A recent article in the Washington Post discusses a 2008 study that found some youths to be “addicted” to video games. The study claims that children can become so addicted that they will skimp on homework and even lie about how much they play. The study finds that 8.5 percent of children and young adults ages 8-18 show multiple signs of behavioral addition. The findings were published by Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University who runs the Media Research Lab that performed the study.  As I posted before, there is indeed some correlation between aggressive behavior and video games; however, one needs to be more realistic about this topic. One, what are they gauging as aggressive behavior? Two, can they make [ever] a direct correlation between games and aggression? It is not like acts of aggression were miniscule prior to 1972 and they increased exponentially as the years progressed. A correlation can be made between an increase in violence and other cultural factors. - the decline of the nuclear family, the ever increasing divorce rate/latchkey kid syndrome, poor discipline in schools, teenage parents. While it is probably certain violent video games can beget some aggressive behavior, the question remains to how much it actually creates is always left. Gamers say that no such thing while lawmakers and psychologists say that there is evidence. To the psychologists, I say, “Are you, sir or madam, a gamer?” If not, then you do not “get it.” To the gamers I say, cast your mind to your friends when you were 10-14 years old. (If you are that age now, I commend you for even reading this far.) There is a game that all boys play; it is called “let me hit you in the nuts.” Around puberty there is always one kid who, for some odd, homoerotic reason, likes to smack you in the balls. You are just hanging out with a bunch of your friends and – BAM, the kid smacks you in the jewels. Now, you can ignore it and let some alpha kid hit you in the balls or try to hit him back. In essence, he is getting you to touch his junk. This is not unlike the circle game where you play “two for flinching” and punch each other in the arm. You know the games. The one where kids used to erase the skin of the back of their hands with pencils or smack their knuckles with them. Boys are naturally aggressive. We learn it from our friends, fathers, and brothers. Not that I agree with all the ball hitting in a civilized society, but the reality is that Lord of the Cube hitters exists no matter what one does. Some people like to cite that video games do not lead to aggressive behavior. They are clearly incorrect. Games can impact aggression. But this is a slippery slope. No one has any idea what actually causes all aggressive behavior. And, more importantly, what is aggressive to you might not be aggressive to someone else. That dick boss of yours . . .no no, your boss is assertive. Not aggressive. [link]

At this point, two things should probably be noted. One, you are more than likely reading this because of video games. It is how I chiseled my little corner into the internet. Two, I am in no way discounting addiction by any means. Indeed, addiction is a serious problem in many cultures and I am quite certain that there are some people (both young and adult) who are addicted to video games. I do not take issue with that per se. What I begin to take issue with is what psychologists term as problematic for behavioral addiction. According to the article, “According to psychiatric and psychological experts, it has to damage functioning on multiple levels, such as family, social, school, occupational, and psychological functioning.” I, being the old, maladjusted curmudgeon that I am, take issue with every one of those. Exactly why are family, social, school and occupational functions inductive of a healthy person? I guess the issue that needs to be raised is, does everyone need people? Yes, we are a social animal, but not all of us derive pleasure from the presence of all people. Sorry to say, I am one of those people who really do not get my fellow humans. Allow me to clear this up, humans can become addicted to anything. Typically, anything bad is an addiction and anything good is not. You rarely hear people are addicted to Golf, but I know there are plenty of Golfers who knock off work to hit the back 9, who avoid spouses, and neglect children. There are plenty of people who over-eat, watch too much porn, watch too much TV, run marathons, read fantasy novels, comics, or watch loser reviewers on the internet . . .

Thank you for that one by the way.

I don’t know what the obsession with online multiplayer gaming is, but I truly, honestly wish it would stop. It’s not that multiplayer gaming in theory is necessarily a bad thing; there are times when it can be fun. The issue for me is that every multiplayer game is really an offshoot of the older PC games that game before it. (Capture the area/flag, Deathmatch etc) And now companies are adding needless multiplayer modes to games that do not need it. (Think of Grand Theft Auto 4, Resident Evil 5 and the terrible modes in Kane and Lynch.)  Multiplayer has become the new Go Green and Atkins label they slap on things because people can be rather easy when it comes to advertising.  Stupidly duped is more like it. Multiplayer is today’s fighting game genre that was popular fifteen years ago. There were so many fighting games it was unreal. Eternal Champions? Clay Fighters? Blah! As far as multiplayer goes I was playing Counterstrike and Team Fortress  ten years ago on, what now seems like an absurdly slow 56k connection.  Yes, at that time there wasn’t  a voice chat back then, but I would call my call friends on the early versions of the analog cells when they offered free weekends and nights and boom - I had my method to communicate. linking Three Way calling all the way! Not that it matters for the current voice features. Few people actually utilize multiplayer gaming and voice chat for it is supposed to be for. And that is why I hate multiplayer gaming.

