14 DAY TRIAL // The game industry has been cashing out on the technological progress age we are going through, it's a match made in Heaven. The hardware manufacturers raise the bar with faster processors, larger hard drives, more powerful video cards, and so on, but, if there weren't for software and game developers to create programs that take advantage of quad-core processors, and DirectX 10 ready video cards and so on, there wouldn't be any need for all that processing power.
A recent study shows that from 125 children with an average age of 14.6 years, 22 of the subjects revealed increased levels of anger after playing Quake II. More tests were performed but their conclusion was that children with stable personalities are unaffected by violence in video games. The interesting thing is that they chose Quake II, a game that isn't particularly violent, by comparison with Silent Hill or Resident Evil, and which many perceive as they would with shooter games, similar to Counter Strike. And still, by using this game, there were a large number of children that have responded violently to it. My theory is this: if you introduce a violent video game to a child whose personality isn't shaped, and it can still be influenced, the outcome will not be a good one. Furthermore, when they took the tests, the subjects were aware that they are being placed in a controlled environment, which could affect the results at a conscious or subconscious level.
To continue the idea, they were tested for a limited period of time, with pauses and so on. The point is, in a home environment, and I'm thinking of a general type of behavior and environment, where parents don't watch their children 24/7, and children often spend hours in front of the computer "to finish that latest game" they've got. In such an environment, long term exposure to such a violent behavior will affect a human mind, whether they like to admit it or not. More than that, the study said that only unstable personalities are affected. Well, we are dealing with children that are susceptible to behavior alterations, for one, from their parents, their school teachers, their friends, and why not, from their most "beloved" video games?
And the game industry isn't quite helping in this matter as there seems to be the need for censorship, much like in the movies, for violent and immoral behavior in games. Now, the study is showing that some of the subjects are affected, and they've used a violent game, but maybe not the most violent of them all. And this "study" seems to favor the game industry, almost making it an excuse for the game developers to create games without any regards to the mental health of children, which won't get affected by violent games unless, you've guessed it, they have unstable personalities. Yeah, right.