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In the summer of 1972, sex and video games awoke as strange bedfellows. The landmark pornographic film Deep Throat appeared in theaters as Pong marked the birth of the video-game industry. Only four years later, in 1976, the CBS news program 60 Minutes profiled the controversy surrounding the release of then-ultraviolent arcade game Death Race. Throughout the 1980s, the first studies into the psychological effects of video games began to appear. Mature content and themes in video games have always been present and debated. Today, while scientific research remains inconclusive about the effects of video games, this new, modern medium is caught in the middle of a firefight between advocates, policymakers, and politicians.
Theory and Research
Two hypotheses are central to the development of theory and ongoing research about the psychological effects of video games on society: such entertainment media, especially of the violent and sexual sort, are either helpful or harmful to children, adolescents, and other players.
Video games are "exercises for our brains" that facilitate the practice of skills and assimilation of knowledge integral to unconscious living, such as pattern recognition and spatiotemporal reasoning (Koster, 2005, p. 38-75). Behavioral nutrition researchers developed video games that modelled "asking, negotiation, and decision-making skills" whose exercise increased consumption of healthier foods and physical activity (Flores, 2006, p. 8). In addition, video games enable players "to experiment in safe, nonthreatening environments, and to expand, explore, and reflect on different aspects of themselves" (Dickey, 2005, p. 68).
Despite these and other benefits, exposure of children to violent video games has "substantial short-term effects on arousal, thoughts, and emotions, increasing the likelihood of aggressive [...] behavior"; however, evidence of long-term impact weakens with regard to older children, adolescents, and adults, as well as with regard to correlations between exposure and actual crime (Browne & Hamilton-Giachritsis, 2005, p. 702). Although aggressive behaviors are deeply embedded in video-game culture, "overt psychopathology" has not been exhibited by most players. Such psychopathology has been more frequently observed of children and adolescents who are predisposed to violence because of preexisting conditions or previous experiences (Funk, Hagan, Schimming, Bullock, Buchman & Myers, 2002, p. 135-142).
Sexual imagery in video games can also be significantly impactful, especially in shaping gender roles and identities. Many video games portray men and women in such a "characteristically stereotypical" manner that "girls may expect that they will continue to be victims and needy and that their responsibilities include maintaining beauty and sexual appeal while boys may determine that their role is to protect and defend women and to possessive them even through the use of violence" (Dietz, 1998, p. 426). Reinforcing these portrayals through play can "adversely affect the ability of women to ever attain gender equality with men" and hinder "male-female interaction" within mainstream society (Dietz, 1998, p. 439-440).
Public Policy and Controversy
Science can be used to identify policy issues and to strengthen policy decisions; however, science alone "does not and cannot automatically translate into appropriate and effective public policy." Formulation of effective public policy is affected by four factors: scientific evidence, legal issues, political realities, and personal values (Anderson, 2006, p. 149). Controversy about the effects of violent video games has focused on these questions: is there sufficient and credible evidence? Are proposed policies constitutional? How likely are policies to receive legislative support? Which policies will voters support? (Gentile, Saleem & Anderson, 2007, p. 44-45)
Regardless of general agreement within the scientific community that exposure to violent content in video games increases aggression and violence, the conduct of prior research has been criticized. Anderson (2006) notes that there are "gaps" in the literature, highlighting that there are few correlational and longitudinal studies (p. 5). Others suggest that many researchers assume that video games are interchangeable and fail to account for how the differences affect players (Lavigne, 2009). Whatever the case, current theory and research is divergent and inconclusive.
In the United States, legislators have twelve times attempted to enact laws restricting the sale of violent video games—each law was found unconstitutional (Graft, 2009). Therier (2006) determined that "video games are speech and are protected by the First Amendment; any attempt to regulate video games will be subjected to 'strict scrutiny' (the highest degree of First Amendment scrutiny) by the courts; the criminal penalties contained in these legislative measures would likely have a 'chilling effect' on video game expression; the ambiguity of various terms found in these measures (especially 'harm to minors') result in them being unconstitutionally vague; and the link between video games and aggressive behavior, or other forms of 'harm to minors,' has not been proven scientifically" (p. 16). However, several similar laws have been enacted, but such laws are narrower and tend to restrict the sale of sexually explicit, or pornographic, video games to minors (Barrett, 2008).
