and are all very pleasant people.

        As is mentioned elsewhere in the comments, what the study is lacking is breadth; is it just violent games, is it all games, is it violent movies/tv, is it violent books, ... We need some more information before judging anything.

      4. It's a me.
        Stop

        I was talking to a vietnam vet the other week who was a massive fan of the Battlefield video game series. Using WW2 vets as an example, given that they barely had TVs let alone games consoles, is a bit silly.

    2. Figgus
      Thumb Down

      I imagine a lot of things. I imagine doing horrible things to mental slackwits whose entire existence seems centered around annoying me.

      Funny thing, despite all the imaginings I've never actually DONE anything like that.

      Studies... err, sorry, "studies" like this one just give people excuses to do horrible things to each other. "It wasn't my fault, xyz made me do it!" The sooner we stop wasting time making excuses for people, the sooner we can get back to holding people accountable for their actions.

      Then again, accountability is such an unpopular word these days...

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In other news

    Watching a lot of violent films has shown to have a long term effect on brain functioning.

    Watching a lot of news stories has shown to have a long term effect on brain functioning.

    ...

  7. Chris Harrison
    FAIL

    Where does it all end?

    Could we do a similar test on people who have to queue behind old people in the post office, or the supermarket? How about people held up in traffic queues due to speed limits designed to protect workers who are at home tucked up in bed?

    1. Nuke
      Headmaster

      @ Chris Harrison

      A bit off topic, but traffic queues are not caused by speed limits. They are caused by traffic lights showing red to all directions for minutes on end (I presume to allow a non-existent severely crippled pedestrian to cross) and by drivers hesitating at Give-Way signs in case that car approaching along the main road might be doing more than the speed limit.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Traffic queues caused by various things

        And of course driving too fast. Keeping a slow but steady speed in heavy traffic actually gets everyone home faster as it reduces stopping and hence limits the delays of reaction times.

        Might be preaching to the choir on El Reg but it's knowledge worth spreading. Check out "Shockwave jams" on Youtube.

      2. Red Bren
        Stop

        Red light

        "[Traffic queues] are caused by traffic lights showing red to all directions for minutes on end"

        Traffic lights showing red in all directions is probably a health and safety precaution to make allowance for the number of motorists that jump the red light at every change.

      3. Franklin

        "A bit off topic, but traffic queues are not caused by speed limits. They are caused by traffic lights showing red to all directions for minutes on end (I presume to allow a non-existent severely crippled pedestrian to cross)..."

        Don't know how you guys do it on your side of the pond, but here in the States traffic lights that show red in all directions are sometimes used as an intentional "traffic calming" methodology, supposedly to reduce collisions that occur when a yellow-light accelerator meets a green-light anticipator (yeah, that's actually what civil engineers call 'em), and to reduce the overall incidence of speeding. At least that's the theory. Anecdotal evidence when I'm trying to get across town at rush hour might show something else...

        (Yes, I live with a civil engineer, what of it?)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Go

          Traffic causation

          All traffic queues are caused by people STOPPING. Usually fools.

          On a motorway there is almost never a valid reason to stop, unless a serious incident occurs immediately in front of you blocking the entire carriageway.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Not so much stopping as braking.....

            If you have to brake on a motorway, it's because you, or someone else, are driving incorrectly. The mark of a good driver is not speed, it's anticipation - which also saves you money, as unneccessary braking is a waste of petrol.

            If people just watched the cars around them and matched their speed (not too slow either, which can be worse than too fast), and left a suitable distance between them and the car in front for the road conditions, there'd be a lot less accidents, we'd all get home quicker, and use less petrol in doing so.

            The worst slowdowns are at junctions (try the M5 or the M6 in Staffordshire any day and you'll see it at it's worst)- why can't people join/leave the motorway without making other people brake? It's that anticipation thing again. Get up to speed, and filter in, simples.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Yawn

    Living changes brain function .. At least for most of us. Wake me when someone demonstrates that the changes are bad.

  9. Jeremy Bresley
    Thumb Down

    GIGO?

    So they picked people with little to no experience playing "violent video games" for this study. Had they had extensive exposure to other types of video games, just CHOSE not to play FPS titles? Choosing a bunch of non-gamers, and having them play video games 2-3 hours a day when they previously didn't play games will likely result in SOME kind of change in their brain activity. Whether that activity is positive or negative is a completely different question. Repeat this study with a random sample of gamers and non-gamers included, and see if the effects are the same on people who had done extensive game playing previously would be a good place to start.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Wang is not required here...

    Right, well done Wang.

    Now lets try the same experiment on:

    1. People watching violent movies

    2. Troops in a war zone

    3. Aggressive sports - rugby perhaps?

    I'd say it's pretty damn obvious it's going to effect your brainwave patterns, however, it's a case of what other activities do the same?

