issues & id@as_ wrormensewrenoee THE VOICE, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2012 7 Video games in the crosshairs After recent U.S. shootings, video games are being condemned, but 1s there a connection? Playing the blame game No correlation between video game violence and reality, says student By JAMES MCLAUGHLIN Sandy Hook Elementary in New- town, Connecticut, the American National Rifle Association’s vice presi- dent, Wayne LaPierre, held a press conference. Punctuated with dramatic pauses, LaPierre recycled the same scapegoat rheotric the NRA has given for decades after gun-related atrocities shake the country. Among his list of society’s ills was the video game industry. “There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shad- ow industry that sells and sows vio- lence against its own people through vicious, violent video games.” Since some news reports following the Newtown shooting identified the perpetrator as an avid gamer, I felt the need to do some hands-on research into gaming. I phoned my friend Keanan Holness one rainy evening and he agreed to take me through his typical gaming night. He said we should play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Playstation 3. After buying the mandatory junk food, we plugged ourselves into the simulated multi-player war zone. The astonishingly real graphics made me forget about my Twizzlers and lose my- self in the game almost immediately. I quickly learned that the shaking, blood splattered screen meant that I had been shot. And when the slow-mo- tion highlight of my semi-automatic as- sault rifle turning my enemy’s chest into a sieve played, it meant my game was over. This was war porn that constructs mass killing as an achievement. Yet, ’'ve never seen Keanan be any- thing but a gentle sweetheart. There’s a disconnect between playing games like Call of Duty and carrying out acts of extreme aggression. Atrocities such as the one in New- town are symptomatic of a society in disrepair more than the influence of video games. If someone with anti-social, aggres- sive tendencies has been nurtured by a culture of violence, then being im- mersed in gory entertainment may help remove that person from reality. Video games can offer an outlet for the violent, but there’s a host of other factors at play to make someone mani- fest something virtual into the actual. T: week following the shooting at JAMES MCLAUGHLIN photo Keanan Holness gets in the zone while playing Call of Duty. KRISTEN HARPULA photo Most children start playing video games when they are as young as two-years-old. More than 90 per cent of youth 17 and under play. A weak link joins games, violence Many people perceive video games as a cause for violent behaviour, but experts say while the connection may seem obvious, it’s minimal TOP 10 games 1 Call of Duty: Black Ops Il 2 Madden NFL 13 3 Halo 4 4 Assassin's Creed Ill Just Dance 4 NBA 2K13 Borderlands 2 Call of Duty: Mod- ern Warfare 3 Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes 10: Soccer 13 oocns! o& G1 By KRISTEN HARPULA ideo games are getting the blame after the shooting at San- dy Hook Elementary School, but experts say there’s little proof behind these accusations. Arecent poll by Public Polling Policy asked 800 Americans if they thought guns or video games were the biggest safety threat and 67 per cent answered video games. Yet there have been nu- merous studies that prove the link be- tween youth playing gory games and acting violently is miniscule. According to Dr. Tyler Black, clinical director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Emergency Unit at BC Chil- dren’s Hospital, the reason games are often blamed is because “it always comes down to something you can see and imagine as being connected be- cause the real reasons for violence, for people hurting each other, are very complex.” Classifying someone’s behaviour this way becomes a simplistic reduc- tion of an extremely complicated be- havior, said Black. The effect size, a scientific measure used to calculate the size of a relation- ship between two variables, shows that while there is an effect from children playing the violent games, it’s a very small one. “The effect size could be as low as 0.06, which is an extremely weak ef- fect,” said Black, who’s a gamer him- self. Video game designer for Klei Enter- tainment, Nels Anderson, thinks there will always be people pointing their fin- gers at whatever seems convenient at that time. “There has been a long lineage of various forms of media being the scapegoat for the corruption of youth. It was rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘50s, heavy metal in the ‘80s, then comic books, then rap music,” said Anderson. “This is something we’ve seen be- fore and I think this obviously bears no more weight than any of those things did.” Anderson also said it’s important for parents to understand that all games are rated based on content. A recent study by market research company, NPD Group, showed that over 91 per cent of youth between ages two and 17 play video games, and most of these are rated E for everyone and don’t contain the violent content in M rated games. Another NPD study showed that while video game sales have increased, the number of violent acts committed by youth has decreased. Anderson thinks there will continue to be criticism as long as these violent attacks involve gamers. He thinks it’s because “you can’t prove a negative; the best you can do is say ‘well, we still haven’t found any evi- dence.” Students find gaming to be a stress relief them. Gamers find violent games to be a good outlet for stress when life at school becomes too hectic By KELC] NICODEMUS video games can be good stress re- lievers. Video games are coming under in- creased public scrutiny. Many students insist that they are only a source of en- tertainment, and that proper parenting is more important in shaping behav- iour than games. Peter Lee, a kinetics student, thinks F:: some Langara students, violent that video games, especially violent ones, are fun and are a nice way to get out his frustrations and relieve stress. “T think it’s a good way to take [away] those things that frustrate you,” says Lee. Lee says that some of the games he plays are quite violent and crazy. “It is surreal how violent it is,” said Lee, who also said video games are just entertainment and he doesn’t take them seriously. Lee admits that video games do dis- tract him from schoolwork. “Sometimes I’m thinking, I could be playing this game instead of studying,” said Lee Although Lee likes violent games, he said he doesn’t want children playing “T think that younger kids might get the wrong impression,” said Lee. Ramina Randhawa, psychology stu- dent, plays video game with her broth- er but she does not play violent ones because she said “they’re not for me.” Delaney Ryan, a history and anthro- pology student, does not play video games. Ryan said he thinks violent video games are desensitizing the genera- tion. He said parenting plays a huge role in how children are shaped by games. “If the kids know that it’s fake, and it’s not real, and it’s just a game, and that you can’t do that in real life, then it’s fine,” said Ryan. 66 Sometimes Pm think- ing, I could be playing this game instead of studying.” PETER LEE