Grand Theft Childhood 5

CHAPTER 5

Why Kids Play Violent Games

Researcher: "What attracts your son to the violent video games?"

Marie: "I don't know. I don't know. I probably should know!" -A mother in one of our focus groups

ONE OF OUR RESEARCH ASSISTANTS, A YOUNG WOMAN who had recently graduated from college, was taken aback at the response when she asked thirteen-year-old Charlie about his favorite part of Grand Theft Auto. "It's where you're in the limo, and you have to pick up all the people and have a meeting. And then the gang comes after us and then we all shoot them and stuff, and blow their heads off. I think it's funny when their heads fall off." Other boys in the group chimed in, sharing their enthusiasm for that scene's shooting techniques, the color of the blood, and the dying victims' reactions ("and they're twitching after!") .

"So, you like what happens when they die and get hurt?" she asked.

This sent the boys into spasms of laughter: "Die and get hurt!" "Violent!"

What's going on here? Should we be worried? Or is this simply normal behavior for boys this age?

To understand how media violence might influence children, we need to see things from their perspective: What attracts them to violent video games, and what does that violence mean to them? In our surveys and focus groups, we did something that surprisingly few researchers have

112

Grand Theft Childhood

done before: we asked the children why they play video games-especially violent games.

After reading the research literature, debating among ourselves and

talking with young game players, our team came up with seventeen likely reasons for playing video games and included them in our middleschool survey. In that survey, we asked children whether they agreed or disagreed (on a four-point scale) that each reason applied to them. (An option to write in additional reasons generated very few responses, which told us that our list was pretty good.) Here are the reasons:

My friends like to play.

It's something to do when I'm bored.

It helps me relax.

I like to teach other kids how to play.

I like the guns and other weapons.

It helps me feel less lonely.

It helps me make new friends.

I like to learn new things.

I like to create my own world.

It's just fun.

I like to compete with other people and win.

I like the challenge of figuring the game out.

It helps me get my anger out.

It helps me forget my problems.

There is nothing else to do.

I like to "mod" games (change the game using computer code).

It's exciting.

The survey results showed that both boys and girls find inspiration, joy and relief in video games. Some are motivated by fun, excitement and challenge, while others are just passing time when there's nothing to do. Boys were more likely than girls to agree with almost every reason for play.

Using a statistical technique called factor analysis, we found that children's reasons for playing games clustered into four general categories:

Excitement and fun. These kids enjoy competing and winning, and the challenge of figuring out a gam s

;Sociability. This group plays because their friends like to play and perhaps to make new friends.

Emotions. This group often plays to get out anger, forget prob-

lems and feel less lonely.

Boredom. These kids turn to video games when there's nothing

else to do.

But what about the children who say they like playing violent or Mrated video games? Do they give different reasons? Compared to children with no Mature-rated games on their lists, boys and girls who'd played any Mature-rated game "a lot in the past six months" were significantly more likely to agree with these four reasons for play:

I like to compete with other people and win.

It helps me get my anger out.

I like to "mod" games (change the game using computer code).

I like the guns and other weapons.

More than half of all the boys we surveyed agreed with the statement "I like the guns and other weapons." This response is hard to interpret. In retrospect, we should have phrased it more clearly since some of these boys lived in areas where hunting is popular and they may be thinking about real hunting rifles. However, it probably represents enjoyment of action, explosions and colorful graphics more than their love of actual weapons. The top-rated motivations for M-game players were similar to those of other players their age.

In this chapter, we'll explore the facts and theories behind these remarkably diverse motivations for children's video game play. We'll look at:

The real and often surprising reasons why children are drawn to violent games.

Why children value games for being realistic and utterly divorced

from reality-often at the same time.

Why boys and girls like different things about games, but often not in the ways or for the reasons that adults assume.

What kids' motivations for play can tell us about their problems,

goals and needs.

How kids with learning or emotional difficulties may be helped or harmed by video games.

Excitement and Sensation-Seeking

One of the games discussed in the focus groups was the fourth installment in the Resident Evil series Code, Veronica X. The main character, Claire Redfield, battles decomposing zombies while searching for her' missing brother. During one focus group, thirteen-year-old Justin picked a screens hot from Resident Evil out of a pile of pictures and said it wa one of his favorites. Why?

"I like shooting zombies," Justin stated. "You have to go around col. lecting items, go through certain phases. Sometimes if you're bitten by a zombie, you can find a little herb. If you eat it, it heals you. And YOIl never know what's going to happen next, what zombie is going to POll out where. So that's just why I like it. I love scary games."

At any amusement park there's always a cadre of kids clamoring to ride the roller coaster again and again. Visit a movie theater and YOII'II see a group of teens lined up for the latest gore fest-and other t(.'( 11I who won't go near it. This thrill-me-scare-me group is what psychol« gists call sensation seekers.

In theory, everyone has an optimal level of arousal or stimuln: ion, II comfortable space on the continuum between excitement and boredom. A young teen who rates high in sensation seeking may enjoy scary 01 shocking video games or movies that might repel or upset someone else.' High sensation seekers like novelty, thrills and unpredictability. There seems to be a genetic basis for sensation-seeking, but it's aiM!) influenced by culture. For example, a study in the 1970s found t hnt American women ranked higher than British women (although men ill both countries were similarj." Sensation seeking is thought to in

from childhood to adolescence and then decline.