    It's also a case of a *tiny* sample group - I mean, 22 people? WTF?

    And how long after did they keep reading the brainwave patterns?

    It's just not ... science.

    No matter which way you look at this, it smacks of "we want to find the results we expected and they better indicate that violent games make you ... violent"

    So, then there's me, I've played a fairly massive amount of video games in my time, to the point where, at 44, I'm bored of most of them (except anything Valve or Rockstar create)

    I started gaming age 11, 33 years ago.

    And hell, I'm the most passive, non-violent, agreeable chap you could hope to meet, aside from that sticky incident with the crowbar, never put a foot wrong. But hey, we all make mistakes... details, details!

    1. durandal
      Boffin

      "And hell, I'm the most passive, non-violent, agreeable chap you could hope to meet, aside from that sticky incident with the crowbar, never put a foot wrong."

      Dr Freeman, I presume?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why stop there?

      Clay sculpture

      Baking cakes

      Working 40 hours at an assembly line.

      Also, so there is less activity in the emotional centers of the brain. Does this mean those areas are now crippled for dealing with strong emotions, or does it simply mean they are having to deal with fewer strong emotions because the gamer is simply relaxed?

  11. Ramazan
    Pint

    long?

    Two weeks (twice more than MJ)? Are you joking, mr.Wang? Go have you pint of ale and stop bothering us with such nonsense...

  12. Pirate Dave Silver badge
    Pirate

    A bit wonky...

    "involved '22 healthy adult males' between the ages of 18 and 29 who had little past experience with violent video games."

    Eh, yeah, right. As if anyone could find 22 males under the age of 30 who haven't played violent videogames. Or perhaps these were the only 22 that could be found world-wide.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I grew up with a lot of them*. They also used to say quaint things like "my ears are bleeding" when someone cursed. Also decryed caffine and porn. Very nice people overall, but quite weird too...

      * I grew up in Northern Utah. Lots of Mormons there that were well insulated from the "horrors" of the rest of the world.

  13. Graham Dawson Silver badge

    Study's useless unless they compare with a second group playing non-violent games.

    1. Adam Foxton

      Non-violent video games

      with a similar set of objectives. Say, comparing a regular FPS with Portal. After all, you can still call bullcrap if the 'non-violent' game being played was (say) Pong and you were comparing it to Deus Ex.

  14. Asgard
    Facepalm

    Oh no, not again

    There so many flaws in this research (e.g. sample sizes etc..), but even looking beyond that, the basic premise is also fundamentally flawed in so many ways. For example, of course a game alters our brain. Everything we do alters our brain (I hope) because that is how we learn!. You would also expect learning in emotional centers of the brain as violent games are very primal predator/prey interactions.

    However a violent person isn't violent because they see violence in a game (or a film). They are violent because they want to be violent because their violence gives them power over others (by inducing fear in others to back down) and lets face it, some people in this world want power over others. People just have to look and read about the world around them to see this is true. Even just look at the rest of the animal kingdom to see this is true.

    So to keep arguing games (and films etc..) are a cause of violence is at best profoundly ignorant of Narcissistic personality disorders and at worse stops the world finally seeking to deal with Narcissistic behaviour in society.

    So what is it going to take for some people to learn the simple fact that people who are violent, want to be violent! ... It seems unfortunately there is no shortage of stupidity on this planet, so judging by pass failures, I doubt some will ever make the connection on their own. Ironically (and I'm only joking here), perhaps the only way to really teach them, would be to actually beat them up so they finally get the message that the person punching them has chosen to punch them, not because they are aiming for a high score!

    ... Give me strength, I despair at some people. Stop the planet, I've lost all hope, I want off now, please let me off this planet!

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How dare he say playing video games makes people violent

    It's just not true, and anyone who does not agree should have their tonsils extracted with a rusty chainsaw.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wang: I've regressed our understanding of the brain 50 years to improve the self-image of HOA board members, politicians without a 'me-too' and evangelicals all over the world.

    World: Ahhhhh that feels better.

    I once was a teenage lobotomer.

  17. JDX Gold badge

    On the assumption people posting here are FPS gamers

    Then their weakly constructed, aggressively presented arguments seem to back up Mr. Wang.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So, what's your excuse?

    2. Ronny Cook
      Devil

      Violence

      I generally avoid first person shooters. Killing virtual people with a gory virtual sword or burning them to death with virtually painful magic fire is much more appealing.

      Or I suppose I could go out and hurt real people, but that would be silly.

  18. CaptSmeg
    Mushroom

    Grrrrrrr

    Grrrr. Never mind FPS, reading this article makes me want to punch people.

  19. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
    Joke

    As Bart Simpson put it...

    ..."If you don't *watch* the violence, you won't get *desensitized* to the violence!"

