Ludology Research 1

 

Effects of Violent video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behaviour: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature – Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman (Iowa State University)

http://pss.sagepub.com/content/12/5/353.full.pdf+html

Evidence for publication bias in video game violence effects literature: A meta-analytic Review – Christopher J. Ferguson

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359178907000055

Is video game violence bad? – Christopher J. Ferguson

https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-27/edition-5/video-game-violence-bad

Are Violent Video Games Harmful? – Guy Porter

http://apy.sagepub.com/content/15/5/422.ful

Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life – Craig A. Anderson

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=e984a076-6999-4456-af94-97e4fdae5d66%40sessionmgr111&vid=1&hid=105&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=2000-08135-012&db=pdh

Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play by Tobias Greitemeyer and Dirk O. Mügge

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/22/0146167213520459.full.pdf+html

The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the Greatest Influence? – Paul J. C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby

https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/vio-1-4-259.pdf

Ludology Research 2

 

Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play – Tobias Greitemeyer and Dirk O. Mügge

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/22/0146167213520459.full.pdf+html

This article sets out a meta-analytical test of the idea that depending on their content, video games do affect social outcomes. Data from 98 independent studies with 36,965 participants revealed that for both violent video games and prosocial video games, there was a significant association with social outcomes. Whereas violent video games increase aggression and aggression-related variables and decrease prosocial outcomes, prosocial video games have the opposite effects. Furthermore the authors noted that recent findings suggest that cooperative play in violent video games (as opposed to playing alone) counteracts the negative effects of violent video game play. The effects of violent video game play on aggression might be attenuated by playing the game cooperatively. Also, it is noteworthy that most violent video games have some pro-social content (e.g. killing enemies to save the world)

 
This paper provides a more nuanced view on the effects of playing video games. There are both risks and opportunities to be gained from playing video games depending on its characteristics (violent or pro-social).

 

The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the Greatest Influence? – Paul J. C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/vio-1-4-259.pdf

This study set out to isolate the effect of video game violence and competitiveness on aggressive behavior, it used two separate studies to do so. In study 1, a violent and nonviolent game were matched on competitiveness, difficulty and pace of action, and the effect of each game on aggressive behaviour was then compared. In study 2, competitiveness was isolated by matching games on difficulty, and pace of action, and systematically controlling for violence.

 
They found that video game violence was not sufficient to elevate aggressive behavior compared with a nonviolent video game, and that more competitive games produce greater levels of aggressive behavior, irrespective of the amount of violence in the games. It appears that competition, not violence, may be the video game characteristic that has the greatest influence on aggressive behavior.