A number of studies have found that sensation seeking is asscclarco with a higher risk of experimenting with alcohol, drugs and cigarou ... ", and doing those things at earlier ages.' But in most cases, an occasional scary or gory game is probably nothing to worry about. In fact, as we'll see later in this chapter, it may be helpful.

Is the Blood Green?

When we asked her what attracted her preteen son to violent games, Roberta noted, "I think he would say that he wants to see the blood and guts .... It's something that in his world you don't see in real life. If the dragon gets his head cut off, he wants to know, is the blood red? Is it blue? Is it green?"

The term "morbid curiosity" implies an unhealthy attraction to grisly things, but the appeal of violent video games is more likely related to normal sensation-seeking and to testing the limits of acceptability. Matthew put it bluntly: "You get to see something that, hopefully, will never happen to you. So you want to experience it a little bit without actually being ther~."

For many children, the fact that something is taboo is reason enough to be interested. Jamie observed this type of curiosity in her son. "Vice City came out when he was ten and a half or eleven .... Some of the comments and jokes and situations were over his head. But there's nothing more fun at that age than having the older brother explain what a lap dance is, right? The little boys are laughing their heads off; now they know stuff that parents don't know. So I think there was part of that in [the appeal of] Vice City. Had he been a bit older, I think his reaction would be different. But the only time I saw him with it, it was just giggle-puss."

What Makes a Video Game Realistic?

Thirteen-year-old James had strong opinions about the video games he enjoyed. "I think the really violent games like Vice City where you can just go around killing anybody, they're less realistic. The environment, the people are real, but not the actions."

James was not the only teenager to parse his words this way, describing some parts of games as "real," but not "realistic." Steven Malliet, PhD, of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, conducted a series of structured interviews with thirty-two garners, mostly boys aged sixteen to nineteen, to understand their perceptions of video game realism.' At first, these teens talked about things like colors, landscapes and facial features. But it soon became clear that realism is about mor

than advanced computer graphics. He identified five dimensions of pt· I'· ceived video game realism: factuality, authenticity (whether game event could plausibly happen somewhere, or even happen to you), a sense of virtual experience, involvement with characters and graphical realism.

Although teens knew that games overall were not factually accurate, incorporating facts did make games feel more real. These could be anvthing from geographical locations and historical events to weaponry, pro. cedures (such as aspects of training in America's Army) or outcomt (such as characters dying if shot in the head).

Even though game events were not seen as plausible or likely to Het 1I ally happen, some players commented on the sense of emotional authen ticity that comes from better-developed characters. One teen, descrlhill~ a scene in Baldur's Gate in which an orphaned child searches for his tcdd bear in a graveyard, noted, "In some games you have the impression of, damn, it's just like somebody has been through this in real life. "

A game with the freedom to make a lot of choices, versus one with II more structured story, increased the intensity of experiencing Ow game's virtual world. Players also liked to see how those cholet affected the evolution of their character over time.

Finally, features that increase identification with charactora alHO increase a game's realism. Things like shaping the story through Interne tivity, a first-person point of view (seeing game scenery and act 1011 through the eyes of your character) and customizing a character's nam ... , appearance, or personality could help engage some teens' emotions n much as or more than a good movie or novel.

The Purpose and Value of Story

Video games have evolved well beyond the point where the goal is simply to beat a series of levels or opponents. Popular games increasingly focus on complex stories. Given what we know about the context of violence, what or the potential effects of adding a story line to a violent game?

For example, one study of college students who were experloncod garners found that they felt more involved while playing action gamos thot had a story, such as Half-Ufe, than while playing Similarly oxclting gomuwithout much story line, such as Quake 2. Students also identified more with their characters when they were part of a story line.⁶ldentifying more closely with a character may encourage them to justify (or rationalize) their violent behavior within that game.

To see whether stories made video games more attractive to young teenagers, we asked the 1,254 middle school students we surveyed whether they:

,

preferred playing games that follow a story line (i.e., Final Fantasy, The Leg-

end of Zelda)

preferred playing games that do not have a story (i.e., Quake, Iekken, Super Smash Bros.)

didn't have a preference

We found that nearly twice as many boys as girls (39 percent versus 20 percent) preferred games with a story, and girls were more apt than boys to prefer games with no story (25 percent vs. 14 percent).

As you saw in chapter 4, many game series that made the girls' top-ten list don't have stories, including Dance Dance Revolution, The Sims, solitaire and various Mario games. Many of the violent series in the boys' top ten, including Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Medal of Honor and Lord of the Rings, have strong and complex stories. It's possible that the available story-based games, which include many war-themed titles (on Earth and in space), have less appeal to girls.

Is There Such a Thing as Good Violence?

The threads of violence are woven throughout the fabric of children's play and literature from a very early age. We sing them to sleep with lullabies that describe boughs breaking, cradles falling and babies plummeting helplessly to the earth. We entertain them with fairy tales in which a talking wolf devours a girl's grandmother and an old woman tries to roast children alive in her oven. Even religious instruction is replete with stories about plagues, pestilence, jealousy, betrayal, torture and death.