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about a better technique

    of assuming that FPS players will be predisposed to enjoying this sort of game- basically everyone's been exposed to them at one time or another nowadays, and those who like them will seek them out.

    So track the development of an FPS players' techniques over the years. So see if they get MORE violent (going out of their way to get more kills), LESS violent (choosing to try and sneak where possible). See if their choice of weapon changes from the inevitable first favourite of a machine gun of some sort to the precision assassination sniper rifle or if they move more towards rocket launchers and other area-effect weapons.

    If they're killing more, are they going for close-up kills or long-distance kills?

    If they're given a choice (as in Deus Ex: Human Revolution), are they doing close-up takedowns as full-on skull-crushing murder or are they just knocking out their opponents?

    And stick them in a freeform world like GMOD. What do they do- spawn enemies and shoot them? Build a big base? Drive around the virtual world in a car? Or just set up the ragdolls to teabag each other?

    Do their actions change in response to external stimuli (it's been a bad day, so settle down with a beer, a room full of enemies and a box of grenades / it's been a good day, so sneak past them)?

  21. stucs201

    Another alternative

    Caused by the games? Or just 10 hours a week less to socialise and interact with people. Is it the games or the time they take, would another activity to suddenly find 10 hours a week for have the same effect?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Its not...

    ...an issue whether violent games or TV series or cartoons or anime's have an effect on you.

    The issue here is how you deal with it.

    Getting carried away with series isn't a problem, I too got all excited when Vegeta (Dragonball Z) unleashed the 'Final Flash'. That was awesome. But I knew better than to go out and started fights or such; not only was that "not done", it would be pretty stupid too.

    And getting kids to realize that simple difference between right and wrong is where the parents come in. Or should come in, and bingo; we have ourselves a modern problem.

  23. Darren Barratt
    Facepalm

    Stories like this pop up every now and again, always with the headline, <ACTIVITY> CHANGES YOUR BRAIN!

    It's missing the point. Changing is what the brain does. If it didn't change, you'd have a novelty cauliflower door stop instead of a thinking engine.

    1. Tilman Ahr
      Coat

      novelty cauliflower door stop

      Priceless. First time I felt the urge to actually upvote a post.

      Might be to do with Prenzlauer Berg diners obviously having exactly that in their skulls, and me just having gotten home from work.

      The white one with 12 buttons, please. I know the way, thanks.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    let's all just live in a fucking bubble devoid of either positive or negative stimuli from birth to death then will these people be happy?

    Honestly get over it and have some fun you sad life hating bastards.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    and in further news, Dancing and music are the devils work as is seeing the physical female form.

    Call me when the bible bashers and moral tea baggers start swing this crap about, I'm pretty tired of it, and i'm tired of the coverage of it, they don't deserve a mention they're meaningless and have no baring on reality.

  26. bolccg
    Joke

    What a crock!

    I play loads of violent games and they have never affected me in the slightest! These scaremongering stories seem to come out all the frickin time and they make me so mad!!! Makes me wanna track these white-coated morons down and stab 'em in the eye!!!!!!!

    For any law enforcement individuals around the Robin Hood Airport region, this is known as irony (ie, a joke)

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    how many people played mw3 and bf3? Did 10% of them go out and beat somebody up? If not, who cares?

  28. Wombling_Free
    Mushroom

    I completely agree!

    Now, lets ban violent books too; starting with the Bible & Koran - both full of depravity, violence, hate crimes, racism, slavery, misogyny, rape and turning people into pillars of salt (which isn't polite).

    1. Ronny Cook
      Meh

      Salt

      > turning people into pillars of salt (which isn't polite).

      ...Oops. My bad.

    2. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

      "hate crime"

      What, as opposed to one of those I-really-really-like-you sort of murders?

      - Gene Hunt

  29. zen1

    Maybe...

    If he ran a similar study on people who watch hours of violent television programming I might be inclined to take him somewhat seriously. I'd further guess that subjecting any human, either old enough to not need or young enough to not need diapers to the likes of the 'politically correct' touchy feely, let's all be best friends, share group hugs, teletubby crap might produce the same results.

    I have no doubt that general desensitization plays a huge role in this. I mean it's no secret that the human brain has (d)evolved since the advent of television. So I think his basic assertion may have a little merit, but I really think he needs to step back and take a good long look at all of the environmental contributors, to what makes someone become consistently more violent.

    1. James Micallef Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      In fact....

      ... if we want to properly analyse the effect of US television, run 2 parallel studies.

      1) show people 10 hours of typical US TV shows / films where outrageous, gratuitous, gory violence is A-OK

      2) show people 10 hours of French or Italian TV shows / films where outrageous, gratuitous nudity and sex is A-OK

      I'll bet group 2 will be showing WAY more empathy :)

  30. Stephen 10

    Anti-video games organisation finds video games bad shocker!

