Violence is something that is all around us. We here at Everyday Gamers wanted to address the issue of Media Violence. In particularity, in this first article, we want to address how Video Games are misunderstood and how video games compare to other forms of media violence.

In 2005, the Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed 2032 children from grades 3 through 12. This survey is just a minuet part of the on going research trying to find a link between media violence and more aggressive behavior.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a problem here. For years, there has been much debate over whether a direct correlation between forms of media violence, I.E. video games, and more aggressive behavior. So, where does the problem lie? In order to find the problem, we have to dig deeper through the research. First off, what is media violence. Well it is simply the violence found in Television shows, Movies, Video Games, etc. Politicians, parents and even some Psychologists will argue that playing such games as Grand Theft Auto, will lead to more aggressive behavior in the player.

The first part of the problem comes from the fact that much of the research is inconsistent and therefore inconclusive.  In previous surveys that have been conducted, one survey showed that teens reported more self involvements in physical fights after routine play of “M” or Mature rated games. However, another survey showed that players showed less aggression of gameplay of Mature rated games. So, what is the deciding factor? Well, the people in the first survey also admitted to having an aggressive nature to begin with. As you can see, the research

so far does not see, to support each other. Then why is it, that video games get such a bad rap? Well, video games are probably one of the most misunderstood forms of media out there.

Another piece of the problem is the fact that we focus too much on violence in video games. In fact, over sixty percent of television shown in primetime contain some form of violence. The fact is, there are far more violent choices then there are non-violent. Many people will argue that by playing violent video games, you become more violent. However, I believe these games are helping not hurting. The Virtual Psychology Classroom Journal talked about something known as the Catharsis Theory. The Catharsis Theory disputes the link between media violence and more aggressive behavior. The Catharsis Theory essentially states that the player takes out their aggression on a video game, something which is virtual and causes no harm to anyone. This seems like a positive, so why are the “side-effects” still such a controversial issue?

There are many aspects about video games that many people still do not

understand, we will address these in a later article. Many people make a one-sided argument about media violence. The media has constantly attacked video games, well it seems to me that the media attacks what it does not understand. Dr. Douglas A. Gentile argued that if all you research is the negative, that is all you will find. He argued how we always hear this conflicting reports about video games. He argued that instead, media violence has both positive and negative effects. Our goal here at Everyday Gamers, is to show by the end of what will be a  total of three articles, that :

1. There are many aspects of video games that are not understood.
2. Video Games are just like any other form of media
3. Video Games can affect you in positive ways and correlate back to real-life.