While the stories and songs may be different, the underlying them arc generally the same ill culturce I hroughout the world. Ogres, monsters, sexual infidelities, beheadings, thievery, abandonment, cannibalism, drownings-such was the stuff of children's literature long befor video games.

We can see these themes in children's playas well. A five-year-old is far more likely to point his finger at a playmate and say, "Bang! Bangl You're dead!" than "Let's be cooperative!" Why?

Philosophers and developmental theorists have pondered this for (I very long time. One conclusion is that children are drawn to violent themes because listening to and playing with those frightening imag helps them safely master the experience of being frightened. That is an important skill, perhaps even a life-saving one.

The physiological and emotional arousal caused by the stories and games give the child experience with those strange sensations at a time and place where they know that they are safe. It's like that attraction o( a roller-coaster ride at an amusement park or the horror movie at [I Uwater that draws in the sensation seekers; they know that it's scary, bUI they also know that they'll be just fine at the end.

Many of these classic children's stories are also filled with sexllal content. While the later versions of the Brothers Grimm story Rfl/ntllll't describes her being visited chastely by the prince, the first edition of their collection of fairy tales told a different story. Rapunzel used IWI' long hair to allow a lover to climb up to her room. She inadvertently reveals her pregnancy when she naively asks the witch why her cloth" no longer fit. ⁷

An early Italian version of Sleeping Beauty involved the girl bei ng raped by the prince, kept unconscious throughout the resulting pregnancy and awakened only after one of her babies mistakenly sucks on her finger and dislodges the pin that had kept her asleep. (For some reason, Disney chose not to use that plotline in its famous animated movie.)

In a French version of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf-this time II bzou, or werewolf-kills the grandmother and then gets the girl to cat her. The family cat cries out, "She is a slut who eats the flesh and drink the blood of her granny." 8

What's going on here? Why arc children's stories seemingly filled to the brim with what these days tire euphemistically called "aduu themes"? lu (11('1, I hat's a tclling doscriptor, Chjldron's stories give them a glimpse at adult secrets, the things we talk about with our voices lowered or behind closed doors. They allow them to explore sex, death, rage, violence and primal fears.

So it should come as no surprise that some of the video games teenagers like to play involve those themes as well. It gives them a chance to examine what they perceive as an adult world of power, sex and mystery.

All of this raises the question of whether violent media are inherently bad or, at the very least, problematic. We can get some hints from the National Television Violence Study," conducted in the mid-1990s. This three-year study involved over three hundred people working at four universities. They sought not only to document the amount of violence on television, but also to assess the way violence was presented-the context, goals and targets of violence-and when it might encourage or discourage children from learning to behave violently.

They found that during a typical week, 61 percent of programs contained some violence; the greatest amount of violent programming at that time was on premium cable channels, particularly in movies. The consortium of researchers agreed that exposure to violence had the potential to adversely affect children and that the risk of learning aggressive behavior increases when

the perpetrator is attractive

the violence is seen as justified

the violence is seen as realistic, involving a real-life weapon

the violence is rewarded, or at least not punished

the violence has little or no harmful consequences, and/or

the violence is seen as funny

Exposing children to violent programs that included a combination of these factors was of particular concern: "A high-risk portrayal for learning [aggressive behavior] is one that features an attractive character who engages in violence that is sanctioned and that does not result in any serious consequences to the victim.l''?

For example, our son and his friends used to play James Bond games such as GoldenEye and The Wl)rld Is Not Enough. Those T-rated games 11101 1l)IIIlY of the critcrln fo" ICHrhinH violent h('hllvior: nn nuractive perpetrator, violence that was both justified and rewarded, realistic guns and fists used as weapons and few harmful consequences-no blood was shown, and the many dead bodies simply dissolved away within seconds.

Yet neither our son nor the friends who played the games with him are violent. Clearly, exposure alone is not sufficient to change their behaviors significantly in the real world. That shouldn't be surprising for a behavior as complex as violence. We would expect some children to have greater vulnerabilities to the influence of media and others to b(' more resistant and resilient. Equally important, we would expect tht'

. level of influence (the effect size) of media exposure to be relatively small when compared with other factors in the children's environment,

In most television violence studies, and video game studies as well, all violence is treated as equivalent. When differentiations are made, such as the use of the ESRB content descriptors that we'll describe ill chapter 7, the emphasis is on the level or style of violence, not on it context.

"It's very simplistic to say that the content creates the motive," flay Michael jellinek, MD. "It may shape the way it's expressed, but tho (;(11'(' meaning of that violence and aggression is in the child, not in the villl'() game." In other words, exposure to a video game may influence t 110 plol when the child reenacts a battle in an alien world with his friends, hut 1111.: violence in that fantasy play is driven by other, more fundarncutul (')(1111 nences.

"Let's take a ten-year-old boy on the playground who's playing nrJll or spaceman. That's playful, normal and healthy fantasy play. But if th" child has been abused at home or has seen domestic violence, he nUl play differently. He may be much rougher and may hurt himself 01' l1i playmate."

I'm Important!