    More poorly designed research with an agenda brought to you by a group seeking funding...

    There'll be another in a month.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    since when is a group of 22 been considered a good sample since to find results that indicate the behaviour or condition of 7 billion

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MISSING

    Any example of other activity. We are talking enforced participation in a leisure activity for ten hours a week, let's see how ten hours of needlepoint affects the brains of a similar demographic group.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Already done...

      ... in Demolition Man!!!

      Lenina Huxley: Look at you, you're a shambles!

      John Spartan: Don't worry, I can fix it. All I need is a needle and thread.

      [pause]

      John Spartan: I really didn't say that, did I? Damn!

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I remember when...

    ... during the 80's whenever The Karate Kid, or Rocky had been on TV in an evening, the following day during school playtimes, there'd be a surge of cuts, grazes and bloody noses as the kids punched seven bells and crane kicked each other. It was so predictable, extra staff were put on playground duty whenever these films were on TV to break up the scuffles as they began. Perfect example of monkey see, monkey do.

    It's got better tho, last time I looked, the kids were pointing twigs at each other and shouting "Expelliamus!!!".

  34. Lord Midas
    Megaphone

    And what about the 12A certificate

    This has allowed movie makers to make very violent films knowing that parents couldn't give 2 hoots about the content their kids are watching.

    e.g

    Tintin is chock full of guns and violence

    Xmen 1st Class had Wolverine telling Charles and Eric to "Go f*ck" themselves. This was 18 territory about 15/20 years ago.

    The horrific deaths in Transformers 3.

    Littleuns shouldn't be seeing this stuff (I guess) but I loved it.

  35. Eddie Edwards
    Facepalm

    Rik is a troll and this story is stupid

    What is this, the Daily Mail? The stupid, it hurts ...

  36. James Micallef Silver badge
    Angel

    RED HERRING ALERT

    EVERYTHING alters the brain if done consistently for long enough. That's part of the spec of what the brain is, a learning machine that is capable of changing it's thinking patterns based on external environment. Just because FPS gamers have lessened empathy does not mean they're going to be more violent.

    Playing FPS shooter for 10 hours a week will alter the way your brain works

    Going to religious services for 10 hours a week will alter the way your brain works

    Reading El Reg for 10 hours a week will alter the way your brain works

    etc etc

    It's what we choose to do that makes us the way we are

  37. Eguro
    Stop

    Human studies

    This study seems to be engaging in a possible error, by apparently treating the subjects merely as response machines.

    The fact that your brain might retain certain patterns for a period of time, does not mean that you will become more violent. It might simply mean that you see something and you can easily imagine how you would handle this situation, if this were that game. You will however easily be able to see that this is not that game, and so that solution is not an option. If you cannot do this, then I am not so sure that video games is what makes you violent, but that you have a pre-existing condition, which video games then happens to be the trigger off.

    I would argue - in fact I have done - that how you relate to the game and your experience is a huge factor in this situation.

    If you are unable to distinguish games from reality, or you haven't built up a sufficient understanding of how to experience games, then your experience might be different. In the former case you might come to see the actions as valid in real life, in the latter case you will probably not find the game that entertaining (basically saying, someone who is used to play games, will get a different [possibly better] experience out of a difficult game, then someone who has never played any game. Starting off with pac-man, rather than GTA, might be a good idea).

    However if you have some moral ideas, and you can differentiate between game and reality, then I find it hard to believe, that games will make you violent.

  38. hi_robb
    Happy

    Arse..

    Computer games do not effect people.

    I played Pacman as a kid. Did I end up running around in dark rooms, munching pills while listening to repetative music?

    Erm...

  39. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    Hmm. Doing the same thing a lot affects your brain.

    Who'd have thought it? I'd like to have seen a study with 1 group playing FPS, one perhaps playing computer puzzles, one doing paper-based puzzles and one watching the Discovery Channel, or soething else "innocuous".

    Hell, I reckon a week baking bread will change your brain somehow, somewhere.

  40. It's a me.
    WTF?

    Well I was going to rant...

    but everything I was going to say has already been said.

    22 people, wow!

    No control group.

    None of them had played a violent game before (How! If they've never played Street Fighter 2 or Super Mario World they're really missing out!! - no wonder their poor brains were bashed in)

    Only violent games.

    2 weeks ('Twooooo weeks', gotta love Total Recall - another brain alterer)

    No mention of whether said violent games had any puzzle/problem solving elements.

    In fact, without them telling me which violent game to satisfy my suspicious mind, I'm going to erase this study from my memory. I can do this because years of playing violent and non-violent video games have changed my brain...for the better.

    BTW - Yes, Super Mario World is a violent game, he spends most of it squashing creatures who in the main do nothing more than walk towards him :)

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