Talk:Violence and video games

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This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 22 January 2020 and 15 March 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AMToler.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:43, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 9 September 2020 and 18 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jbuch055. Peer reviewers: Kxlesnyder.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:43, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

Good start
This article is off to a good start. The most glaring gaps right now are the lack of sourcing for the Mortal Kombat and GTA 3 sections (it looks like it could be original research). The APA statement is useful, but the study section could be expanded with some actual meta-analyses. There have been literally thousands of studies on this subject, surely it could be expanded. The effects of factors like gender, age, amount of time spent playing violent games, age of exposure to violent games, personality, mental illness, etc on aggression and violence could all be explored.--Megaman en m (talk) 20:50, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
 * The only problem on the studies factor is that there's, as you say, likely hundreds of them. The problem is that some of them can be junk and have actually been used in the past to assert a link. I think we want to focus on those highlighted by major sources, including a few that claimed here was a connection but since have been disproven. In other words, this studies should be more "meta" than trying to outline all the studies that has been done as that would be a wholly separate topic. --M asem (t) 21:44, 22 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I have finally found an article that connects video games to aggressive behaviour, hopefully this helps, and that this is reliable. https://www.gavinpublishers.com/article/view/internet-gaming-disorder-igd-in-children-clinical-treatment-insights Sincerely, 49.192.44.178 (talk) 11:59, 16 July 2022 (UTC)

Prevalence of violence in video games
Currently this article focuses primarily on research and public controversies. I wonder if there's room for less academic discussion? In particular I know there have been a number of discussions simply about the prevalence of violence in video games - how 83% of games announced at E3 were centered around violence, for example. We have the article Nonviolent video game which potentially overlaps here. Sam Walton (talk) 07:54, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

Misquoting the APA
tl;dr: (a) Your article incorrectly claims Ferguson speaks on behalf of the APA; (b) Your article focuses on the link between violent behavior and violent games and debunks this link, while (a) failing to note the heated debate about the link between aggressive behavior and games, (b) using a peculiar definition of violent behaviors and failing to note that prominently nor to present this definition, thus creating an incorrect impression that link between aggressive behavior and games was debunked ( This is how I initially understood your article, not necessarily how people would typically understand it, sorry ), unless one reads your article very carefuly instead of skimming over it and looks the actual sources to find out the definitions used.

From the section Studies of your article:

"Broadly, researchers have not found any connection between violent video games and violent behavior."

Is that so? I thought researches were heavily divided on the subject. Examples of studies & researches upholding opposite believes can be found for example on Psychology.StackExchange as well as on Wikipedia itself(!)

OK, your statement may be defensible if you define violence in a very particular way, namely as the APA defines it:

"The violent video game literature uses a variety  of concepts,  terms,  and defi- nitions  in  considering  aggression  and  aggressive  outcomes,  sometimes  using violence  and  aggression  interchangeably  or  using  aggression to represent the  full   range  of  aggressive  outcomes  studied.  This  lack  of  precision  has  contributed to some debate  about  the  effects of violent  video  game use.  In part, the  numerous  ways  to consider   violence  and  aggression  stem  from  the  multi- disciplinary  nature  of the  field.  Epidemiologists,  criminologists,  physicians, and others  approach the phenomena of aggression  and  violence  differently than  psychologists  and  emphasize  different    definitions    of the  phenomena  accordingly.  Some  disciplines   are  interested   only in violence  and  not  the other  dimensions of aggression.  In  psychological    research,    aggression  is usually  conceptualized  as  behavior  that    is  intended  to harm  another  (see Baron & Richardson,   1994;  Coie & Dodge, 1998; Huesmann  & Taylor,  2006;    VandenBos,  2007). Violence can  be  defined  as  an  extreme  form  of physical   aggression   (see   Anderson,  2000) or as the intentional  use of physical  force  or  powerthat   either   results   in,  or  has  a  high  likelihood  of resulting  in,  harm  (Krug,  Dahlberg,  Mercy,  Zwi,  & Lozano, 2002)."

However, as the APA notes itself, that's not how people typically often 'violence'. In particular, AFAIK, many define violence in the same way as the APA defines aggression. OK I may have been wrong here Thus, IMO, your article can create a false impression that the link between aggression (as defined by APA) and violent games is debunked by the APA themselves, which is untrue.

"The policy statement of the American Psychological Association (APA) related to video games states "Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or correlational connection between playing violent video games and actually committing violent activities.""

The cited NYT article links to an article by Chris Ferguson et al which explicitly states:

"The views here are those of Division 46 (Society for Media Psychology and Technology) of the American Psychological Association and do not represent an official position of APA. APA’s official position on this issue is the Resolution on Violent Video Games that was adopted as policy by the Council of Representatives in August of 2015 and can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.apa.org/about/policy/violent-video-games.aspx."

(emphasis original)

Ferguson was putting himself explicitly in the opposition to the APA on this subject other times as well. In general, Ferguson disagrees with the APA that violent video games cause real life aggressive behaviors.

Further quoting your article:

"The APA has acknowledged that video games may lead to aggressive behavior, as well as anti-social behavior, but clarifies that not all aggressive behavior is necessarily violent. In a 2015 Resolution on Violent Video Games, has vowed towards furthering research to better understand the connection between violent video games to aggression, and how aggressive activities may lead to violent actions, as well as to promote education towards politicians and media with their findings."

One of the few true statements from this section of your article. Nonetheless, it still fails to adequately point the severity of the APA's position wrt the link between aggression and games. I also believe you should here note very clearly how does the APA define violence and aggression (see above).

"Further, the APA issued a policy statement in 2017 aimed at politicians and media to urge them to avoid linking violent video games with violent crimes, reiterating the subject of their findings over the years."

This is the same statement the NYT article linked to! And the same statement that itself claims that it does not represent the views of the APA!

"Christopher Ferguson, a professor at Stetson University and a member of the APA, has researched the connection between violent video games and violent behavior for years. Through longitudinal studies, he has concluded that "[t]here’s not evidence of a correlation, let alone a causation" between video games and violence. Ferguson's more recent studies have shown that there is no predictive behavior that can be inferred from the playing of violent video games."

For the last time, as I already said, Ferguson puts himself in the opposition to the APA on the subject of video games and aggression. Your saying Christopher Ferguson, ... a member of the APA suggests Ferguson speaks on behalf of the APA, which, AFAIK, is untrue.

2A02:A317:2241:7A00:B9BD:7D59:A1D6:1F20 (talk) 15:17, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

New Meta-Analysis
Note there's a new meta-analysis of longitudinal studies that should probably be added to that section. See: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/22/playing-video-games-doesnt-lead-to-violent-behaviour-study-shows

Original article: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200373

I'll add it, but wanted to post here for comment first.

StoneProphet11 (talk) 00:06, 23 July 2020 (UTC)


 * Hearing no objection, I have added the 2020 meta-analysis StoneProphet11 (talk) 17:57, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

New new meta-analysis
Just dropping this in here: there's a new meta-analysis that re-evaluates the findings of the APA. Not sure if it adds anything new to the article or not.--Megaman en m (talk) 17:07, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

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