We could wax philosophic on which games are the best for multiplayer gaming. I can tell you that it matters little as they all end up being the same at their core. We cannot argue that the Call of Duty franchise stepped up their game with Modern Warfare. This is now the quintessential version of multiplayer gaming - and while I had a lot of fun playing and leveling up, it got old really, really fast.  This is not because there are people out there who can jump off a building, fall headshot me from 500 yards away without zooming during their fall.  It is because everyone else reaches the point where they allow those fuckers to be able to do it. 

Here is the classic scenario: You enter a room and someone says, “You know what a gay name is, Professor Goose . .oh wait.” Ha ha dude.  This guy and his one or two buddies decide that it is funny to insult people on their own team.  That’s good. So, since these dicks cannot get into the verbal battle with the person they want to in the game, they pick on someone who can assist them in achieving their goals.  And, heaven forbid a woman actually speaks and reveals herself. These horny losers lose their shit.

It’s just a girl, chill out. There is no need to be a misogynist asshole in chat. No wonder women hate men.

Instead of people working together as a unit, then run off like little Rambos thinking that they are a one man army. After all, why not? There are no consequences to dying. You either will respawn in a few seconds or when the round is over.  Personally, I think people should have to pay some points per life - that’s right, I said it. (It was actually an idea of a friend of mine, but it’s a good one.) That would stop these fuckers from running out there blindly.

The only thing most people care about is their Kill/Death ratio. And, at the end of the day what should matter is not your personal Kill/Death ratio, but the cumulative score of your team - whether it is the end score or the total kill/deaths for the team. Let’s say, I take a role of being a scout. Sure, there aren’t scouts in COD4, but you can be one if you want. This role sacrifices a death or two for intel. Duh. 

 You see, what I loathe about multiplayer is that no one acts as a team - ever. You might think you are acting as a team, but I can assure you that you are not.  In order to act as a team, you have to (and I quote The Rock here) know your role. You may love to run around being a sniper, but guess what fuck stick, a team does not need four of them.  Same goes for other positions as well. The second and more critical part of acting as a team is communication. You have to not only communicate, but you need to know how to communicate quickly and effectively.  If you say, “over by the building near the barrel . . blah blah” you are not communicating effectively.  If you strategize and work as a unit, then the other Rambos are going to fall easily. I quote my favorite film of all time, “Every man’s life depends on all. If you kill everything on your right, then you know the man on your left will kill everything on his left.  Like the fingers of a hand - a fire team!”

When games in the arcade finally began to mirror the violence in real life, they began to take the blame for violent behavior. Pit Fighter and Mortal Kombat were among the first to have realistic graphics and bloody violence. The finger pointing has increased tenfold since the advent of 32 bit home systems and modern games such as The Grand Theft Auto series and Gears of War. Video games have taken the blame for behavior for years now. They have become a safe buzz word for the media and Washington - like gay marriage and flag burning. They are a non-issue that politicians can spout off during elections. Senator Joe Lieberman could have been Vice President of the United States - and if he had been elected, I can bet he would have had a huge impact on the levels of sex and violence in video games. If you were on the planet in 1999 then you knew about the shootings at Columbine. Yes, video games got some of the blame along with Marilyn Manson. In 2007, a slightly older and equally as insane moron decided to kill people at Virgina Tech. Again, people and the media searched for things to blame.

The point of this is not to decide why people commit acts of violence. After all, the Spanish Inquisition was rather violent and no one was playing Mortal Kombat II at the time. Having said that, I am going to take a look at the recent trends in research and in games as well.

Here is the reality. Adults who are proponents of video games will claim that they “grew up” playing games and they did not affect them. The violence in Double Dragon or Contra does not compare to the violence in Dead to Rights or Halo. Games have become more visually and mentally stimulating. The violence is realistic and stimulating - but this is hardly any life altering news.

The fact of the matter is that the games now have become more intricate and complex as well. There is a world of difference between games of today and what games are being called retro today. James Gee, Education Professor at the University of Wisconson, says “You get a group of teenage boys who shoot up a school—of course they’ve played video games,” “Everyone does. It’s like blaming food because we have obese people.” Not only has practically every young child or adolescent played a game at some point in his or her life, the games require more and more attention than ever before. Kids who cannot sit still for a math lesson can play a game for hours without moving. Games, are the modern cure for ADHD. Gee also says, “The games focus attention in a way that school doesn’t”

Not only do games require more focus to attention than ever before but they immerse the players into massive worlds areas and worlds where strategy, puzzles and life like challenges are presented before the players. You just do not jump through a platform level or collect rupees to buy enough bombs to to try every wall in a labyrinth. Some of these puzzles actually require players to be quite clever. MMORPG games such as World or Warcraft require play that essentially can have no definite end or beginning. Even Politicians have given speeches in Second Life. And while games might be able to increase a player’s ability to multi task and problem solve. So games can actually increase the level of problem solving and multi tasking making these new children a great breed of Uber-workers who will be able to do more work for less money or their jobs will be outsourced.

