Video Games and Violence, Week 2

I was disappointed when i didnt turn into the Incredible Hulk after i played a very violent video game, Halo. Tanks, guns, rocket launchers, the goal of the game is for you to mutilate your opponent. Again, another violent video game that ironically had no effect on me. After re-reviewing the American Psychological Associations website, and artice on video games and violence, I came across myth, and fact # two.

#2 "The studies that find significant effects are the weakest methodologically.
Facts: Methodologically stronger studies have yielded the largest effects (Anderson, in press). Thus, earlier effect size estimates -based on all video game studies- probably underestimate the actual effect sizes."

-Basically, the myth is that the most significant outcomes, or the most significant results are discovered when people have been tested using the weakest methods or procedures. Why would a doctor or someone who is geuinely researching this topic want to use weak procedures? Of course it is a myth because you would need to use significant methods in order to produce the proper outcome.


The fact produced by the APA, is that "methodologically stronger studies have yielded the largest effects". Basically rather than the weakest methods producing the most effects, the best methods produced the most effects, and probably the most relevant. I rememeber watching a video on video games and violence in one of my early Comm classes. They showed different tests that were performed on the videos to people being monitiored as they played video games. There were different age limits that were being tested as well as different games being played...the more violent the better. The "guinea pigs" were hooked up to different monitors including heart rate and blood pressure in order for the doctors to record any spikes or changed in these areas, as the games grew more intense. From personal experience, I dont really remember my bp or hr spiking when I played video games :p. Regardless, I feel that this type of testing is extremely thurough and would be considered methodologically strong.

Semester Research Topic!!!

I can still remember the cheat codes to my first pc video game "Doom". The codes,idkfa, and iddqd, would give you all of the most amazing weapons and you couldn't ever die no matter what monster attacked you! I loved being invincible :) Even though this game was evtremely violent and gory, ironically I did not grow up to be a sociopathic killer, or something along those lines. (and neither did my brother). It's becoming more and more prevelant, that people believe that violence and video games are related. I want to learn more about this. If they are related, then why didn't me or my brother or other family members that grew up around violent video games become violent ourselves? I was to explore why some people believe that children and adults alike, are affected negatively by video games. Is this theory even feasible? If so, what makes some people violent, and others not violent? Could it be that the people that are said to have been negatively affected by video games could have other underlying problems or past traumatic experiences that caused them to become violent as an outcome? Maybe children and adults that are violent "because of video games" were abused as children, or they never had any parental direction?

To begin my research I came across the "American Psychological Association's" website. They have 11 different myths and facts regarding video games and violence posted within the article and I plan on exploring myth and fact number one today.

"Myth 1. Violent video game research has yielded very mixed results.
Facts: Some studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies (which allow examination of serious violent behavior) appear comparable (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)."

Above statement came from the American Psycological Association's website that focused on violence from video games;(http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson.aspx)

In the statement above, it says (in regards to different results from violent video games), that there haven't always been negative or any results from the video games. I guess thats where I fall if I were to have been evaluated. I think its very interesting how people have become so differently affected by video games, and im excited to learn about this even more!

Do I read blogs regularly??

As embarrassing as it may be, I read blogs that are on Facebook, for example. I started "blogging" when I was in high school, with my Myspace account. I don't have that anymore, but ironically Myspace is where I learned what a blog was and how to actually use them! I remember I used the Myspace blog to advertise a car I was selling! Interestingly enough people were interested! I also have family all over the US! Lots of my family members have blogs for us to read so that we can be clued in on whats going on with them, and how their family is growing! I love looking at blogs of my cousins, and their kids, just to see how they've grown. I really enjoy writing blogs for my different classes. I am a mass comm major and a photogpraphy digital imagery minor. Ironically in most of my classes we write blogs! I love this method of writing and exression much better than simply writing a term paper because we are able to customize our blogs, write what we want to write about, express our feelings and struggles in different classes, while at he same time still continuing to practice writing and building those skills that will always be necessary for when we enter the workforce. In one of my photography classes, we would write on a class blog and answer questions rather than taking quizzes. I loved doing that because you could go much deeper into the subjects we were studying rather than just choosing a,b,c, etc.

Flash Games

I am excited for this class because I have no idea what to expect. I really do not know what the "Flash" program is, so I'm anxious to learn it. I expect to learn not only what Flash Games are, but how you use them, and what they are used for. As some of my fellow students said that there is a good bit of coding involved, I am a little intimidated. The only coding I have ever worked with has been in a web design class in the Dreamweaver program. As web design is tedious, once I first grasped the coding, it seemed to flow pretty easily from there. I hope that Flash coding is the same way! I expect that this class is going to be like my animation class in that i will need to keep reiterating the different steps used to create the Flash games. I learn the best by repetition, so hopefully, if I have trouble grasping the program or even the coding, I was eventually be able to fully understand it.