The events at Columbine help solidify the profiling of violent video games, and nowadays anyone that commits an act of violence can (unfortunately) blame video games in their defense during trial.
However, according to a professor of psychology; for some people, playing violent games is a form of self-medication.
Jayne Gackenbach, a professor of psychology at Grant MacEwan University conducted an experiment with 98 military personnel to decipher what psychological effects violent video games have on soldiers that have experienced combat.
For Gackenbach’s study to be accurate she only used healthy soldiers; soldiers that haven’t been pre-diagnosed with mental disorders like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder); a common side effect for soldiers that have seen death, and experienced intense, and over-extended patrols in active war zones.
All 98 personnel were divided into two groups based on how often they played:
- 49 into a high-gaming group ( soldiers that play several times a week/immersive games like: WoW, COD: Black Ops, and Red-Dead Redemption)
- 49 into a low-gaming group (soldiers that play a few times a year/casual games)
At the end of the experiment, the high-gaming group reported less intense nightmares about combat, and they were able to fight back against whatever was threatening them. The low-gaming group reported exactly the opposite; experiencing more of a helpless feeling towards the threat.
From this, Gackenbach concluded that violent games can serve as a “threat simulator”. She theorized that exposure to violent games [while awake] conditions the mind to better cope with intense nightmares about combat.
Gackenbach attended the Game Devolopers Conference last week and cited a letter that a soldier wrote:
“I would see many soldiers, in combat, with PSPs or anything we could hook up to 220v electricity. When soldiers weren’t on patrol, we often had violent war games on our systems. It was weird. Like we didn’t get enough violence.”
Gackenbach also stated during the conference,
“They’re taking (Playstation 3′s, XBox 360′s and other consoles) into the field and playing them all the time, and it turns out, there may be a good reason to let them do that.”
“..soldiers who don’t play these kinds of games have reported more violent dreams, and a sense of helplessness; a symptom of PTSD.” -New Scientist
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