Video games give free rein to fantasies of power, glory and freedom, That's quite different from the mundane lives of most children. MOHt oj the day, adults tell them what to do-and it's usually not the thillj.( they'd rather be doing. It's no wonder that they crave the experience (lj being tho virtunl quartcrhnck of an NFL toum, leading hundreda (If WIariors into battle, running an empire or knocking off a few zombies. We can see this in how the boys in our focus groups described their favorite video game characters, special powers and weapons.

Rob: "I like Tommy Vercetti [the main character in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City] because he never gives up and he never quits or anything. And he's played by Ray Liotta, one of my favorite actors."

Mike: "I wouldn't like to go around killing people [like Tommy Vercetti], but to be the highest man in the town, the strongest man and stuff, it would be actually pretty cool. Everybody looks up to you. You're not the scum, you're someone that's important."

Terry: "The swords in Mortal Kombat are fun to use, and they look cool."

Lenny: "I wish I could be stronger, so if someone's afraid of menot that I want them to be afraid of me-but they won't try to start something with me. And I want to be famous."

Randy: "My favorite character in Metal Gear Solid is like a ninja; he can sneak around places without people seeing him. And he can get people out of the way, but without killing-he can lock them out. It's cool. He has all this agility.

"[If I had that] when my teacher catches me doing something, before she can call the principal, I'd put everything back in place without her seeing it. Then she won't have any proof that I did it. I would be in the bathroom saying, 'What are you talking about? I was in the bathroom the whole time!' "

Boys understood that acting like these favorite game characters would have very different consequences in the real world. When asked what he'd do if he woke up tomorrow as Mitsurugi from Tekken, Alex said, "I don't know, because if I took the sword out in public, then I'd get arrested!"

Austin enjoyed imagining waking up as Tommy Vercetti of Vice City, because "he kills people and has fun with it." As Tommy-for-a-day, he would "Kill people. Anybody ... anybody that's walking the street."

When asked what would be fun about that, Austin thought about it (OJ' II moment. "I don't think it would be fun in real life."

Other boys made similar comments:

Patrick: "I'm kind of scared to do that stuff [from Grand Tluft Auto). If I shoot somebody and they die, then I'll go to jail for n long time, so I don't want to do that."

Barry: "The whole thug thing seems kind of cool. But in rCDlli(c, I wouldn't really want to have that life. In [Grand Theft Auto I, YOII don't mind just getting out of your car and killing s()nwhody, because you're not going to get in trouble for it. You CAli jllHI 1111'11 off the game system and you're done. But I don't really Udlllll'CI these people too much."

The Grand Theft Auto series of video games is satire. Uniortunnll'l .. , preteens and even some young teenagers have difficulty rcco~nizlll~ satire when they see it. This is a matter of brain development. Oil mother in a focus group expressed her concerns about this quite vividly:

"It's actually a very clever game. But it really should be limited to lIdllltn, You start seeing the prostitutes, and it's a riot, if you are looking III It II an adult. But I step back and go, 'Hey, my thirteen-year-old hUH IIIlVI'J seen that!' He doesn't have the background information."

If a child takes these game characters and behaviors seriolll4ly, i there greater potential for harm? Developmental psychologist Llllll'(ln(',' Steinberg, PhD, of Temple University, is not concerned. "Kids HUlll

understanding satire around age twelve. Younger kids need m textual cues to understand when something is satirical," he 110 even if they don't get the satire, I don't think that it will mot iva do something that they otherwise wouldn't do."

Does It Have to Be Violent to Be Fun?

The boys in our focus groups made it clear that while some of the gallI(' they liked were violent, many were not. In fact, they described some vio lent games as boring. So what makes a game fun to play more than Justin: "I like adventure games because you don't only play for twenty minutes and then beat it. I like a game that takes time and focus to do it."

Mike: "I like games that, like, you beat it and you could come back and do a whole different story line and beat it again and then there might also be another story line you can go through. Also, you could go exploring."

When asked whether violence makes a game more fun, many boys who regularly played violent games agreed that it did. Some mentioned the over-the-top fantasy appeal of the violent games.

Patrick: "It's stuff that you can't do in real life, like kill people. So you could just, like, go crazy with the games."

Matthew: "I like sports games a lot, and when I do playa violent game it's fun too, because I like the action and stuff. I think there's a little more action in violence games than there is in nonviolence games."

Justin: "Without violence it gets kind of boring after a while because you're sitting around doing nothing basically. But in a violence game, it's kind of fun because you actually go around, actually get to do violence stuff."

Others thought some nonviolent games were just as much fun and just as challenging.

James: "I think a game could have no violence at all and still be really good, because I like the realism and the challenge and stuff."

Daryl: "You can never actually get bored of [Mario Party 5] because new stuff comes out everywhere."

Mike: "I can't really explain it but [Super Mario] is just fun to play, because there's a lot of levels and it's an adventure game and you an beat it-and it feels good to beat fl game."

Others mentioned sports games, racing games, or older games such as Pac-Man, pinball, or online checkers. They especially liked nonviolent games that featured realistic sounds or actions, such as choosing druf picks as a coach in Madden NFL.

