However, in today's world, this couldn't be further from the truth. Not only are video games played on personal computers able to use the internet to connect to peers (which they have been doing for several years), but now the current generation of gaming consoles (the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii) all use some form of internet connectivity to bring players together in numerous ways. For instance, The Xbox 360 has a service called Xbox Live that lets the players create a friend list so they can quickly and easily get in contact with other players through text messaging, voice communication via headsets, and even use the "Xbox Live Vision Camera" where two players can see each other when they are communicating over a dedicated video channel. There are also "virtual waiting rooms" where users can bring together a group of their friends (typically ranging anywhere from 2 to 10 people at a time) all at once.
These rooms are commonly used to strategize for an upcoming match against another group of players. When looking at all the different areas of communication on the Xbox 360, it is evident that there are large amounts of social interaction taking place. In several instances, players must learn to cooperate with other players in order to achieve the ultimate goal of victory. They are learning crucial teamwork skills that easily translate into the real world. Being a team player is crucial in a multitude of professions, and the skills learned while designing, organizing, and implementing a plan of action in a virtual world are not that different from designing, organizing, and implementing things such as a business plan or a laboratory experiment in the real world. The other issue deals with increased hostility towards their peers.
This problem just simply isn't there; researchers Steven Kirsh and Jeffery Mounts have found that ultimately "gamers claimed that advancing in the game was more important than violence", signaling that even in violent games the gamer is more inclined to cooperate with their peers in order to achieve the ultimate goal of victory, thus expelling the idea that there is increased hostility towards peers based solely on the violent content. The only instance where I believe there would be increased hostility is if there are two separate groups vying to win a match, and even then the hostility is not because of the violence - it is because of the competitiveness of the gamers. The game could have no violence whatsoever and there would still be increased hostility between the groups.
After examining the physiological, psychological, and social perspectives of violent video games, it becomes evident that there is some data supporting the hypothesis that violent video games cause violence in the real world. However, these claims all have significant flaws that need to be addressed in order to actually confirm this hypothesis. I doubt that any amount of research will ever fully prove causation, but I do believe that with further research, it is possible that an acceptable correlation can be established. As video games grow to be even more prevalent in our lives and continue to adapt over time, continuing research will be even more crucial in determining how our society handles the issue of violence in games. We must make sure that we deal with this carefully, because if we decide to prematurely condemn or if we blatantly ignore the effects of violent video games, then our society will be in for a rude awakening. Only further scientific research offers hope for the discovery of the true influence of violent video games on humanity.
