I'm just trying to picture an 83 year old playing WoW. hehe

Of course they are going to be calm after playing a while, because they have gotten their fix.

Next do a study on a REAL game. Like Call of Duty 4.

I'm pretty sure the type of violence matters.

i.e.
If someone plays a game for 30 min where all they do is shoot or beat people up, then turn it off and look at your friend/brother and think, hmm, what am I going to do now? I know, ("play" fighting begins)

vs

Playing a game for 30 min where you create medieval characters to fight other medieval characters with mythical weapons, then turn it off and look at your friend/brother and think, hmm, I wish I had a flaming axe to hit you with, but I really don't feel like going to the trouble of making one, so...screw it, let's find something else to do.

It keeps violence in a more fantasy-like zone that allows the brain to separate it better from what it should be doing in reality.

Hind sight - I rambled a lot here and apologize. I will not feel hurt at all if you opt not to post this one.

They didn't want to pick a game with, you know, actual blood and non-make believe dwarfs..? Maybe GTA or any of the Hitman games? Hell, Peggle gets me more excited than wow... gtfo.

Good insight, I doubt anyone bothers to draw those distinctions.

I know after playing games like Need for Speed or GTA, I get a bit more aggressive in driving, so I personally believe there's a bit of correlation. I think at the end of the day those game ratings really mean something and parents should be paying attention to what their kids are playing.

WoW is also cartoonish, that adds to the "not a real world" effect. The increasing realism of other games is a problem I think. Think, if it was true virtual reality, would folks really make the switch between game and real life?

usually after I finish a frag fest the next thing I do is get my AK-47 out the closet and shoot the 1st thing that moves ... either that or go get a sandwich :/

First of all, why was the Bully picture put up with the link to this article when it's clearly about World Of Warcraft?
Second, this is a pretty flimsy study. What were these people doing while playing WoW? Just levelling a low level toon on a PvE server? I guarantee you those people would have felt different if they were getting ganked or corpse camped on a PVP server, or doing terribly in battlegrounds or a raid.
Honestly, it does come down to what you're doing in the game. Generally, when people are doing well, they are more relaxed. When they aren't doing well or not having the fun they think they deserve, they become more tense.

First of all, any of you who have sat here and made comments like "oh yeah it makes perfect sense that people who play violent video games are more likely to do violent things" should get a grip on your selfs. 1) If you're not really a gamer who plays violent video games then you really shouldn't be making any comments becuase you don't have experience with them. 2) If you do play violent video games then why don't you just sign a petition to ban violent video games because making comments like that you're only giving more ammunition to the people who want to. Why would you do that?!

I am a fps player. Most of the games I play do involve killing people. Let me tell you, I've never even as much as gotten into a fist fight with someone, never mind think about pulling out a gun or knife and harming someone. I've also gotten to know hundreds of different people who play these types of games and have never met someone who I felt was even remotely a violent person. If this whole playing violent games makes people violent had any validity don't you think that we'd have issues of gun fights breaking out at lan parties? Hell the biggest thing to worry about at a lan is some jerk hacking in a tournament.

People need to get a grip and face reality. Some people are violent and they may play violent video games. Playing the games does not make them violent.

"The seemingly flimsy study from Develop will likely do nothing to change the better founded hypotheses." I'm really glad this line was included in the article.

I'm not really sure that shooting fireballs at dragons really qualifies as 'violent' in my books. I used to play WoW and I played a healing class; its hard to see how that could promote rl violence.

On a side note, this is not a simple issue. This is no doubt a crappy study but there is serious (and conflicting) research being done about digital violence translating into rl actions. Djnoob, the argument that it is just a correlation is a very good point. It also happens to be a point I learned in my intro to research design class. The people at Princeton/Havard have thought of that, they have statistical controls that make sure it more than just a correlation. Take it w/ a grain of salt though, psychologist have been wrong plenty of times.

"Of course they are going to be calm after playing a while, because they have gotten their fix." - RockHop

True IMO, and especially can be applied to other kinds of "violent" games, not just the addictive type. It is like saying: My muscles are less powerful and can lift less weight after I have trained hard for an hour or so, so basically training decreases muscle strength.

Now, before you flame me, know this: I'm totally for freedom of choice. I got a problem with some kind of violence and sexuality involving minors, either as players or as characters, but as long as free thinking adults go, they should be free to do as they wish as long as they don't step into other's rights and freedoms, and adults should be treated as respectable responsible of their own actions types of beings. That said, just because some adults are not responsible enough, and it happens to have been playing games, does not mean games provoked that (shooting and stuff, you know what I'm talking about). They'd have gone nuts anyway, and even while lacking any external inputs (movies, cartoons, reality shows etc.), psychologists would have "found" an external cause nevertheless.

It's sad that a study with a good mission was so poorly conducted. They could have used GTA, HALO, or even fighting games like street fighter. Instead they chose WoW, which makes the study pointless from the start. It's a point and click game for the most part.

Either way the studies claiming violent video games cause people to be violent are retarded. There are far too many variables to take into consideration. Most violent youths come from families that are too poor to have all the video games being blamed for violence. The people shooting up schools like Columbine have serious mental and behavioral issues that can't possibly be attributed to playing Doom.

I've been playing violent video games since they were invented. I haven't been in a fight since I was a child and the most violent game I had back then was PacMan.

on the person playing. People could get worked up enough playing video game to go shoot someone, just like someone can get worked up enough playing softball to try to brain someone with a metal baseball bat. Some people are sociopaths and they are going to lose it and hurt someone, no matter what they are doing beforehand.

I don't know about others, but after a day of stress at work, playing FPS lets me release my frustrations in the game, and afterward, I am more reflexed, less likely to have any more anger to release upon my wife. I am calmer after the game. I does work for me. ... Well, if you bother me during the game, that may be a different story...