Political realities and personal values are closely intertwined where video game violence is concerned. In psychology, aggression is precise terminology that refers to any behavior that demonstrates a malicious intent to cause harm. Aggression is divided into three categories: physical aggression, or the methods intended to cause bodily harm and which is measured along a mild-to-violent severity continuum; verbal aggression, or offensive statements of the spoken and written varieties; and relational aggression, or the threat of damage "to relationships or to feelings of acceptance, friendship, or group inclusion" (Anderson, 2006, p. 13-14). However, the public "tends to use the word [...] in a broader way than aggression researchers" and these "differences in usage lead to much confusion between aggression scientists, public policymakers, and the general public". Moreover, the public tends to be primarily concerned with the graphically explicit nature of violent content whereas researchers focus on risk of harm [i.e., graphical explicitness does not correlate to risk of harm] (Gentile, 2007, p. 17). Policymakers and politicians have often made decisions based on this confusion, motivated by the wrongly held belief that scientific evidence has proved that, in the words of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, "video games have ever caused anyone to commit a violent act, as opposed to feeling aggressive, or have caused the average level of violence to increase anywhere" (Entertainment Software Association, 2009a, p. 11-12).
Conclusion
Over 200 million Americans play video games. Nearly half of players are women. 84% of video games are rated family-friendly while 16% of video games feature mature content. The 40-year old interactive entertainment market is a multibillion-dollar business with overall hardware, software, and peripheral sales at $22 billion dollars in 2008 (Entertainment Software Association, 2009b). There is no question that video games have an enormous impact on society. Sex and violence in video games, even if eventually considered not sufficiently harmful to warrant regulation, have spurred controversy and, with that controversy, increasing mainstream awareness of, and debate about, video games as art, media, and technology — as an agent of socialization — and their role in the advancement and shaping of human society.
References
- Anderson, C. (2006). Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Barret, G. (2008). Legislation on Video Game Violence (OLR Research Report 2008-R-0233). Hartford, CT: Connecticut General Assembly. Retrieved August 4, 2008, from http://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0233.htm
- Browne, K., & Hamilton-Giachritsis, C. (2005). The Influence of Violent Media on Children and Adolescents: A Public-Health Approach. The Lancet, 365(9460), 702-10.
- Dickey, M. (2005). Engaging by Design: How Engagement Strategies in Popular Computer andVideo Games Can Inform Instructional Design. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(2), 67-83.
- Dietz, T. (1998). An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior. Sex Roles, 38(5/6), 425-42.
- Entertainment Software Association. (2009). Essential Facts About Video Games and Court Rulings. Washington, DC: Entertainment Software Association. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.theesa.com/policy/legalissues.asp
- Entertainment Software Association. (2009). Industry Facts. Washington, DC: Entertainment Software Association. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.theesa.com/facts
- Fling, S. (1992). Videogames, Aggression, and Self-Esteem: A Survey. Social Behavior and Personality, 20(1), 39-46.
- Flores, A. (2006). Using Computer Games and Other Media to Decrease Child Obesity. Agricultural Research, 54(3), 8-9.
- Funk, J., Hagan, J., Schimming, J., Bullock, W., Buchman, D., & Myers, M. (2002). Aggression and Psychopathology in Adolescents with a Preference for Violent Electronic Games. Aggressive Behavior, 28(5), 134-44.
- Gentile, D., Saleem, M., & Anderson, C. (2007). Public Policy and the Effects of Media Violence on Children. Social Issues and Policy Review, 1(1), 15-61.
- Graft, K. (2009, May 21). California Seeks To Uphold Violent Game Law. Gamasutra. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23709
- Koster, R. (2004). A Theory of Fun for Game Design. Scottsdale: Paraglyph Press.
- Lavigne, C. (2009, May 25). Why Video Game Research Is Flawed. Maisonneuve. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.maisonneuve.org/pressroom/article/2009/may/25/why-video-game-research-is-flawed/
- Therier, A. (2006, March 7). Fact and Fiction in the Debate Over Video Game Regulation. Progress on Point, 13, 1-30.
Morgan Ramsay founded Entertainment Media Council and serves as President/CEO. He is also an advisor to Coronado Promenade Concerts and San Diego Filmmakers.
[This article was reposted from Morgan Ramsay's blog at Entertainment Media Council.]
