Unsurprisingly, some researchers are worried that committing violent acts in a virtual world makes people predisposed to violence in the real world. Some are even worried that the effects of internet addiction would make any resultant aggression worse. So, the good professors of Yonsei University's Department of Psychiatry in Korea studied 1471 online gamers, 82.7% of them male, 17.3% female. The gamers self-reported their demographic information and responses to tests measuring self control, narcissism, aggression and online-game addiction (this was measured with a modified scale for internet addiction). The participants were recruited through ads posted on the official sits for three of the most popular MMORPGS in Korea: World of Warcraft, Lineage, and Mabinogi. Once the results came in and the researches plugged their data into Statistical Analysis Software, several trends were noticed.
In general, people who lack self-control and are prone to aggression and narcissism are more likely to experience video games addiction. MMORPGS are uniquely alluring for gamers with these issues, due to how one must advance in the game. Gamers need to acquire wealth, status, and powerful gear to advance. The more they have all three, the more recognition they receive not only in-game, but also throughout the wider gamer community.
Careful re-reading of the Yonsei Study has led me to rethink my thesis. The casual, constant violence of MMORPGS doesn't turn ordinary people into anti-social narcissits; anti-social narcissists are drawn to the casual, constant violence due to how the structure of the MMORPGS reward them for their nueroses. So, it's perfectly fine for a well-adjusted teen (for example, me) to kill a few ravening, demon-posessed boars to blow off some steam after class.
But wait...
The study mentions a little thing called a "bi-directional causal effect". In other words, if you're just a little bit too narcissitic, just a little bit too aggressive, and have slightly too-little self-control...MMORPGS can make those problems worse. You get stuck in a vicious circle, where the game rewards you for violent resolutions to your conflicts, and your behavior grows that much more aggressive in response. Since society doesn't like people who solve their problems through killing, you turn to the game to receive the approval you can't find anywhere else. And on and on and ever on...unless you have the presence of mind to break the circle, stop playing, and seek other forms of admiration.
So, it's not a matter of how violent the game is. It's a matter of how the violence is rewarded.
31 Oct. 2007: 23
3 comments:
I was interested in your blog. My ex, Shawn, used to play this game day in and day out and it drove me nuts. It's EXTREMELY easy for some people to get entranced by video games. While I will admit that they are very addictive, I don't think that video games contribute to violence, based only on my own observations of people who play. Shawn, for example, is not a very aggressive person, and he thrives off of shoot-em-up games. Another person I know plays WoW and is a mellow hippie. I don't believe anything about violence stemming out of these games and I see all these claims as a way for "the man" to suck all the fun out of life. Nice topic.
I also found your blog interesting because I also play World of Warcraft. Me and my boyfriend lived with a guy named Chris for about a year and he to was a WOW player. During that year though I watched his addiction grow as well as his use of drugs during that time. I dont think that the game contributed at all to the drugs but he was truly addicted to WOW. I dont consider myself a aggressive person but I think Jenni might have been referring to me in her comment about the mellow-hippie. Anyways I think that violent videos games affect on a person completely depends on their personality. People with more addictive personalities are more prone to be addicted to the games just as well as drugs. I think that video games and drugs just add to the problem with the person and are NOT the actual cause of those kinds of problems.
I think Jenni and Dawn are right on about this, I just have one little thing to add. As they said, I don't think violence is caused by excessive violence in the video games you play. And I think the person you are relates to how addicted you may become or how the violence rubs off on your life. But I don't think video games even have a connection to the violence people may commit after playing. This violence is in the person already, and although video games may make one realize this inner violence, I think this is bound to happen anyways, and will be brought out by something else, possibly in an environment not as safe as one's own living room. As Jessica mentioned, there are plenty of cases proving that violent video games don't cause violence in all people, and I will argue that it doesn't even enhance a violent person's violence. It's all in the individual.
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