Critical Miss: Gamer Science

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Oh, I agree with you. And so do many psychologists. Which is why the tag line is usually "They will only have a chance of influencing someone if that person is already mentally predisposed to do something." My original point was more about gamers acting with maturity when topics like this are brought up.

Unfortunately, the majority of these "studies" don't say, "Violent video games may remind violent people they are violent." They say, "Video games create violence! BAN THEM FOR THE CHILDREN!!!!"

Even the studies that do stick to the facts seem unnecessary to me. We can't understand that violent people are going to be attracted to violent things, and then may commit violent acts?

No, that is news outlets. I can't find it (so take this with a grain of salt, sorry), but there was a survey that reached a conclusion that 50% of women cheat on their spouses. So said news outlets. In reality, the scientific community had dismissed it because it had a return (people who answered it) of 2%. That part the news outlets forgot to mention. They do it all the time. Whatever it takes to generate hits. In fact, meta-analyses often take into account "publication bias".

 

[The Wooster]

"...Can exacerbate pre-existing social and mental difficulties..."
*sarcasm* ...NOOOOOOO! You think?

"...Laser vision..."
That's...that's just silly.

Great comic again! Short but sweet, though I always prefer to see the characters interacting but this was fun in it's own way. Put it like this:
Studies showing the negative effects of being an avid gamer (and not much else) are about as insightful as the 30 Days of McDonalds movie. Sometimes there's a bit of new info you might be interested in, but ultimately it's just repeating what common sense says: it's bad for you. At least stretch or jog in the mornings or something. Don't want to get heart disease at an early age.
However, the studies that are pro-avid gamer often don't show anything concrete, and when they do it's useless and sometimes kinda...well...

Health issues are obvious and don't need studies to prove them, however not every study that doesn't say games grant laser vision is the equivalent of the "violent games = mass murder" type studies. It's not all made to put down gamers...though most of it is needless.

Also: Needs more bears =3

This kind of attitude actually quite irritates me.
Believe it or not "common knowledge" is not viable scientific evidence. At one point, it was "common sense" that the earth was flat and light came from the eye. Common sense was wrong.
You could argue that violent media is likely to make mental people more mental or you could argue that providing people an outlet for their aggression could possibly be beneficial. Both of those conclusions are fairly reasonable and both are supported by "common sense."
Studies are often repeated because a single study represents a miniscule cross section of the population. Different studies allow for different geographic age locations, age parameters etc.

I get what the comic is saying, but even when I make myself look beyond my own confirmation biases its hard to take these studies too seriously. The human psyche is way too complex for me to believe that any one simple factor such as playing video games has a major affect on it.

I'd tend to agree. Generally these studies are talking about the effect on children (to which our response is "well children shouldn't be playing x game" but they most definately are) which are much more mutable when it comes to behavior or they're talking about sessions far in excess of the average gamer's playtime.

 

[Demodeus]

props for the Jurrassic 5 reference

 

[The Wooster]

I don't know where he got his doctorate but I want to buy one too.

If you look carefully it's from the University of Mitchigan.

 

[Jodah]

The issue, to me anyways, is that most of the anti-gaming studies try to show violent games can TURN you violent. Sort of a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde thing. The nicest person can suddenly become a mass murderer by playing Call of Duty.

Now, if more studies actually said stuff like the first panel I could go along with it. Basically games won't turn you into a killer but if you already have stabby and slashy tendencies games will make you use a bigger knife. But so too will movies, music, books, and television.

 

[Cory Rydell]

Is that Cory playing the stereotypical gamer?

Negatory, I like to think that I myself have elevated above reading too much into these studies unless there is some real interesting brain stuff. Behavior studies are fairly open to interpretation and there are so many variables usually not considered.

He also has much more prominent sideburns then I can really grow... mine are more or less wispy.

 

[Baneat]

Just as dogmatic and full of shit as the other side.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

At one point, it was "common sense" that the earth was flat

Sorry Grey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth

But you have to admit that there are a lot of ignorant people blaming games when they should really be looking at themselves.

Perhaps we don't have the most mentally balanced bunch here, but look at who we're up against:

There's no gamers that I know of that even rival this level of ignorance and implied violence.

 

[Galliam]

Personally, I take one experience in college as proof enough that Violence in video games may incidentally translate to some real world violence.

