Risks in Video gaming

In chapter 10 Nielsen talks about the big overwhelming topic that anyone who has or hasn't played video games seems to have an opinion on--Do video games cause aggression? Any time we see video games mentioned in the media it is usually some new study or game that was released that people are linking violence to playing video games. Nielsen discusses the two main types of research that is preformed on this topic, Active Media perspective and Active User perspective. Active Media perspective is based on traditional psychological researching methods which involve exposing participants to different types of games in controlled environments. Active user perspective draws from culturally oriented media studies and researchers believe that video games need to be understood in terms of context and not just putting people in artificially created game playing situations.

I have actually participated in a violence in video game study myself. It was a Active media perspective study for my Psych 100 class here at the university. It involved me and another student both playing a different type of boxing game and then judging how aggressive we were afterwards using another type of direct competition with each other. I had to play the N64 game "Knockout Kings 2001" and he played "Wii sports boxing" we played for a specific amount of time then were put on a computer and asked to choose a number for how loud of a noise would be blasted in the opponents ear if they lost a quick timing reflex game. The purpose was to see if mimetic interface games like wii sports boxing made someone more or less aggressive than a standard controlled game. For me I personally don't think video games make a person aggressive. I didn't feel that playing that boxing game made me more aggressive and i dont feel that any other violent game makes any one else more aggressive than they already are.

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I definitely believe in the Active User perspective approach. I think the players environment and background( how they were raised, ect) play more of a role in aggression than violent video games do. But ultimately this is an issue that I think as Nielsen mentioned is one that video games are often used as a scapegoat for societies problems. Violent movies and music have been around forever and are much more accessible than video games but yet you do not see as much of the blame in the Media.

Which approach do you think is more valid? Do you believe that violent video games have made you more aggressive? Or do you think the media and politicians are just biased against video games because they don't play video games themselves?