I was reading a transcript at Kotaku of a discussion about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a morning show recently, and my blood began to boil – mainly because the host asking the questions displayed the same ignorance and triviality of the subject as we gamers are now used to seeing. At first, I was upset about the situation – the host seemed to simply keep repeating that you could ‘play as a terrorist’ and that it was ‘interactive violence’, without displaying any further understanding of the topic at hand. And to some degree, it still does irk me – but it made me realise that – regardless of the facts at hand – we will always be on the back foot here… But we gamers need to make some changes, too.

There are several issues around this subject, and it’s evident that all parties need to rethink their, uh… thinking. Glaringly obvious is the fact that the majority of non-gamers base their opinions solely on anecdotal or circumstantial evidence – "my friend said that it was PROVEN that video games CAUSE violence", or "that high school killer used to play that violent shooting game". Sure – there may be some merit to each of those points (semantics aside), but they are hardly strong arguments.

That’s NOT to say they are not valid arguments, though. I looked over a bunch of journal articles and found there is definitely a link between video game violence and aggressive tendencies (for want of a better term), and this can not be disputed. However, there are problems with the methodology of the studies. For one, the majority either use questionnaires to determine aggressiveness after playing an aggressive game, or describe the observed behaviour of kids at play after such games. There’s nothing really wrong with these methodologies, they’re just not really the strongest proof, in my opinion – of course, when the results are consistently demonstrated across these studies, it’s probably a good time to start raising your eyebrows… If you’re into eyebrow raising.

However, that’s not really where I am concerned – I am a firm believer that violence in any media increases aggression during and after, but I also believe that this increase in aggression is probably related to heightened excitement, and it shouldn’t be a problem to demonstrate a decrease in aggression over time. What really needs to be examined regarding such violence is long-lasting and persistent levels of aggression and aggressive affect. The problem is – these kinds of studies would be difficult to perform, and even more difficult to defend the results, whatever they may be.

You see – sure, if I play a violent game, I’m going to be excitable and aggressive afterwards. However, as an adult, I understand right from wrong, and (I believe) I’m well adjusted, and I’m far from a menace to society. Which leads me on to the next aspect of this issue… children playing violent games.

I totally agree with the common consensus – kids shouldn’t be playing these kinds of games – depending on their age, and depending on the level of supervision, of course. The problem we have here is that a great deal of parents don’t understand video games, and see them more as a way to keep the kids quiet. While most parents would not let their kids watch "The Hills Have Eyes", the same parents might let them play CoD. Again – depending on the age of the kid in question, as well as a number of other factors (such as the kid’s mentality/maturity), this may not be a problem… So… What is the problem then – why DO some kids go crazy sometimes? There are probably several factors working together, but I think the root of the problem lies lies in depression and social abnormality.

The international news media has a tendency to dig into the lives of troubled youths and find what they believe to be the cause of their troubles – generally video games, movies, and music. They say the Columbine killers played Doom and Quake, listened to Marilyn Manson, and enjoyed the movie “Natural Born Killers”. Well, you know what? So did (do?) I. The problem is that it’s much easier to point the ‘finger of blame’ than to find the real cause of the depression and anxiety that lead to these kids doing what they did. There are some clear problems with these kids, and while the games, movies, and music probably didn’t help, they were far from the cause.

It would be extremely unfair to ban violent video games, while still allowing the sale of pornography, violent movies, comic books, and music – it doesn’t make sense. However, before we can make any headway into making some changes that would alleviate the problem, there needs to be a major change in the way the topic is handled by both the media and video gamers themselves.