Poll: New research on violent videogames!!!

[awesomeClaw]

http://www.whattheyplay.com/features/the-latest-word-on-violent-games/?page=1

Finally someone that isn´t biased as shit.

 

[Good morning blues]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

 

[awesomeClaw]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

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Thats a response i haven´t seen before. And excuse me for saying this, but you don´t seem like a nice person. Nothing personal, you just don´t. But what do i know?

 

[reg42]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

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Thats a response i haven´t seen before. And excuse me for saying this, but you don´t seem like a nice person. Nothing personal, you just don´t. But what do i know?

He's completely correct though. This article is definitive proof to you, just as the next one will be definitive proof to someone who thinks videogames create murderers.

He didn't insult, he's just saying you should be more open-minded, because really these studies don't prove very much because each one continues to have different results.

 

[tlozoot]

So it's a guy who agrees with you and it's hooray he isn't biased? I call...shennanigans!

 

[awesomeClaw]

[/quote]He's completely correct though. This article is definitive proof to you, just as the next one will be definitive proof to someone who thinks videogames create murderers.

He didn't insult, he's just saying you should be more open-minded, because really these studies don't prove very much because each one continues to have different results.[/quote]

Yeah, but did he really haveto call me nerd? I know i shouldn´t care what people on the internet say, but this guy got to me. I feel sad now. If you excuse me, im going to work off some steam on Dead rising.

 

[Dags90]

Yeah, but did he really haveto call me nerd? I know i shouldn´t care what people on the internet say, but this guy got to me. I feel sad now. If you excuse me, im going to work off some steam on Dead rising.

He didn't call you a nerd. He insinuated that nerds are more likely to experience confirmation bias, something I disagree with.

Since there are no readily apparent effects, and there are so many studies on both sides I think it's clear that the actual effects, if they do exist, are relatively minor.

 

[Burningsok]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I immediatly thought that upon reading the OP.

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

That flew totally over my head but I understood enough to find that I do not like that paragraph.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

Perhaps.
However sport also intices voilence but you do not see parents refusing to allow their children to play sport.

actually some parents do, but that's a very small margin anyways.

 

[blankedboy]

Well... that raised an interesting point on page 3. Multiplayer gaming with people in the same room seems to be alot less influential (at least on the people who get influenced at all).

 

[Rarhnor]

Funny how the poll's are always working when the threads that doesn't really need one.

My answer: I like pancakes.

 

[Good morning blues]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

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...

Thats a response i haven´t seen before. And excuse me for saying this, but you don´t seem like a nice person. Nothing personal, you just don´t. But what do i know?

Listen, I'm not using "nerd" in order to insult you or anyone else; I'm using it for lack of a better term to identify the sorts of people who reject research saying that entertainment that they like may have adverse effects for no other reason than that they don't like the idea that something they enjoy could have adverse effects. I don't know what phrase would work better. "Gamer" seems too general. "Hardcore gamer" doesn't raise the right associations. Nerd is too pejorative, but at least it speaks to this idea of fantasy taking precedence over reality, which is the real idea that I'm trying to get at here.

He didn't insult, he's just saying you should be more open-minded, because really these studies don't prove very much because each one continues to have different results.

Well, not exactly. I'm saying people should be more open-minded because the overwhelming majority of these studies are good science, and they accurately imply exactly what they say they imply. Video games do trigger hormones associated with aggressiveness. That doesn't mean that they correlate with violence, but it does mean that we should be critical of video game violence. Rejecting studies not because we have a problem with their methods, but with their results, is the worst kind of closed-mindedness. You are literally rejecting reality and substituting your own at that point, which helps no one; if everybody does that, we all live in a fantasy world, and if only you do that, you're just some kook.

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I immediatly thought that upon reading the OP.

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

That flew totally over my head but I understood enough to find that I do not like that paragraph.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

Perhaps.
However sport also intices voilence but you do not see parents refusing to allow their children to play sport.

Edit:
I think I may be picking the wrong arguement with the wrong person here =/

My point in the middle paragraph is that "nerds" reject research that shows connections between violent games and negative social phenomena not because it's bad research (it isn't), but because it doesn't make them feel good about themselves. This is an extremely immature and counter-productive reaction.

The comparison to sport is a disingenuous one. People do care about violence in sport; they just see the positive value of physical activity as outweighing the negative value of physical roughness in sport. If you're referring to watching sport correlating to violence, people worried about that, too, when professional sport was in its infancy (street soccer used to be banned in England for fears that the lower classes would riot over inter-neighborhood games), just as they do now with video games.

He's completely correct though. This article is definitive proof to you, just as the next one will be definitive proof to someone who thinks videogames create murderers.

He didn't insult, he's just saying you should be more open-minded, because really these studies don't prove very much because each one continues to have different results.[/quote]

Yeah, but did he really haveto call me nerd? I know i shouldn´t care what people on the internet say, but this guy got to me. I feel sad now. If you excuse me, im going to work off some steam on Dead rising.[/quote]

I think I explained it sufficiently above, but I'll repeat that I'm not using nerd as an insult here; I'm using it because there's no better word to get at the idea I have in mind.

Yeah, but did he really haveto call me nerd? I know i shouldn´t care what people on the internet say, but this guy got to me. I feel sad now. If you excuse me, im going to work off some steam on Dead rising.

He didn't call you a nerd. He insinuated that nerds are more likely to experience confirmation bias, something I disagree with.

Oh THAT´S what he meant.
Well, people are biased in favour of their side of things, not just nerds.

