Grand Theft Auto inspires Thai murder

[Chewbacca]

Originally Posted by Bungleau For the record, I *have* played GTA. 3 or 4, I think... 'twas at my brother's, a couple of years ago. I did not play it through, so that will count against me, I'm sure. However, I did notice that after playing for a couple of hours, when we headed out to dinner, I drove *much* more aggressively than usual... kind of like I was driving in the game. One subjective incident, to be sure, but one that tells me that on some level, I was more into the game than I really realized.

Just like people get "amped up" after watching a movie, a concert, or a performance. You took resposibility for your amped up feelings and regulated your behavior like normal healthy people do all the time everywhere.

[Jaradu]

Increased aggression from playing video games is similar to increased aggression watching football. First of all, it doesn't affect everybody. Second, it rises and then falls shortly afterwards, it's not cumulative.

And you can link to as many studies you want showing a correlation between video games and violence, but there are just as many studies concluding no correlation at all. At best, the research is inconclusive.

[Firestormalpha]

then do it. or do you expect us to simply take your word for it?

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca Just like people get "amped up" after watching a movie, a concert, or a performance. You took resposibility for your amped up feelings and regulated your behavior like normal healthy people do all the time everywhere.

Or he didn't get cut off on a New York City street, so his "amped up" condition didn't have the chance to exponentially increase. Or his wife didn't run into his "amped up" mood when she burned the steak. Or, most specifically, Bung didn't run into A CAB DRIVER who FOUGHT BACK WHEN HE EXPERIENCED THE HIS AMPED UP IMITATIVE BEHAVIOUR WHILE TRING TO ROB HIM.

Chewbacca, argue with the studies you wanted to see posted. Go to those people who have studied case after case. Crying about it to those of us who didn't perform the studies or make the conclusions after seeing the data is somewhat futile.

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Jaradu And you can link to as many studies you want showing a correlation between video games and violence, but there are just as many studies concluding no correlation at all. At best, the research is inconclusive.

"Inconclusive" was myth #1

Post these studies of yours Jaradu.

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca It's obvious you haven't played the game and that you don't know much about how video games are marketed or sold.

Forgive me but isn't a key part of the human understanding gleaned from learning from others?

Yes, much knowledge is gleaned from personally going through a situation. But one can learn much about drug addiction for example, by watching a relative go through it, rather than going through it yourself.
In fact, it can be argued, that observation from a neutral position may actually bring knowledge the experiencer doesn't have - like what it means to live with a drug addict.

You as a gamer may be completely unaware of the change in your anger levels.

Your wife will be much more able to testify at how much more of a beast you are after playing violent games than you will.

Certainly that is my experience of relationship. My wife holds a gigantic mirror for me to see things I otherwise am blind to.

And effects of MMORPG playing was one of them.

[Yorick]

Originally Posted by Iron Greasel Yorick: What was that first post about? The first quote seems to say, behind all the psychological terminology, that people can learn from example. The second seems to state that psychologists do not know how this actually happens. The third one describes "game theory", which, to my understanding, doens't have very much to do with violence in video games.

People learn from example. Imitation.
People formulate social behaviour and interaction through the learning situations in games.
The other posts backed up this by citing proof that video games, more so than movies (because you ARE the protagonist) increase violent, aggressive, de-social and anti-social behaviour in people.

It's over. It's proven. It's a fact.

We should just be arguing what we do about it. Arguing that games don't cause these things is like suggesting the earth is flat.
Get with reality and be constructive with solutions instead of arguing against proven facts.

[Jaradu]

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/05/0809videogames.html
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ence-says-bbfc
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/s...016679,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology.../21/news.games

That was just from a quick Google search, there are plenty more. They also suggest that the only cases where there is a weak link between video games and violence, it is possibly a person's violent behaviour that draws them towards violent video games, not the other way around. Or perhaps they are both results of a completely different factor we aren't considering.

[Cerek]

Originally Posted by Chewbacca It's obvious you haven't played the game and that you don't know much about how video games are marketed or sold. Correspondingly, comparing GTA with easy to use, widely available handguns is simply ridiculous. Anything and everything aggresive may or may not influence people to be aggressive, but very little if anything can take away an individual's determination of choosing action. Allowing sociopaths to blame their behavior on a video game( or anything else) and citing this a proof of a societal problem is a great victory for sociopaths everywhere. Take Care!

You're right that I haven't played GTA 3 or 4. I owned GTA 2 at one time. However, I have played Hitman and Mafia (a friend gave me a copy of Mafia). Certainly there was the thrill of breaking laws without suffering any real consequences and there was the challenge of trying to figure out how to complete an assignment without getting caught or attracting attention. That lasted maybe a couple of weeks. Then I became disturbed at the situations I was RPing and got rid of the games.

As for not knowing much about how video games are marketed or sold, let me think. I see GTA4 advertised on TV almost daily. I also run across ads for it on the internet, usually when I'm visiting other gaming sites or looking up info on different games. And there are always posters for the latest games in any store designed primarily for the sale of such games (Gamestop, etc). Kids of all ages can see any number of these ads on any given day.
Video games are sold by retailers and e-merchants across the nation and around the globe. Some of these merchants enforce the rating system regulation, but many do not. Either way, we've pointed out fairly clearly that it is easy enough to get around the ratings system with just a minimum of effort.
So what else am I missing about the marketing and selling of video games?

As for the example of your stand on handguns, you claim that even ONE accidental death of a child is sufficient reason to repeal the 2nd Amendment, to simply erase a fundamental portion of our Constitution. If that's the case, it stands to reason that even ONE death attributable to a video game promoting agressive criminal behavior should be sufficient to halt production of that game.

[Chewbacca]

Originally Posted by Cerek As for the example of your stand on handguns, you claim that even ONE accidental death of a child is sufficient reason to repeal the 2nd Amendment, to simply erase a fundamental portion of our Constitution. If that's the case, it stands to reason that even ONE death attributable to a video game promoting agressive criminal behavior should be sufficient to halt production of that game.

No! I did not. This is patently false. This type of debate tactic is an example of why I find this discussion hardly worth doing. In fact, I'm finished. Have fun being "right".