The Joy of Figuring Things Out-Before the Other Guy

In our survey, more than half of boys strongly agreed that they 1)luyllll games to "compete and win" and for "the challenge of figuring lilt' ~alll out." (Among the girls, one in four found competition very aplwalillj.(, 1I11d one in three relished the intellectual challenge.) These result H III'CI 1IC11 unique to our survey. Nick Yee, PhD, of Stanford Univeraity, hllH ('Oil ducted surveys of older teens and adults who routinely join 01 hllili III online role-playing games. He found that achievement WUS a IlInlol' 11111 I of the appeal." But achievement was not simply getting a high lil'OIO, II included advancement (progressing through the game while guinjn~ pow ers and symbols of wealth or status), competition (challenging Hnt! l'()I1l peting with others) and mechanics (enjoying analyzing the 1II1d(.' I'lyln~ rules and system of the game, to improve one's performance).

Jeanne Funk, PhD, of the University of Toledo, conducted 011(.) of till few interview-based studies of video game players, comparing 1111 responses of children in grades four through six with those of ('(llll'gcl students.P She told us, "The kids focused on pride and compel it 1011 III terms of psychological gain. They said that they had more confldence: 'I feel like I did something right.' "

Mods R Us: Games and Self-Expression

Creativity and self-expression are important to some players. In our SLII vey, over half of boys and girls agreed with the statements "I like to en .• ate my own world" (one in four strongly agreed) and "I like to learn new things." In addition, 42 percent of the boys and 22 percent of tho girl agreed that they liked to "mod" games. Mods, or modifications, CHII ht new items, weapons, clothing, characters, story lines or other fCl-ItllI\' added to computer games by game players. Some games come wit II modding tools built in, so that nlayers with less-advanced cOInpul ('I' skills can have fun with them. A Sims 2 player can create custom clothing or change the eye, hair or skin color of a character, for example, or download mods created by others from the Web. Mods are generally benign and often quite creative. But a child might occasionally write (or more likely, download) an objectionable mod such as a "nude patch"which removes a game character's clothes.

One parent in our focus groups observed that many violent games allow creative options for play. "You can actually change your objective and strategy," Clara noted. ''And now with these new weapons, it's a whole other game." Asked why she thought her son plays violent games, she added, "I think that he'd probably say, 'Mom, because it's so cool. Look, now I can use this Uzi instead of this one. And I can even throw a dagger from there!' "

I Like the Gore: Aesthetic vs. Representative Emotions

When Joe selected a screenshot of Mortal Kombat to discuss, the first thing he said was that he liked "the gore." His favorite thing to do was "the 'fatalities.' At the end, when you're going to beat them, you do a special move and kill them. Like, thunder god Raiden, he grabs you and hits you until you blow up."

It's startling and a bit upsetting to hear comments like this from young teenagers. Does this kind of admiration of gore signal a disturbing desensitization to violence? Not necessarily.

Some researchers have distinguished emotions that are related to admiration of artistry (aesthetic emotions) from feelings related to experiences in the game world (representative emotions) or even in the real world. As Jeroen jansz, PhD, of the University of Amsterdam, wrote, "In playing a violent video game, [aesthetic] emotions may occur, for example, when a gamer admires the way in which a specific gruesome scene was staged." >

About the fatalities in Mortal Kombat, Joe added, "They made the graphics good. It's not realistic; it's like, fancy and fun."

In our survey of middle school youths, more boys listed a Grand Theft Auto game among their most-played games than any other game or series. Among girls, it came in second. Grand Theft Auto is one of those games that is shown in gruesome thirty-second clips before state and federal legislatures as an example of why video games should be regulated. If the violence is what makes these games popular, things look bad for the future of our civilization,

But is it really the violence? Says game designer John Feil, who's on the board of directors of the International Game Developers Association, "If It were just about the blood and guts, then you'd just have [games like) Postal. * In Grand Theft Auto, it's about the world you can explore." .

In fact, comments from boys in our focus groups support Feil's view that the open environment is the primary source of the game's appeal.

"1 personally think Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a great game," said Barry. "Along with exploring the city, you can just get out of your car and beat up somebody. And that starts a series of things, like the cops come and then you run away from the cops. I like doing the missions, but apart from that, If I get caught up in something in the city, I keep doing that. I can do my own thing."

Other kids in the room agreed. "Grand Theft Auto games were, I think, th first where instead of doing certain levels, you can just walk around, blow up cars and escape the police," Martin noted. "Or work for the police, if you hap· pen to get a police car, or a tank, or a fire truck, or ambulance or whatever, You press a button, and all of a sudden, you're working for them. You can catch criminals, or drive people places, or put out fires. It's more creative than just walking around, than shooting people and doing a mission when you feel like it."

"And you can be a good guy and a bad guy at the same time!" added Shawn.

* Here is a description of Postal from the review site Gamespotcom: "Moving from one surrell landscape to the next, you must make use of the twelve weapons at your disposal in order to dispatch anything with a pulse. Men, women, children-it doesn't matter if they're shooting It you or not, fill 'em full of lead! ... As anyone can see, this is most certainly not a game for the kiddies." Not one child in our survey listed Postal among his or her frequently played games.

When Girls Play Violent Games

Justine Cassell, PhD, directs the Center for Technology and Social Behavior at Northwestern University. In the late 1990s, she and Henry Jenkins, PhD, organized a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. The topic proved so popular that it led to a book of the same name.

