What we're seeing with video games is yet another medium that sits on the wrong side of the generational gap, though that gap is becoming less and less meaningful. When home video games took off in the 1980's with the NES and the Atari 2600, kids were the main consumers, and adults didn't really embrace them on the same scale. For quite a while, any legislation or media representation pertaining to video games has been constructed by those that do not play them. (This generational gap thing is basically the same story of "dangerous rap music" and "devil heavy metal music." We question that which we don't know, and new media are easy targets for scapegoating.) This is certainly shifting; now the children of the 80's are having children of their own, and we're seeing informed parents begin to make decisions about game legislation and representation.
Before I get too carried away with parental investment in children's consumptions of video game violence, let's look at some research on the topic.
Over at About.com: Mental Health, we have an article that discusses two research pieces. One is a correlational study, and the other in an experimental study. The results aren't all that surprising to me. We've seen similar results with violent movies and television shows contributing to violent thoughts, and while the article's classification of "violent" behavior is quite a bit wider than what we'd typically associate with, it's no concession to say that violent media have an impact on our attitudes towards violence. Why should an active medium be any different than a passive one?
The presentation in the article is a bit spotty. There's no hard data to really sink our teeth into, and the title of the article, "Violent Video Games Produce Violent Behavior," is certainly misleading and unfounded by the research at hand.
Tragically, the research here is among the most even-handed I've come across. Let's take a look at something more typical:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwE5chHUu5Q (Skip to minute 1:10. Also, I tried as hard as I could to embed the video, but something was definitely not working there.)
Basically, BYU did a completely correlational study and attempted to make causational assertions. We don't even need to discuss it further.
Media representations are often parodied, as above, in the sites I frequent. When a broadcast journalist alleged that flight simulators had caused terrorists to start 9-11, my favorite comic strip, Penny Arcade, had this reaction:
The representation at hand in these examples largely has to do with violence. Gamers are portrayed as violent because of their pastime, or in the BYU study, degenerate human beings, but we have yet to see something convincingly conclusive. At least, I have yet to meet a conclusive study. I would argue that games have this reputation because of scapegoating, and the idea of the antisocial loser who sits alone at night playing video games is becoming less and less effective as a stereotype. I mean, take a look at this article in the Washington Post: "99% of boys and 94% of girls play video games on a regular basis."
I think that the media representation of the loser gamer is on its way out, but in the mean time, those who have power or stand to profit from misrepresenting games and gamer culture will continue to do so. "The profile of a gamer" is a meaningless term when just about all kids play games.
Reference:
http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/a/vidgameviolence.htm, which in turn references Anderson, Craig & Dill, Karen. Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, April 2000 Vol. 78, No. 4, 772-790.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2008/09/new_research_nearly_all_kids_p.html
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2001/9/14/bob-phd/
I agree that the idea of a loser, sit at home gamer is on its way out. I thought really hard about the show that portrays gamers as totally cool, and its What About Brian? which is not on anymore, I don't think....But two of the main characters were not losers, and they meet some pretty hot chicks in the gaming industry!
ReplyDeleteDo you think kids make a distinction between kids who play games some and those who play at a higher intensity? I'm thinking almost all kids have played a game of basketball or baseball but wouldn't condsider themselves athletes. Does such a distinction exist within the world of video games?
ReplyDeleteAlso my wife really is convinced that video gaming is by definition a 'loser' activity...I think this definition is almost entirely based on media representation since the I'm basically the only person she knows who plays and she sort of likes me:-)
I've always wondered why the gamer has to have the most annoying voice on the planet. I've also wondered why gamers don't get more live time as social people. I lived with a gamer on college and they were always having gaming parties, which seems about the same as a drunken party at a frat house except they also played PS2 while boozing it up. That's better than date rape, right?
ReplyDeleteJenny: thanks for the follow-up! I'm putting that on my list.
ReplyDeleteCJ: It's very much worthwhile to draw a distinction between "hardcore" and "casual" gaming. I didn't think I really had space to add that to the discussion, but it's an important topic in the state of games today. Games like The Sims and Guitar Hero and the Wii in general have introduced a particularly large segment of people to video games, the "casual" crowd. On the other hand, we have the "hardcore," the gamers who play games more like a competitive sport: Gears of War, Halo 3, etc. I think if the stereotype of the loser gamer persists, it will do so only for the hardcore demographic.
Brent: yes, booze and PS2 really is better than date rape. Basically, that's substituting gaming for the pumping music we'd be likely to see at a frat party.
Hmmm...I would have to say the loser sitting at home playing games stereotype is definitely fading. Almost all of my high school students play video games, and most of them do not have any social disorders at all. In fact, most of the coolest of the cool play video games and talk about these games every day. I will say, however, there are a few kids who come to school and can barely keep their eyes open even with the help of a couple of Red Bulls or Rock Stars, because they've been up all night playing WOW or some other addicting video game. I've even had kids come and talk to me about a video game addiction...and they're absolutely serious. I've had conferences with parents about kids with a serious video gaming problem. The parents are genuinely worried because that seems to be all that their kid wants to do, and it's becoming a factor in dropping grades and lack of social lives. These are the extremes, of course, and it seems that the media, at least in the past, has used these extremes to build a distorted image.
ReplyDeleteErika: That's a good point - WoW is probably the most addicting video game I've seen in my life. There was that story of the parents who basically let their kid starve because they had a serious WoW addiction. Another guy (I thought) killed himself when his Everquest character was deleted. I think it's a necessary step at this point to see who it is that's getting addicted to WoW (and other games, but I know of none as addicting as WoW): are these the same people as those who are predisposed to substance/gambling/exercise addiction, or is this a different breed of addict?
ReplyDeleteIt might be hard to imagine legislation setting a "legal limit" of gaming intake, but I'm interested in seeing how these people can be identified as "at-risk" and get help for their addictions.
If you asked me how gamers and games are portrayed in media, I would have come up with "shut-in" but not violent. You point out a really important representation here.
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, the 'gamer' phenomenon has been treated with only two extremes. Either you don't play video games at all (like me) or you play them non-stop, 24-7, in your mother's basement with pizza boxes, empty beer cans, using your unemployment check as a coaster. These extremes are interesting to me, and I appreciate the work you did to try to highlight this 'extreme' approach to gamers. Nice!
ReplyDelete