I am here to point the finger of blame. With today’s ongoing debates and misinformed media coverage on sex and violence in gaming, blame has been cast on many. Retailers, for not verifying age at purchase, the gaming industry as a whole, GTA IV, the parents who allow their children to play these games, just kidding, no one blames them. But, there is one singular entity that has been absent from this game of buck passing and I’m here to call it out. I’m talking to you, NES. That’s right, the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
Allow me to explain. I’m going to speak in some generalities here, but stay with me. I got my NES for Christmas in 1987, happy day. I was 10 years old, then. A lot of kids got a Nintendo that year, and a lot of parents were glad to buy this toy to make the kids happy. Then, something strange happened, something never before in the history of the gaming console world, the games meant something to us. We weren’t just blasting rocks, we were saving princesses. We weren’t just jumping barrels (no disrespect to Mario), we were saving the world with a new agent from Fox Hound. Games didn’t take a few minutes or hours, they took months and we played every night and saved our game and came back to pick up these grand adventures where we left them the night before.
What’s worse for your kid? Seeing an extremely lifelike human character getting his brains splattered all over a wall with a 50 caliber bullet or seeing some side-boob? According to a recent survey, the side-boob is the worst thing possible.
WhatTheyPlay, a site for parents of gamers, ran a survey to find out what is the most offensive. The four choices were: A graphically severed human head, A man and woman having sex, Multiple use of the F-word, and Two men kissing.
As you can see from the resulting graph above, both A man and women having sex and Two men kissing came in above A graphically severed human head. So let me get this straight… having your kids see sex in a game (something they ALL will be doing when they grow up) or gay attraction is much worse than someone being beheaded? What a fucked up society we live in. I guess the parents from this survey want their children to be virgin homophobic killers. We’re going to get very far as a society with a lot of those people running around. Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.
Wait? What is this? Is this a study that does not attempt to rip gaming a new asshole? According to a study presented by the British Psychological Society:
There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the [violent] game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type.” The researchers also hope this study will pave the way to finding the “personality type” that is more likely to “transfer their online aggression into everyday life.” Their aim is a public health policy that addresses troubled young people, not video game players at large.
This study is noteworthy because it contradicts a prior study.
In 2000, the University of Central Lancashire conducted a study that concluded teenage players had “higher ratings on hostility and anger after playing the [violent] games.”
I have to say that whenever I am feeling a little perturbed, I find games are the perfect remedy. An example is last night. My girlfriend was bitching me out for no reason and I played about an hour of COD4 and felt much better. There are far worse ways to release anger than playing a “violent” game. Plenty of people turn to real violence, alcohol, drugs, or any combo if the three and if a one hour of a good gaming session is therapeutic; I see no problem in that.
A recent study conducted by Massachusetts General found that violent video games may be healthy for most children/pre-teens. The violent games provide a safe release of anger and frustration, and also provide socialization as most children/pre-teens are playing these games either with friends in the house or online.
I have to agree with this study. In almost all cases, violent games are not the cause of destructive behavior. I’m not saying they don’t provoke it in children who would behave in that matter anyway, but they aren’t the sole cause.
What do you think? Check out the video and let us know in the comments.
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