Warning, rant incoming. We live in a violent society. Look at the papers celebrating Bin Laden's death, okay he was an evil mass murderer but it's still barbaric to have huge red headlines that say ROT IN HELL and GOT HIM. Remember the recent shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, that was blamed on the violent rhetoric of Palin et al. Violence is at the core of media, politics and society all that art and culture does is reflect society. The age long debate of do violent video games lead to violent behaviour goes on. But isn't it clear that it's war itself and the media's representation of war that brews violence not a game that simulates war. Thankfully research from the university of Huddersfield has rubbished the correlation between violent games and violent behaviour.
In fact the research suggest that FIFA and Pro Evolution evoke a more emotional, more specifically a more aggressive response than COD. “Sport is closer to real life than shooting someone [in a game]" said one of the researchers.
Dr Simon Goodson and Sarah Pearson measured the heart rate, respiration and brain activity of 40 male and female participants, who played either an Xbox 360 game that involved violence or a football title. The results showed little brain activity when players killed an enemy in-game, with higher activity picked up when conceding a goal or foul.”As participants reacted with more agitation during the football game it seems the effects of violent video games have been misrepresented in the past,” said Dr Goodson.
So there you have it. Can we just accept that the vast majority of gamers do not become violent as a result of violent video games. And if these people who go out shoot people in shopping malls didn't have violent games, they'd get triggered by something else. Leave the video game alone and look around at the subtle violence deeply embedded in everyday life.