John Carmack: Video Games Reduce Aggression

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alidan

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just on the title alone, it makes me think he never played a game that brick walled him.

you know those missions, areas, that force a level grind or are unreasonably difficult and come out of nowhere?

if anything they piss me off more than anything else.

or a buggy game and you lose 3 hours of game because you were so absorbed in the game you forget to save, than it crashes.
 

memadmax

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It makes sense.
Instead of taking all your aggression out on a cheating girlfriend, you do it to your keyboard and "fellow" WoW players...

I also can totally relate to this in RL. For me, games, particularly WoW, broke a nasty binge drinking cycle that I was going thru.
 

nebun

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[citation][nom]memadmax[/nom]It makes sense.Instead of taking all your aggression out on a cheating girlfriend, you do it to your keyboard and "fellow" WoW players...I also can totally relate to this in RL. For me, games, particularly WoW, broke a nasty binge drinking cycle that I was going thru.[/citation]
have you ever heard of the words "self control" everything we do is based on self control one way or nother
 

thrasher32

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I didn't know John Cramack was a sociologis or behaviorial scientist. It's kinda like Ronald McDonald telling us that hamburgers and french fries dont' cause obesity.
 

Darkerson

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[citation][nom]maiqi[/nom]Dear friends...[/citation]
You're not our friend, go sell your cheap knock off junk somewhere else, jackass...
 

amk-aka-Phantom

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You're not our friend, go sell your cheap knock off junk somewhere else, jackass...

lol, +1

They may reduce aggression, but as it was said above, nothing pisses off more than a brick-wall or a buggy game. That said, I also believe it's all about self-control... but a big part of self-control is finding outlets for your aggression, so video games might be exactly what you need. Though, for me, they're purely entertainment =)
 

lamorpa

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Which studies is he referring to? Or is it just wishful thinking? I can guarantee that a kid, for example, teaching swimming lessons all summer has a more normal socially oriented mind at the end of it than the kid who played COD all day.

Case closed.
 

skaz

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[citation][nom]thrasher32[/nom]I didn't know John Cramack was a sociologis or behaviorial scientist. It's kinda like Ronald McDonald telling us that hamburgers and french fries dont' cause obesity.[/citation]

It's nothing like that what so ever.
 

icepick314

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I rather kill, rape, maim, torture, and pillage virtual characters....

there are such thing as morality and laws in real life...(DAMM those pesky things!!)
 

amigafan

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In the next news: young man razed the Crytek HQ and slapped several Crytek managers due to their lack of interest in handling the bugs Crysis 2 patch 1.9 caused.
 

jackbling

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To play devils advocate, video gaming produces as much, or more, dopamine than cocaine. I game full time; if i had to guess, i would say between 35 and 40 hours during the week, more if a new game drops (skyrim is going to lose me some friends), and typically about 20 hours on the weekend.

I primarily play fps's, and love open world whole sale slaughter type games(prototype, gta and its clones, hell ill drive around on apb for hours running over pedestrians). I can honestly say i have never shot up a mall food court, or any other public locations, despite being the proverbial lab rat they feed 17lbs of artificial sweetener.I find it all very entertaining, not exactly motivational.

Are video games addictive and potentially harmful? Absolutely, who would argue that dopamine does not cause chemical dependancy. Addiction in any form can be detrimental to your social and professional life. But to say it makes you a killer is a massive stretch.

It is my belief that crazy people will always look for something to blame the crazy on. There have always been serial killers, murderers, and rapist; with the sheer volume of people in the world, i am quite surprised at the infrequency of public shootings and bombings. As a society we are significantly more intelligent and knowledgeable, individually however....well, I'm expected that apocalypse any day
 

back_by_demand

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[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]Which studies is he referring to? Or is it just wishful thinking? I can guarantee that a kid, for example, teaching swimming lessons all summer has a more normal socially oriented mind at the end of it than the kid who played COD all day.Case closed.[/citation]
Studies show that 100% of all high school massacres were not caused by violent video games prior to 1995, however as this is not proof you still draw your own conclusions.
 

Genny

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[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]It is precisely that, even if you wish it wasn't.[/citation]

It's not terribly difficult, regardless of occupation, to find and cite studies from those that are experts. Simply because he's not a psychologist or a sociologist (giggle) does not mean his conclusion is false. That's called an appeal to accomplishment.
 

Genny

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[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]Which studies is he referring to? Or is it just wishful thinking? I can guarantee that a kid, for example, teaching swimming lessons all summer has a more normal socially oriented mind at the end of it than the kid who played COD all day.Case closed.[/citation]

People are so lazy these days. You must play too many video games. Right?


Human Communication Research

Volume 27, Issue 3, pages 409–431, July 2001

The effects of violent video games on aggression.
A meta-analysis

JL Sherry

Violent content video games such as Mortal Kombat and Doom have become very popular among children and adolescents, causing great concern for parents, teachers, and policy makers. This study cumulates findings across existing empirical research on the effects of violent video games to estimate overall effect size and discern important trends and moderating variables. Results suggest there is a smaller effect of violent video games on aggression than has been found with television violence on aggression. This effect is positively associated with type of game violence and negatively related to time spent playing the games. Directions for future programmatic research on video games are outlined.
 
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