investiGaming is a publication of the Serious Game Design group in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University, 2007-2009
This gateway is partially supported by grant 0631771 from the National Science Foundation.
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent Michigan State University or the National Science Foundation.
ViolenceinvestiGaming › Tags › Violence
Selected highlights from the VIOLENCE tag (scroll down to see the full list of entries with this tag, including links to the entries).
Gender and Preference For Violence
• Boys (aged 12-17) at a lower education level play more standalone games, play more violent games, and display less social motivations for game-playing, than their higher educated counterparts, who played more lawn and mmorpgs for social motivations (Bijvank, 2007).
• Lower-educated boys (ages 12-17) were most attracted by the violence in their favorite games, whereas higher-educated boys were most attracted to the games’ potential for immersion (Bijvank, 2007).
• Boys preferred human and sports violence (Buchman, 1996).
•Girls expressed a stronger preference for Fantasy (cartoon) Violence, while boys were more likely to choose games designated as Human Violence (Funk, 1996, Buchman, 1996, Kaiser, 2002).
•Middle school boys overwhelmingly picked games that involved fighting as their favorite (Heeter, 2009).
•Girls overwhelmingly ranked fighting games as their least favorite (Heeter, 2009).
•Less violence in games would appeal to more female players and would not impede most male players’ enjoyment. Persons with high trait aggression (which includes more males than females) did prefer violent content (Przybylski, 2009).
•General entertainment games in which the main action does not focus on fighting or destruction become more popular as children get older, especially among girls (Kaiser, 2002).
Gender, Gaming, and Aggression
•Heart Rate change is indicative of arousal in men. Men appear to be more interested in the violent video game. The violent soundtrack appears to motivate men to play better, and this is revealed in their performance scores (Tafalla, 2007).
•Systolic Blood Pressure and Diastolic Blood Pressure are indicative of and women appear to be more distressed than men by the soundtrack. In addition, it could be argued that exposure to violent video games may have an added health risk for women, thus prompting them to largely avoid the games (Tafalla, 2007).
•Women who spend more time playing computer games exhibit higher levels of aggression but no increased hostility (Norris, 2004).
•Women who played computer games perceived their online environments as less friendly but experienced less sexual harassment online, were more aggressive themselves, and did not differ in gender identity, degree of sex role stereotyping, or acceptance of sexual violence when compared to women who used the computer but did not play video games (Norris, 2004).
•Female players were more aggressive, by personality, than female non-players but they were similar in gender identity, degree of sex role stereotyping, or acceptance of sexual violence (Norris, 2004).
Violence in Games Designed by Children
•None of 4 girl designed games involved combat, but all 4 of the boy games did to some extent. (Heeter, 2009).
•In the girls’ games, players face life threatening circumstances but there was never an expectation they might actually die. In three of four boy games the player could die often, as part of play (Heeter, 2009).
•Boy-designed games were violent, including themes of combat, and in three of four game concepts, possible player death (Heeter, 2009).
•Girl-designed games included the possibility but no actual violence (Heeter, 2009).
•The main player in girl games negotiated with potentially hostile aliens but won by succeeding at quests, not by defeating an enemy or doing better than a rival (Heeter, 2009).
Violence by and towards Female and Male Game Characters
•Out of 33 Nintendo and Sega games from 1995, 21% of the games sampled portrayed violence specifically towards women, usually in the opening sequence (Deitz, 1998).
•Nearly nine out of ten African American females (86%) were victims of violence. Their victimization rate was almost twice that of white females (45%) and nearly four times the rate of Asian/Pacific Islander females (23%) (Glaubke, 2001).
•Almost two thirds of male characters (63%) engaged in physical aggression, compared to just 40% of female characters (Glaubke, 2001).
•Male characters were three times more likely than female characters to appear unaffected by violence (Glaubke, 2001).
Aleks Krotoski (2004)
Synopsis:
Considers opportunities and challenges facing the industry in appealing to the female gamer.
Keywords:
report, United Kingdom, player demographics, sexuality, violence,
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Two studies examined the relationship between aggression and the playing of violent video games.
Keywords:
journal, psychology, aggression, violence, case study,
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
397 boys of varying education levels were surveyed to examine what characteristics distinguish various player-types.
Keywords:
academia, conference, survey, motivations, player types, aggression, middle school, high school, violence, what men want, what women want, values at play, academic achievement
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Fifty University students (82% males) completed three personality measures. Then they were recorded while playing the game, “State of Emergency” to identify the characteristics of people who are most at-risk of being negatively affected by playing violent video games.
Keywords:
violence, psychology, aggression, State of Emergency, play style, case study, academia, conference, adult younger
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
The study examined the game-playing habits of 900 children.
Keywords:
journal, children, violence, what women want, what men want
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Project analyzed the content of popular video games for their presentation of gender roles and violent themes.
Keywords:
survey, journal, violence, aggression, gender stereotypes, children, gender identity
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A multivariate analysis identify marked gender differences in game-playing habits and in scores on the Harter Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents to document current adolescent electronic game-playing habits and explore associations among preference for violent games.
Keywords:
journal, academic achievement , violence, high school
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Discusses questions from the perspective of semiotics, media and control studies as well as connections between women and male dominated video games.
Keywords:
journal, violence, masculinity, case study, what men want
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes
Synopsis:
Examines the top-selling video games for each of the seven different game systems and identifies some of the unhealthy social messages that video games may be sending to young players about violence, gender and race.
Keywords:
survey, report, children, player demographics, violence, ethnicity, avatars, what women want
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A three year study , with a content analysis of games envisioned by 5th and 8th graders, followed by a survey of students in the same age range reacting to video promos representing these envisioned games.
Keywords:
academia, journal, game design, survey, experiment, children middle school, girls designing games, gender inclusive, violence, avatars, humor, npcs, storytelling, genre educational games, Halo
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Proposes a theoretical explanation for the popularity of violent video games among adolescent male gamers relating media and emotion.
Keywords:
journal, high school, violence, masculinity, aggression, psychology
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Educational documentary addresses the fastest growing segment of the media including questions of gender, race and violence.
Keywords:
video, violence, gender stereotypes, ethnicity
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes
Synopsis:
An online survey was conducted on women who played computer games and women who used the computer but did not play computer games to explore gender identity and aggressive personality in the context of computers.
Keywords:
Journal, gender stereotypes, harassment, gender identity, IT careers, gender inclusive, aggression
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
14 three-member teams of undergraduate men competed against teammates playing Unreal Tournament and against other teams. Two hormones (testosterone and cortisol) were measured 30 minutes before, immediately before, immediately after and 30 minutes after each tournament.
Keywords:
academia, journal, aggression, competition, violence, Unreal Tournament
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Six studies, two survey based and four experimental, explored the relations between violent content and people’s motivation and enjoyment of video game play.
Keywords:
academia, experiment, journal, violence, what women want, what men want
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
This article provides an overview of the limited research on the effects of home computer use on children’s physical, cognitive, and social development.
Keywords:
journal, children, learning process, academic achievement, violence, family dynamics, survey, aggression
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
This study examined the gender-specific cardiovascular and performance responses to playing the violent video game “DOOM” with and without the soundtrack.
Keywords:
journal, psychology, Doom, violence,
Full Text: No | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
A fact sheet that focuses on video games in relation to children and health.
Keywords:
academia, report, survey, children, player demographics, violence, internet use, ethnicity
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes | Highlights: Yes
Synopsis:
Book explores a number of debates about young children and multimedia, with particular reference to video games.
Keywords:
book, children ,violence, parents and gaming,
Full Text: Yes | Abstract: Yes