Micro, Macro and Hypothesis

Micro Research- Question/area= Do Violent Video Games have a negative effect on Children

Macro Topic- Topic area= Children and the Media

Hypothesis- Prediction= I believe that this investigation will demonstrate that violent video games can have a negative effect on the way children act in uncontrolled circumstances/use without parental guidance. I am going to investigate institutions that produce video gaming, along with case studies of children who have been affected. I will also investigate academic theories (such as Anderson V Buckingham) and link  to audience theories on reception v effects.  I believe that there may be positive effects of game playing. but this does not necessarily come under those games that are considered as violent.

Notes for my critical research

3 main sources for research:

• Internet
• Print Publications
• Visual Materials

Organise under these headings

• Original Research
• Secondary textual anaylsis
• Biographical information
• contextual information
• Institutional Detail
• Audience related research

Man Hunt and the murder of Stefan Pakeerah

Manhunt is a third-person stealth action game. The game consists of twenty levels, and four bonus levels that can be unlocked; the levels are referred to as "Scenes". Players survive the Scenes by stealthily executing the gangs, armed forces and deviants they face in bloody over-the-top ways; the player's enemies are known as "Hunters".

Over the course of the game, the player uses a wide variety of weapons, ranging from plastic bags, baseball bats, crowbarschainsaws and more, as well as all sorts of bladed items to firearms later on in the game such as revolvers, three types ofshotguns and Uzis. If the player is running out of health, painkillers can be found which replenish health. The player can strike walls or throw items (or the game refers to it as "bait items") such as bottles, cans, bricks and severed heads to make noise to distract Hunters.

The murder of Stefan Pakeerah

In the UK, the game was linked to the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, by his friend Warren Leblanc, 17, on the 27th of February, 2004. Giselle Pakeerah, the victim's mother, claimed^[10] that Leblanc had been 'obsessed' with the game after the former pleaded guilty in court. During the subsequent media frenzy, the game was removed from sale by some vendors, such as the UK and international branches of GAMEand Dixons, leading to "significantly increased" demand^[11] both from retailers and on Internet auction sites. The police denied any such link between the game and the murder, citing drug-related robbery as the motive. The presiding judge also placed sole responsibility with Leblanc in his summing up after sentencing him to life. Oddly, the victim, not the killer was found to be the one in possession of the game.

Considerations for Future Research

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html

Considerations for Future Research

Considering the popularity of video games much more research needs to be done on this issue. Chambers and Ascione (1987) report that 100% of elementary and high school students surveyed had played video games at least once. That was more than 15 years ago. This is an obvious indicator that video games have entered the mainstream media, and that more research needs to be done on the effects of video games on adolescence. The majority of research thus far has been on the negative effects of video games, mostly due to the violence contained within. But the exact relationship is still undetermined, so research must continue. However, there are also many who hypothesize that video games can have a positive effect on youth, and believe that it is worth time and effort to explore these possibilities. Following are a few areas of research this author believes our time is best spent:

Therapy

Although the majority of video games are violent in nature, there are many emerging that take an intellectual standpoint. These include puzzle games such as the wildly popular Tetris. These types of games stimulate the mind by presenting challenges and puzzles to the player rather than enemies and worlds. Many play them just to keep the mind active and alert. This type of game-play has brought about the idea that video games can be used as a form of therapy. Some of them are relaxing and soothing, and they can be specifically altered to meet an individual patient's needs. A video game can be created to help a specific type of person, whether it is to help connect certain memory cells in the brain, or just help stimulate brain activity in general. Due to the programmatic nature in which video games are created, their possibilities of creation are endless. Gardner (1991) attempted the first research on this issue. He successfully used video games as a form of psychotherapy in children. This success has stimulated much research on this issue, but mostly dealing with mentally-ill or brain-damaged patients.

Eye-Hand Coordination

Playing many of the modern video games requires some sort of skill. The player is required to do quite a bit to "win." There are many things going on in the game at once. For example, the character may be running and shooting at the same time. This requires the real-world player to keep track of the position of the character, where he/she is heading, their speed, where the gun is aiming, if the gunfire is hitting the enemy, and so on. All these factors need to be taken into account, and then the player must then coordinate the brain's interpretation and reaction with the movement in their hands and fingertips. This process requires a great deal of eye-hand coordination and visual-spatial ability to be successful. A relationship has been shown between increased videogame playing and improvements to eye-hand coordination, as well as manual dexterity, and reaction time (Drew & Waters, 1986). Some true experiments would greatly help to support this claim.

