NP - It's not the video games

[John Bailey]

Games are usually compulsion loops, playing on risk/reward stuff in
your brain. A problem pops up - zombie, speed-hump, descending puzzle
block - and you solve it - shoot, swerve, rotate - and the problem
goes away and that feels good. Maybe you get a gold star. That's
nothing to do with the mimetic content of a game. In recent years I
have become a bit wary of those problems being realistic-looking
people in real-world, contemporary locations and the solution to be
constant carnage. It's probably as much about lazy writing etc though.


On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:23 PM, Ian Livingston
<igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
> I like a good shoot-em-up and I cringe when I accidentally kill an ant or a
> mosquito. Not sure but what it's a whole other neuronal twist when you're in
> gameland.
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 5:17 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Meaningless statistical analysis, given that "video game spending per
>> capita" doesn't tell us anything about what games are being played
>> where, by whom, in what way, etc. Most surveys now include video games
>> such as Angry Birds and FarmVille alongside realistic US military
>> shooters. That said, the argument against any correlation may be
>> correct. I just wrinkle my nose at the evidence offered.
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 12:06 PM, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>> > Is a comparison of the murder rates when readily available assault
>> > rifles  are combined with violent movies and video games valid if the other
>> > countries don't have easily available assault rifles (or handguns)?   What
>> > if they only have the games and not the guns - how can there be much of a
>> > murder-by-gunshot rate at all?   We have both.
>> >
>> > Bekah
>> >
>> >
>> > On Dec 18, 2012, at 9:53 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/
>> >>
>> >> But it turns out that the data just doesn’t support this [video game]
>> >> connection. Looking at the world’s 10 largest video game markets yields no
>> >> evident, statistical correlation between video game consumption and
>> >> gun-related killings.
>> >>
>> >> It’s true that Americans spend billions of dollars on video games every
>> >> year and that the United States has the highest firearm murder rate in the
>> >> developed world. But other countries where video games are popular have much
>> >> lower firearm-related murder rates. In fact, countries where video game
>> >> consumption is highest tend to be some of the safest countries in the world,
>> >> likely a product of the fact that developed or rich countries, where
>> >> consumers can afford expensive games, have on average much less violent
>> >> crime...
>> >
>
>