Battleangel

Researcher from the University of Illinois (USA) and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) have just wrapped up a long-term study of online videogame playing. Yes, another one. The conclusion? No substantial correlation to real-world aggression.

PhysOrg - After an average playtime of 56 hours over the course of a month with “Asheron’s Call 2,” a popular MMRPG, or “massively multi-layer online role-playing game,” researchers found “no strong effects associated with aggression caused by this violent game,” said Dmitri Williams, the lead author of the study.

Because most video game research has been conducted in the laboratory or by observation in the field — methods “not representing the social context of game play” — they had their participants play the game in normal environments, like home.

Their findings appear in the June issue of Communication Monographs in an article titled “Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online Game.”

There are of course a number of variables that were not specifically tested for. Namely age (it could be assumed that teenagers are more prone to imitation learning, social interactionism or whatever you want to call it), different contexts and non-fantasy violence. Hence, this hardly concludes or “proves” anything but it does add complexity to an issue that has largely been either overlooked or rubberstamped by most researchers and debaters.