Studies show that the content of video games does not cause the aggression among gamers; it is the inability of gamers to complete the game successfully that does.
Gamers, it is time for you guys to breathe easy! Video game is safe; it’s you guys who need to take it easy.
How many times have you seen people criticizing video games and its contents for aggressive behavior among kids? Gamers often have had to do with this common censorship, where the video games have been made the scapegoat. Well, if truth be told, the video content was never the culprit. Now a new study also suggests the same; it says, if a person acts violently after finishing a game, the root cause is frustration of not being able to successfully complete the game and has nothing to do with the content after all.
A researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, Andrew Przybylski, along with a motivational psychology scholar, Richard Ryan, of University of Rochester conducted an important experiment that deals with not just the content of video games, but also the psychological behavior associated with the gamers after completing a game.
Both the renowned psychologists found that feeling of failure and irritation, after an unsuccessful stint with the game might lead to aggressiveness, but that has nothing to do with the content being violent or otherwise.
This is not a kind of feeling which is unique to video games or only among gamers. As per the dictionary meaning of frustration defines the word as: “the feeling of being annoyed or upset as a result of being unable to change or achieve something”, and that can actually happen in any situation – any sports for that matter — and cannot be attributed only to video games.
How you take the game is up to you; here, gamers get to choose how he wants to play the game. Often a gamer who feels that he doesn’t have any control over the game that can actually lead to aggression. And psychologist due added that this is true irrespective of the fact the games are violent or not; besides, this is true for all sports. It’s when the inner ego or competencies of a gamer is put into question, the person behaves aggressively. Well, having said that, it is not true for all cases.
Don’t you feel angry when you miss an opportunity to score a goal in a competitive game of soccer; don’t you feel like kicking yourself when a batsman hits you out of the park for a big six; don’t you feel disgusted when you offer a scoring point to your opponent in a game of tennis. Well, every person playing the game passionately would feel the same. The game can’t be blamed!
So the next time you play Call of Duty or Battlefield 4 and someone over the phone is livid and thinks you are a loser, it is probably because they suck at the game than content of the game, let alone if its violent or not.
