What annoys me about studies conducted on the violence factor of video games is that the researchers can’t overcome their bias towards games and make such an effort to label games as being the cause of all evil. Okay, so people playing violent games show an increase in heartbeat…so… so what? People in the midst of violent acts may have accelerated heartbeat, but that doesn’t mean accelerated heartbeat piques violence. What really pisses me off is that some of these studies say “we found that students who reported playing more violent video games in junior and high school engaged in more aggressive behavior,” when the real question you should be asking is: maybe people with aggressive behavior have a tendency of liking violent games?

The stupidest study I ever saw was one where they tested to see if Japanese kids were different from American kids. They were probably looking to see if certain cultural environment affects gaming, but basically the US and Japan are both extremely modern societies. Now if you tested gaming effects between Amish kids and kids living in NYC, that would be a different story.

Also, I think it is ethically wrong to have kids be part of control groups testing the violence effects of games. If you’re looking for results showing that kids that played violent video games are more violent after six months of playing, why the * would you want to have kids go through that process?