Page 560 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

V deo Games |

1983—Nintendo produces the Famicom and Mario makes his first appearance in Donkey
Kong.
1986—Sega releases the Master System.
1988—Nintendo launches the Gameboy.
1994—Sony launches the Playstation.
1996—Lara Croft makes her appearance in the first of many Tomb Raider games.
1998—Rockstar launches the first Grand Theft Auto game in the series. Lineage released
by NCSoft.
1999—Sony Online releases the first version of EverQuest.
2000—The arrival of the Playstation 2.
2001—Microsoft joins the console market with the Xbox.
2003—Nokia releases the NGage, a gaming device with mobile telephone capabilities.
2004—Arrival of World of Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment.
2005—Release of Xbox 360, the Playstation Portable (PSP), and Nintendo DS.

gaming as vioLEnT

It is evident that violence or violent themes and/or action are present in a large
proportion of video games, with some of the most successful and popular games
such as the Grand Theft Auto series or God of War involving high levels of vio-
lent content. Games are now being used for military training and recruitment,
such as America’s Army. Because of this, some express concern that violence
in video games could/can lead to heightened aggression. In particular, due to
the “interactive” nature of gaming, some authors suggest that violence in video
games could potentially be more damaging than that seen in television and film.
While television viewers are (largely) passive, video games often require players
to actively direct the (in-game) aggression, and hence the aggression/violence is
more “participatory” (Emes 1997).
However, the relationship between violent games and gamers (as with vio-
lence on television and viewers) is far from conclusive. In particular, such re-
search has been heavily criticized for its often inconsistent methodologies and
small and unrepresentative sample groups. It has also been criticized for over-
estimating the ability of games to influence the specific attitudes and behavior
of individuals and/or groups, and for seeing gamers as passive and vulnerable to
representations of violence within games (Bryce and Rutter 2003).

gamErs as “mousE PoTaToEs”
A further criticism often leveled at video gaming is that it is an antisocial and
isolating activity, producing a generation of passive “mouse potatoes.” However,
this wholly negative attitude towards video gaming continues to be questioned in
ongoing research. One study of over 200 London schoolchildren found no evi-
dence to suggest that those who regularly played video games had fewer friends
(Colwell and Payne 2000). Gamers are not “absent,” but rather constitute active
participants within the games they play. Digital gaming is an expression of human