Simulations

A simulation is interactive multimedia used to try to simulate some real world phenomenon. Many video games are nothing more than simulations. They are very closely related, and much research that refers to simulations could most likely apply to video games as well. The most well known simulations are flight simulators, which attempt to mimic the reality of flying a plane. All of the controls, including airspeed, wing angles, altimeter, and so on, are displayed for the player, as well as a visual representation of the world, and are updated in real time. For many years large corporations have used simulations to help train and better their employees. However, simulations have so much more possibilities. The United States government has released a game entitled America's Army, which simulates a real war-time experience. The government hopes to use it to help train the next generation of recruits.

Another use for simulations is to mimic the effects of nature. Many modern games use particle systems, thousands of tiny particles in three-dimensional space, which mimic natural phenomena such as rain, fire and smoke. Another popular use is to simulate flocking birds and schooling fish. An excellent example of this is seen in Pixar's Finding Nemo. With deeper research, these simulations can give us a better understanding of our world and our selves.

Positive Effects of Video Games on Development

http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html

Positive Effects of Video Games on Development

Noah J. Stupak
Rochester Institute of Technology 2004

The idea that video games have a detrimental effect on children who play them is widely contested. Though providing excellent coverage of these effects, Kooijmans' "Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors During Development" leaves out many of the positive aspects of video games. The paper does mention their use for therapy, hand-eye coordination training, and simulations, but it does not cover any actual developmental effects. Video games teach many skills to the developing child. Examples of these skills include problem-solving abilities, perseverence, pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, estimating skills, inductive reasoning, resource management, logistics, mapping, memory, quick thinking, and reasoned judgments (Sheff, 1994). Many of these skills are abstract and require higher-level thinking, which schools do not often teach children. By including a way to choose one's own level of difficulty in most, if not all, video games, one can tailor the degree of intricacy of the tasks in the game to meet one's own skills. After the tasks are completed at an easy level, a child will feel motivated to attempt a higher degree of difficulty. By slowly ramping up the difficulty, the child is able to accomplish goals and learn while increasing his or her self-efficacy.

Although the typical video game child is seen as a loner and anti-social, video games may very well teach the child social skills. If the parents are attentive of thier child, video games can be a good bonding activity. Most likely the child will be more proficient at the game than the parent, which allows the child to teach the parents for once. This reversal of roles allows the parent to better understand the child's skills and talents, and allows the child to learn to help others and share knowledge. In addition, many games that involve multiple players encourage children to work cooperatively to achieve their goals. The children learn to listen to the ideas of others, formulate plans together, and distribute tasks based on skills. Video games create hierarchies of skills and abilities, creating a setting that benefits the development of leadership. A child who is able to manage the tasks necessary to succeed would be more apt at leading work-groups at school. Recently, gaming online with other people has created entirely new types of vast, intricate social networks. Children consider people they have never met to be close friends. By knowing someone strictly through a game, the child learns of the person without any superficiality. By not seeing the their friends, children do not take into account race, gender, or nationality. It is a truly open friendship based on common interest.

Finally, violent video games may act as a release of pent-up aggression and frustration. There is no harm in a child's shooting another person in a video game, but there would be serious repercussions if that act was committed in real life. By allowing the child to channel his or her anger in a constructive way, video games are able to reduce the child's stress and act as a positive outlet. Children no longer throw tantrums or fight with siblings but passively act out their frustrations in a virtual world. Many parents advocate sports such as football as an aggression outlet, which is much more brutal than playing a game. In sports, children are encouraged to physically hurt someone. As Tapscott (1998) noted, "Engaging the child in an interactive experience, developing hand-eye motor skills, giving the child a sense of accomplishment, keeping the child off the streets, and just encouraging having fun are all judged by many parents to be valuable or, at worst, benign"

Does game violence make teens aggressive?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16099971/

Does game violence make teens aggressive?

Researchers say parents should look closely at findings of new study

By Kristin Kalning Games editor MSNBC updated 11:58 a.m. ET Dec. 8, 2006 In a recent research study, adolescents played two different types of video games for 30 minutes. Teens that played the violent game (right) showed increased activity in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal. “Based on our results, I think parents should be aware of the relationship between violent video-game playing and brain function.” Mathews and his colleagues chose two action games to include in their research -- one violent the other not.  The first game was the high-octane but non-violent racing game “Need for Speed: Underground.” The other was the ultra-violent first-person shooter “Medal of Honor: Frontline.” The team divided a group of 44 adolescents into two groups, and randomly assigned the kids to play one of the two games. Immediately after the play sessions, the children were given MRIs of their brains. The scans showed a negative effect on the brains of the teens who played “Medal of Honor” for 30 minutes. That same effect was not present in the kids who played “Need for Speed.” The only difference? Violent content. What’s not clear is whether the activity picked up by the MRIs indicates a lingering — or worse, permanent — effect on the kids’ brains. And it’s also not known what effect longer play times might have. The scope of this study was 30 minutes of play, and one brain scan per kid, although further research is in the works.