As a psychology student, as an empiricist, and as someone who has actually read many of these studies, I've really come to detest my fellow gamers. It annoys me that people make sweeping grandiose statements about how media consumption obviously cannot have any affect on someone at any level, despite repeated evidence to the contrary that they refuse to read. It annoys me when people use the same, tired, "common sense" arguments which have been refuted by empirical evidence. It annoys me when I'm forced to remember that, no matter what is done to demonstrate this connection between media and aggression, there will always be these mocking and condescending articles in every gaming magazine saying just how stupid we are. But most of all, I hate that people will call into question the integrity of researchers whose research they know nothing about and will never bother to actually read, simply because they have nothing but an ad hominem to add to the discussion. It hasn't happened yet in this thread as of the time of writing this post, but it's early in the day. I see it happen in every thread, so I'm sure it won't take more than a day to have one happen in this one.