"When I first started working on this, in 1997 or 1998, there was this assumption that girls didn't like violence," Cassell recalls. "Henry Jenkins and I interviewed serious girl garners. And they said, 'What's your problem? We like violent games. Other games don't have a plot, they're not active, they don't allow you to do anything.' " In essence, some girls were attracted to the same elements of games such as Grand Theft Auto noted by boys in our focus groups.

"For a long time, there's been a misunderstanding about what girls like in games," says Cassell. "Companies would make games without violence, but also without a plot or characters. Girls are disdainful of an industry that doesn't understand their abilities. And when boys played the games for girls, they'd say, 'This game's so dumb, even girls won't play it!'"

Cassell recently contributed to a follow-up volume, Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombai. "What's amazing is how little things have changed over a decade," she says. "Many games for girls are still so dumb, and game makers still think girls don't like action.

"I'm not surprised girls play violent games because there are some very fun things about them. That fact that we're surprised tells us about the images we have of girls in our society, that are not always positive. Being an innocent all the time is not fun," she adds.

Structured interviews with preteens, teens and young adults conducted for the British Board of Film Classification also showed differences between boys and girls in that part of the world.

Female garners are in general much less interested in fast action, first-person shooter, "swords and sandals," "hack and slash" games than males. Young boys are prone to boast about having played 18+ r,Mature-ratedJ games, but girls appear not to regard the games as cool in the same way. Girls and women rarely play foolball games, whereas these are popular amongst many males, and girls/women seem in general to be less interested in keenly competitive games."

Perhaps things will change as today's teens become tomorrow' game developers. As we note in the next chapter, the number of ferns] action game protagonists is still small, but appears to be growing. Alii despite the domination of today's games by macho male characters, a least some boys appear to have no problem taking a female perspectivr

Earlier, we mentioned that Justin enjoyed being scared by the horror adventure game Resident Evil: Code: Veronica X. In this game, the play« takes on the role of a woman who is searching for her brother.

When asked what he liked about Claire Redfield as a character, J IIHt i' said, "It's usually a guy going around shooting them, but now I just lik. having girls because it seems like girls aren't brave enough to do thi but all these girls are chilling in this game and actually do this sluff. S, that's why I like it."

Mike agreed: "I think Claire is a pretty good character. It's fun to pili: like he said. Usually it's all boy characters. In this one it's a girl. It' showing that, like, I don't know, girls can be strong too, and brave ux not just boys."

Teaming Up: Violent Games and Friendships

"We absolutely had no video games in our house," said Wendy in a par ents' focus group. "We had a 'no video games' rule for years. When III son was in fourth grade, we finally broke down and got a video game, tern, because he kept coming home from school saying, 'I'm complete] out of the conversation. I don't have anything to talk about. I don't havi anything to add.' "

Academic research on video games and kids has typically focused () games played in isolation. Yet for many young teens in our surveys [lnl focus groups, friendship was a major factor in their video game pin Forty percent of middle school boys and almost a third of girls agree that one attraction of video games is that "my friends like to pllay.

Roughly one third of both boys and girls said that they enjoyed teaching others how to play video games.

Bill: "Most of the interaction my son has with his buddies is about solving situations within a game. It's all about how do you go from this place to that place, or collect the certain things that you need, and combine them in ways that are going to help you to succeed."

Wendy: "[ody and Alex talk constantly in the car and everywhere else about the games and the characters, so it's part of their friendship, part of what they do and what they like to play .... And they give each other help sometimes when they get to different levels."

Research conducted for the British Board of Film Classification found differences in the ways in which boys and girls approach playing video games. "More broadly, the social rewards of gaming-talking about how you are doing, playing together, helping or beating each other-are less a part of the attraction for females than males." 15

Nick Yee's surveys of (mostly adult) online game players also found that socializing was an important motivator. They enjoyed being part of a team, helping others and forging solid relationships." This suggests that video games could playa role in healthy friendships for children and adults.

But what about violent games? The image of a friendless child holed up in his bedroom, practicing his sniper skills on a bloody video game, is a parent's nightmare. Our survey found that children who play Maturerated games are not more likely than other children their age to play games alone. In fact, compared to children who don't play M-rated games regularly, M-game players were significantly more likely to play games in social settings, with one or more friends in the same room.

According to researcher Jeffrey Goldstein, PhD, "Violent entertainment appeals primarily to males, and it appeals to them mostly in groups. People rarely attend horror films or boxing matches alone, and boys do not often play war games by themselves. These are social occasions, particularly suitable for 'male bonding' and communicating a masculine identity to your mates.':"

Boys often use rough-and-tumble play-fighting to explore Hgg,·esHlon.

They aren't out to hurt each other, but to establish dominance Ilnd II social pecking order. is Video game play could serve as another arena to continue that healthy battle for status among one's peer".

C. J., age twelve, comments: "Usually me and my friends, when we're over at each others' houses, they're like, 'Oh, I'll kill you in M(uldt'll NFL.' It's fun to beat them."

In early adolescence, boys also use play-fighting as a way to t(.lsl hull ding relationships with girls." This could easily translate to play.t1),{IrI ill in video games. We'd like to see studies done to explore this IIlId how video games might be used to promote healthy boy/girl fricndHIrlpH II well as same-gender friendships.