I'd argue that it's a lot more prevalent in nerd culture than in other ones. It might be the influence of the Internet in video game nerd culture; hundreds of people sitting together in internet forums saying that this study is stupid because they don't like its implications and this study is good because it agrees with their worldview seems pretty likely to normalize such ridiculous behavior.

 

[Thaius]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

And what exactly do you think a nerd is?

There is nothing wrong with being a nerd, because your definition is nowhere near what a nerd actually is. It's a social group like anything else. Athiests, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, vegetarians, college students, teenagers... every demographic ever does what you're talking about. But not nerds are "trying to live in a fantasy world... designed to make the nerd in question feel better"? No, nerdism is about enjoying particular things that many other demographics don't enjoy; that's it.

OT: I do think violent video games, like any sort of violent media (thus, the focus on them is unwarranted), can affect the minds of impressionable people (i.e. children). But they cannot turn a peaceful child into a raving murderer; the effects will have no notable effect unless other areas of the person's life line up in such a way that it encourages said effects. I see what is being said in this article, and I agree with a lot of it, but I think saying violent games have no negative effect whatsoever is a bit much.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

You know, at this point I'm so tired of "research" and "studies" on the effects of violent videogames that I only read the first page of that article. It seems to be fairly reasonable but I don't really care one way or another. I played violent videogames as a child and I am playing them as a teenager and I will continue to play them throughout my life, I will also suggest them to anyone else who enjoys playing games because I don't think there is a definitive effect that they have on every person. I think that there are far too many other, more influential, factors of a persons life for videogames to have a dominant effect.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

I really like how you find a study that agrees with your preconceived biases and your response is "finally, someone that isn't biased as shit."

I think that video game nerds are particularly susceptible to this sort of thinking, because when you get down to it, nerdery is all about trying to live in a fantasy world that is defined and organized by easily-understood rules designed to make the nerd in question feel better. Research saying that the games that nerds enjoy are damaging not only to nerds but potentially to the society around them threaten that, which is why the pitched adverse reaction is understandable.

But fuck that. Open your minds, people. Just because you enjoy something doesn't mean that it's free of any socially relevant defects.

And what exactly do you think a nerd is?

There is nothing wrong with being a nerd, because your definition is nowhere near what a nerd actually is. It's a social group like anything else. Athiests, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, vegetarians, college students, teenagers... every demographic ever does what you're talking about. But not nerds are "trying to live in a fantasy world... designed to make the nerd in question feel better"? No, nerdism is about enjoying particular things that many other demographics don't enjoy; that's it.

OT: I do think violent video games, like any sort of violent media (thus, the focus on them is unwarranted), can affect the minds of impressionable people (i.e. children). But they cannot turn a peaceful child into a raving murderer; the effects will have no notable effect unless other areas of the person's life line up in such a way that it encourages said effects. I see what is being said in this article, and I agree with a lot of it, but I think saying violent games have no negative effect whatsoever is a bit much.

Which is why I liked the artical. He (the APA guy) didn't say that violent games had no effect. He said that there was no evidence that they did. Science is fun like that.

 

[KwaggaDan]

It doesn't really say anything new though. And I'm sure anti-gamers are still just going to ignore it anyhoo.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Meh. At this point, I'm so tired of this debate that I just don't care whether I agree with the debater or not. This argument is completely played out; let it die already!

 

[open trap]

I do like pancakes. Dont judge.

 

[Good morning blues]

And what exactly do you think a nerd is?

There is nothing wrong with being a nerd, because your definition is nowhere near what a nerd actually is. It's a social group like anything else. Athiests, Christians, Democrats, Republicans, vegetarians, college students, teenagers... every demographic ever does what you're talking about. But not nerds are "trying to live in a fantasy world... designed to make the nerd in question feel better"? No, nerdism is about enjoying particular things that many other demographics don't enjoy; that's it.

I really disagree. "Nerdy" pursuits have become really mainstream, particularly in the last decade or so; nerdery can't be defined in opposition to the mainstream anymore when pretty much everyone enjoys video games, Star Wars, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and Battlestar Galctica. I mean, LotR was the height of nerdery twenty years ago; now it's commonplace, and the only way that nerds can distinguish themselves from an average person who likes the Lord of the Rings movies is by how much they allow it to consume them.

Basically, the difference between a nerd and someone who enjoys Star Wars is that a nerd allows the fantasy to consume their lives to a much greater extent. I would suggest that this is because nerds don't have social skills the same way that their associates do; fantasy worlds are based on simple rules (Jedi are like this, Klingons are like that, a high Charisma score lets you get people to do what you want without fighting them) which makes navigating them a lot easier than navigating the real world.

Nerds don't like science-fiction and fantasy because sci-fi and fantasy define their taste; nerds like science-fiction and fantasy because they're compatible with the nerdly worldview. Other subcultures have practices and beliefs that stem from equally problematic worldviews, to be sure, but we're not talking about them here.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I do like pancakes. Dont judge.

Come the Waffle Revolution you'll be first against the wall.

 

[Penguinness]

I guess nerd is otaku, then. It's always meant someone who actually studies at school or does programming to me. The actual article looks tiresome to read, but I get the gist. It's refreshing to have something like that.. when I've seen so many things such as:

(Ignore the commentary placed over it, it's the only video on the tubes that just shows it and some guy thought he was being funny by putting generally bad and occasionally wrong commentary over it.)

The negative stuff towards games always makes it on TV, though.