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The first problem is that the various research studies have failed to adopt a global view even though electronic games have been global almost since their invention. This means that any studies are ethnocentric in their approach to defining their criteria, methodology, and conclusions. For example, consider the question of violent content in games (or any media, for that matter). A franchise like Mortal Kombat was very successful in America but roundly rejected when taken to Asia. The same result has been observed with other media and content - something that is popular in one market is often less so in another. Even if success is matched in various markets, the reasons for success may vary widely. Returning the the topic of violence, Street Fighter II and similar full contact fighting games are not necessarily viewed as violent in native Asian markets, or at least not the same levels or types of violence that are perceived in other markets such as America. The same is true for sex and sexuality - what is considered sexy or sexual in one culture is often not the same as what is considered sexy or sexual in another.
The other problem with research studies is that they are extremely contrived in attempting to create a method to define violence (or sex, or any other factor) as well as the various elements that are used to measure such subjective elements. Studies need to fit into various contraints, but real life behavior is far more diverse and generally unconstrained compared to research efforts.
Basically, there are censorship efforts in different cultures around the world, but the specifics vary widely between cultures. This happens in a wide variety of media, including books, movies, and electronic games. However, the idea that someone's behavior is caused by media content is analogous to the attempts to use subliminal advertising to sell products or create a desire in people to use products. For example, there have been attempts to use subliminal messaging to cause you to be hungry and/or thirsty in a movie theatre so that you buy food and/or drinks at the concession stand, but research has proven that such attempts do not cause anyone's behavior to change.
Are we impacted by media content regardless of what it may be? Of course we are, but only because we are impacted by everything we experience. However, concerns about such impacts vary with culture and time. For examle, when printed books began being widespread, there was a growing uneasiness about their impacts on individuals and society as a whole.
My view about this issue has been formed after spending decades studying media of various kinds from around the world. I argue that rather than wasting limited resources chasing subjective values that vary due to the infinite diversity of our mutual existence, it would be far better to simply compare similar products from different cultures as well as the overall society in which they are found. For example, Japanese pop culture entertainment products such as manga, electronic games, and anime cover just about any conceivable elements imaginable, including many that are strictly fantastical in nature and impossible in real life. Far from reinforcing stereotyped gender roles, their media products feature characters who go against expected social norms and explore the issues caused by such traits. This includes feminine males, masculine females, and various forms of intersexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality, as well as various levels of violence, even extreme violence that is not possible in real life (for example, far more blood than a body actually has). However, despite this variety of content, Japan has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, crime rate out of all industrialized countries. This means that there cannot be a causal relationship between content and behavior. There must be other social, cultural factors at work to either support antisocial actions or suppress/diffuse them, and these factors must vary greatly from culture to culture. It would be far more useful to study the overall social context rather than focusing on one media as a possible culprit for any specific social issue.
There are also plenty of games (and other media) that cater to sterotypical (female) fantasies. Just do a search on yaoi and shounen ai, as well as otome. In fact, many of the media products targeted for a male audience are created by women, particularly in the artistic areas such as character design, illustration, etc. Therefore, such products are not males creating something for male fantasy, but rather females creating something that they think is male fantasy. The converse is generally not true, though. The yaoi and shounen ai products, as well as otome products, are almost entirely created by women, not men. In addition, many women enjoy the products targeted for males, most likely due to the female creative background that such products have. However, the same is not true for yaoi and similar genres that focus on males as female fantasy. At the same time, the broader genre of shoujo (targeted for young girls) as well as otome (maiden) has a much broader appeal regardless of target audience, similar to how many girls like shounen (boy) targeted products such as Dragonball Z.
Therefore, I don't think it's accurate to consider games as something that caters to male fantasy or that they are being restricted from evolution. On the contrary, they've evolved very well right along with other media formats. However, I would agree that they have been restricted in specific global markets such as America, and the reasons for such restrictions are due to specific historic and cultural trends such as the censorship enacted in America by the Comics Code Authority and other, similar trends.
Yaoi and shounen ai products, including games, do not have a broad appeal to males. In fact, they do not even have a broad appeal to female audiences compared to other, more general genres such as shoujo or josei (women), or male-targeted genres such as shounen and bishoujo (pretty girl).
Another interesting point is that audiences who follow these genres at events such as Comiket will communicate with each other about them even if they are not fans of them. The products become a communication vehicle for exchange of information and interests.
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