Even though "I like to compete and win"-a very popufur ,'(lfiHOn Iii video game play-could refer to beating one's personal beat 01' n ('0111 puter-generated foe, challenging and defeating a real person IrIlH <11"11111111 pluses when it comes to helping young teens figure out sociul 1'(llutiOIi ships. "I like to play with a friend better because then when you Will, ylll can gloat," said Mike. "But then, if you lose then they gloat, too. So it' fun, and it's pretty even matched, when you play versus a friend. Alld like playing versus a friend better 'cause you can talk. You can't lull, I the PS2 or the Xbox or anything."

Boys also gain status among peers by owning or mastering H populn game. "My twelve-year-old son isn't a particularly good athlete," suyl Richard Falzone, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the Bosto! area. "But he's very competitive on video games. It gives him a ccrillij social status and a certain respect among other kids. And it expands III peer group."

Roberta: "One of my son's biggest pleasures is to have a couple of guys sleep over and ask me to take them to the video store and rent a game that they've never played. You'll see them all sitling on the couch together almost having a conference, and they'll take turns manipulating the figures."

W. George Scarlett, PhD, a psychologist at Tufts University who' expert on children's play, has two sons who are video garners. "Vid games are it foundation for many kids' relnt iOlhlhips. It imprcsSCH II

how one kid can be playing a video game and as many as five kids can be around him and participating in what's going on."

In our survey, relatively few children chose "to make new friends" as a reason they played video games. But in focus groups, several boys mentioned that video games helped them structure conversations with potential friends.

"You say, 'Do you own a system, a game system?'" explained Carlos.

"If he says 'yes,' then, 'What kind? PS2, GameCube, Xbox?' Like that."

"When kids first meet, they'll often ask, 'What games are you into?'" adds Falzone. "The common language and common experience is an instant icebreaker. It allows them to be interested in somebody else and to share a part of themselves. It's a vehicle for connection."

We've observed the icebreaker role of games in our own family, at holiday gatherings. Cousins who had been apart for months (an eternity for a child) could settle in with a video game and quickly resume their friendship.

Given the role of video game play in starting and maintaining friendships, there is potential for games to help socially awkward children gain acceptance and self-esteem. Game developer John Feil described how a friend's child, who was born prematurely and suffered a number of problems with overall health and coordination, has benefited from involvement with video games. "He had trouble walking for many years. But he's smart intellectually. Getting him video games let him be Batman and Superman. It helped him feel empowered," says Feil. "It also let him feel competitive, without having to develop a lot of physical strength."

Internet Play

A number of boys (including some from low-income neighborhoods) mentioned playing games over the Internet-sometimes teaming up with friends and other times with players from different cities or countries to play against other virtual teams.

Josh: "[It] makes me friends, like that you don't even know; all I know is by computer. Never met them ... , You talk to them [on the headset] as you play, '011, go this way and I'll go that way,'"

'I"

"Video games allow kids to have virtual play dates," notes child ps~

i'I^I!'i,l

chiatrist Falzone. "They're playing games together, each from his ·ow

,

house, all the while talking to each other. There's lots of communicatio

and problem-solving together."

In our survey, about one in eight children regularly played games oVE the Internet with friends; one in ten boys and one in twenty girls play~ with people they didn't know. Given that most new game consoles a well as computers allow Web-based play, socializing over the Internet I likely to increase.

While playing with strangers on the Internet sounds scary, there ar virtually no reports of children being approached by predators throug online games. Game chat is limited and focuses on coordinating pia Also, as Northwestern University's Cassell points out, studies show thl the risk of sexual predators on the Web is overblown.?

"Basically, there aren't predators in the number we think there arc, says Cassell. ''And when there are predators, the horrifying thing is th are as likely to be family members as strangers."

Video Games and Learning Disabilities

I

Our survey of middle schoolers included seventy-eight students with mil learning disabilities who could fill out the survey with extra time or 1"lltln from staff (while still keeping their answers private). As a group, the.1 kl tended to play games for more hours per week than others. They wlro 0101 likely than other children to play games to feel less lonely, to get their .nUI out and because they liked "the guns and other weapons."

They were also more likely to be victims of bullying and to report being I out or excluded by their peers. Their overall top reasons for playing gem reflect their needs to connect with friends and cope with feelings: they play because their friends did, to make new friends, to teach others or beODul they were bored and games are exciting.

Child psychiatrists and psychologists have found that children with attlll tion deficit disorder (ADD) are often particularly attracted to media, Includlt television, video games and

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video and computer qarnes." Some parents worry that video games are a cause of ADD symptoms or make them worse. But it's more likely that for kids who already have ADD, games have greater appeal.

Many of these children find school stressful, demanding and-even with an individualized education plan-not very supportive of their self-esteem. One of the things they value about electronic games is that they offer interaction without criticism.

"That feels great for most of us," says Michael Jellinek, M.D., "but it's especially important to kids who have learning disabilities. A lot of people don't appreciate how much these kids get criticized and how self-critical the kids themselves are. They don't understand how liberating it is to be in control of something like a computer where they can pause and start over, where their work comes out neat and organized instead of messy. They don't understand how much of a relief this is. The computer is unconditionally accepting, while most parents and teachers aren't."