I am not so convinced that games themselves are an innocuous and innocent and people in the industry would like to claim.

In 2006, researchers at Indiana University placed subjects under an MRI Stoop test while they played video games. They had different adolescents play two different types of games for 30 minutes at a time. Some played The Need for Speed and some played Medal of Honor: Frontline. It seems that “Adolescents who had played violent video games exhibited more brain activity in a region thought to be important for emotional arousal and less activity in a brain region associated with executive functions. Executive functions are the ability to plan, shift, control and direct one’s thoughts and behavior.” Those who played The Need for Speed, showed more activity in the prefrontal portions of the brain. These areas control inhibition, concentration and self-control. In fact, the frontal lobe is what makes us “human.”

So, if you look at the grayish blob on the chart you can see where violent game players have one side of the grayish blob stimulated and non-violent game players had a different part stimulated.

Contrast that with the fact that the violent games seem to activate the so-called “reptilian” part of the brain where sexual arousal and the flight or fight response centers are located. In short, if you are playing a violent video game, you are stimulating the same part of the brain that is aroused when you think about sex. This is one of the reasons why games can be highly addictive and stimulating.

Let’s contrast this a bit shall we? Look at the next blob:

The chart above shows fMRI scans of two brains. One that was watching violent media and one that was not watching violent media. Can you guess which one was which?

I am not trying to claim by this that games cause violence per se; however, what the study goes on to illustrate is that they do not yet know the implications of hours and hours of activation in these brain centers. Much like A Clockwork Orange, maybe you can be changed.

What I would suggest is that if you are already a violent angry child with no sense of guilt, then playing games can heighten that stimulation and bring out your inner asshole.

The reality is that the world around you does affect you. Actions and words have shown to have an impact on your brain. Studies show that your subconscious replays what you last think of and do before you went to bed 17 times while you are sleeping.

Language mucks with you. The world around you shapes your reality. Forces your brain to do things you do not want it to do. The earlier an age children are subjected to traumatic violence and sexual abuse, the more it triggers the brain to behave in so-called “abnormal” ways.

The wiring of the brain is altered.

Here is a little science and Biology lesson (Oh shut the F!@#! up. You are still reading, then you are not a total dipstick and it will not kill you to learn something)

The systems of your body not only work together but the Nervous and Lymphatic systems actually work together. If you are angry and annoyed, your body releases adrenaline and your heart rate increases etc. This just does not simply go away easily. Even the slightest change can cause the release of the chemical. What happens is that you have an annoyed and agitated lymphatic system because it is so closely tied with the nervous system, the brain, and emotion.

Your brain cannot tell the difference between what is real and a vividly imagined event. Why do you think scary movies frighten us? After all it is just light on a screen. It is not real. But yet, your heart rate increases. If you suspend your disbelief enough, you may even sweat.

Try this. Close your eyes and try to imagine yourself standing at the top of the tallest building in the world. Now walk close to the edge and look down. What does the railing look like? Can you lean over it? How does the wind feel?

Negative emotions and situations can have a dramatic effect on the body over time.

We really do not know the implications of small events on a young nervous system.

An adult’s brain chemistry has pretty much been set by the time he or she picks up a game. So, while the same parts of the brain may be active when shown on a PET scan, they will not have the same impact as they do on a younger person.

However, an adult person can also combat this with a positive mental attitude and acts of love . . .well acts of love making. A small study has shown that oxytocin and DHEA hormone released during love-making may prevent breast cancer cells from developing into tumors. Frequent love-making has also been linked to longer life – may be due to the beneficial effects on the heart and immune system.

We know that people who are criminals tend to not experience guilt when they commit violent acts or even non violent crimes such as plain old theft. The do not respond in a way to where they feel bad for what they have done.

What are the implications if you are a child who is exposed to these things? Do you not recall that one kid in grade school who was always a trouble making little F*#%#$!? It seemed as if no matter what he or she did that it had no effect.

The reality is we do not yet have a clear idea to what a constant barrage of self induced chemicals will do to the brain.

Having said all of this, do I think video games are responsible for violence? No, probably not. I think a Father beating the shit out of his son, the son’s siblings, or the mother has a deeper impact than Resident Evil 4 will ever have. But, when you add the Drunk and Resident Evil togther, then you might be changing more than Capcom and society bargained for.

It is only going to get more interesting.