The story: I was playing marathon sessions of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and during my playtime, pretty much any time I saw a cop car my instinct was to RAM THE SHIT out of it. One night, me and buddies had decided to go get pizza at Little Caesars and I pull up to a stop and see a cop car crossing my path. Without thinking, I put my foot on the gas and start to accellerate before I realize that YES, smashing cop cars is BAD and hit the brakes again.

Realisticly, it translated to about as much as me stopping, jerking forward a little bit and stopping again. No harm done, but it scared the shit out of me that I had allowed my driving in game to effect me out of game. Since then, I have ALWAYS tried harder to make the distinction.

 

[Calbeck]

The sad reality is that this kind of thing is common across the "news" spectrum. Note that there's actually very little "news" about gaming --- instead, there's "commentary". Which isn't subject to journalistic standards, because it's merely someone's opinion.

 

[Dastardly]

Critical Miss: Gamer Science

Slander versus Pander.


Read Full Article

Agreed.

There are some things about that study that I think should be investigated further (like whether the competitive nature of a game has the same "I hit you with big sound" impact as the violence allegedly has)... but there are points made that have value. Perhaps the study over-assigns that value, but it is certainly greater than zero.

When we overreact to these things, we just play exactly the role "they" expect: the immature, stubborn kids upset about someone not liking their toys.

 

[Epigone]

This nails the issue right on the head.

 

[Lenin211]

This would be true if only the arguments that gaming causes violence were more like the first panel and less like FOX news propaganda.

 

[AngryFrenchCanadian]

That would be a great exposition of the double standard of some gamers if it weren't for the fact that most research on the subject seem to indicate that video games to not have any harmful effect on children age 5 and up. In fact, most research that claims otherwise has been proven to use a flawed methodology.

But I guess the comic warns about adopting an attitude where we would dismiss outright any research that is inconvenient to us while only acknowledging the papers that suit us best.

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

"Our study indicates PROVES that prolonged ANY exposure to violent ALL video games can exacerbate WILL CAUSE pre-existing social and mental difficulties DEFECTS *end sentence* and, in excess, can cause..."

^^^THIS is the argument gamers fight so hard against. If anyone were to say the exact statement in the comic, gamers would, of course, nitpick at things such as "Why aren't violent movies held to the same standard?"; "ANYthing 'in excess' is bad"; and "If they're pre-existing, then video games didn't CAUSE anything!", but we'd have to grumble and accept the facts.

The edited statement above is what fear-mongers sling left and right, and is completely devoid of any scientific merit. After hearing this same bias statement rehashed a hundred times, I think it's understandable that gamers have pre-sharpened pitchforks and ready-made torches sitting next to their computers.

 

[Mysnomer]

Is that Cory playing the stereotypical gamer?

Negatory, I like to think that I myself have elevated above reading too much into these studies unless there is some real interesting brain stuff. Behavior studies are fairly open to interpretation and there are so many variables usually not considered.

He also has much more prominent sideburns then I can really grow... mine are more or less wispy.

Yes, like all good internet users, I hastily posted something, and then went and did the research. I then noticed that he was missing your lip piercing, and your superior fashion sense. Also his eyes are...I dunno what that is, but it's creeping me out...

 

[ObsessiveSketch]

"Our study indicates PROVES that prolonged ANY exposure to violent ALL video games can exacerbate WILL CAUSE pre-existing social and mental difficulties DEFECTS *end sentence* and, in excess, can cause..."

^^^THIS is the argument gamers fight so hard against. If anyone were to say the exact statement in the comic, gamers would, of course, nitpick at things such as "Why aren't violent movies held to the same standard?"; "ANYthing 'in excess' is bad"; and "If they're pre-existing, then video games didn't CAUSE anything!", but we'd have to grumble and accept the facts.

The edited statement above is what fear-mongers sling left and right, and is completely devoid of any scientific merit. After hearing this same bias statement rehashed a hundred times, I think it's understandable that gamers have pre-sharpened pitchforks and ready-made torches sitting next to their computers.

I prefer flares. The fire is magnesium based so it can't be put out with water.

But torches are more convenient. You can make 4 of them with a stick and a lump of coal, and they burn forever!

 

[Xman490]

I'm pretty sure that the first one is true, since it doesn't generalize.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

In other words, we embrace the science we like, but call bullshit on the science we don't like.

 

[Wireframefool]

Of course people are going to react like that when something they love is being discredited. If you were to deconstruct or talk down upon a religion in a video, people of that religion are most likely going to react negatively to whoever made the point.