Our middle school survey gave other hints about how children with attention or hyperactivity problems use video games. We incorporated five questions from a standardized survey used by pediatricians to screen for behavioral and other problems." Boys whose responses put them over the threshold level for ADD symptoms were more likely than others to use games to cope with angry feelings. Among girls with ADD symptoms, twice as many (almost one in four) played games to make new friends compared to other girls. In moderation, these are probably healthy uses of video games.

Because skill with video games or computers can be an important source of self-esteem for a child with ADD, Jellinek encourages parents to support this. He notes that coming home from school and immediately starting on homework can be too much for these kids; some kind of after-school activity, such as a sport, can help. Once children are home, video games can serve as a useful transition to or break from homework.

At Northwestern University, Cassell and Andrea Tartaro have studied using a "virtual peer" to teach social skills to children who have autism and related disorders." A virtual peer is a life-size computer-generated animated "child" projected onto a screen. The virtual child, named Sam, can interact with a real child by sharing toys (which appear both on the screen and in a real toy castle in front of the screen) and taking turns telling stories. It's a different way to use video game technology and is part of what's known as the Serious Games movement.

"We know that many children with autism and Asperger's really enjoy playing games and will play for long periods of time," says Cassell. "But that's not exposing them to the kind of social interactions that may bring them benefits. A lot of learning happens through social interactions. So we've been building a virtual child who can sit and tell stories, and model and elicit social interaction behaviors."

For example, to let the real child know it's his turn, Sam will direct her gaze at the child and use language ("She, umm ... then she ... ") to hint that the child should pick up the tale. If he does, Sam encourages the process, saying, "And then what happens?" or "Wow!" or "Cool." Tartaro and Cassell hope this research will lead to the design of other methods to help children better connect with the social world.

Like children diagnosed with ADD, developmentally. delayed kids may use video games to pass the time, especially when they have few social relationships. Parents of children with developmental delays need to keep a closer eye on media use, however, because these children may have more trouble than their peers with distinguishing a fantasy game world from the real world. This could lead them to mimic language or behavior from a game in socially inappropriate ways, possibly getting themselves into trouble. When using age-based ESRB ratings to choose games, parents need to consider their child's developmental age as well as his or her calendar age.

Handling Anger

Many boys in our focus groups described using violent games to cope with feelings of anger, frustration or stress. Based on our survey findings, young teens often use games to manage their emotions, particularly boys; 62 percent of boys played to "help me relax," 48 percent because "it helps me forget my problems" and 45 percent because "it helps me get my anger out." Among those boys who strongly agreed that they played for an emotional reason, about one in four used games to In focus groups, boys talked about using games with violent content in particular as an outlet for emotional expression or as a form of distraction. For example:

Randy: "Getting wrapped up in a violent game, it's good. 'Cause if you are mad, when you come home, you can take your anger out on the people in the game."

Eli: "If I had a bad day at school, I'll playa violent video game and it just relieves all my stress."

Patrick: "Last week, I missed one homework and my teacher yelled at me .... When I went home, I started playing Vice City and I did a cheat code to get a tank and I ran over everybody. And I smashed a lot of cars and blew them up. . . . I was mad, and I turned happy afterwards."

Lenny described Coping with a real-life conflict by role-playing it in the game: "Say some kid wants to fight you, and he talks trash about you. When you go home and play, you're like, 'This is the kid that I hate,' and you beat him up and stuff."

Asked if playing the game might help him avoid a fight, Lenny said, "Maybe. 'Cause if I don't playa game or if I don't do nothing, it gets me even angrier, real mad. If I playa game, it's, 'All right, I beat him.' Then it feels like I really did something and I'm done, man."

A smaller but still substantial proportion of girls also clearly use electronic games to deal with feelings. Ten percent of girls strongly agreed that they played to get out anger, 16 percent to forget problems, and 13 percent to relax.

Interestingly, in her focus groups comparing views of elementary-age and college-age students, Jeanne Funk found that only the older students mentioned using games to cope with feelings-particularly relieving stress and boredom. One said, "Of people I know, video games are a tool to act out their aggression as opposed to doing it in reallife." 24

Video Games and Depression

Aside from a few studies on ADD,25 there is almost no research on video games and children with emotional or mental health problems. As a first step in this direction, our survey included five questions from the screening tool used by pediatricians concerning symptoms of depression (feeling sad, hopeless and worried, having less fun and feeling down on themselves)."

About two thirds of kids who met the threshold for depression agreed that they played games to forget their problems. Depressed children were more likely than other kids to play in order to feel less lonely or to get out anger. Two-thirds of depressed girls said they played to "create my own world," compared to just one third of other girls. Depressed kids did not play video games for more hours per week than other kids, but they were more likely to play alone.

Unfortunately, we don't know enough to say whether these uses of video games to manage emotions are healthy or unhealthy for depressed children in general or any child in particular. It may be that temporary or intermittent immersion in a game is therapeutic, while playing games alone for hours most days after school makes matters worse.

DMU Timestamp: March 08, 2013 19:51

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