Final by Ben Leggett

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

RATED M FOR MISUNDERSTOOD BY BEN LEGGETT A look at video games and the massive amount of controversy surrounding them in regards to violence, crime, health, education and sexism.

DISSERTATION SUBMISSION - UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION 2013/14 COMPLETED AS PART OF A BACHELORS DEGREE

â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers. â&#x20AC;?

-William S Burroughs

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TABLE OF CONTENTS/ PAGE 7______________________________________Abstract & Introduction PAGE 10___________________________Part One: Welcome to the argument PAGE 14___________________________________Part Two: Why do we play? PAGE 20_____________________________Part Three: The numbers don’t lie PAGE 24__________________________Part Four: This is your brain on games PAGE 28_________________________________Part Five: Games & Education PAGE 32_______________________________Part Six: Video Games & Sexism PAGE 34________________________________________________Conclusion

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

ABSTRACT/

Video games have become very popular among people of all ages, causing a great deal of debate, concern and numerous policies to be passed. This study looks at available research on various areas of video games, including the effects of violence and violent games on the mind, the effects of video game playing on educational performance and the role of sexism in the video game industry. The majority of research shows that, although there is certainly an increase in aggression when playing violent games, there is no correlation between playing games and committing crimes. Research also shows that academic performance has not been hindered by the popularisation of video games and that, in fact, video games seem to contribute to learning and key skills. Also apparent is that while sexism may still exist in the video game industry it is more of a societal problem that is reflected in games. Games have enormous value and have been misunderstood and judged unfairly since their conception.

INTRODUCTION/

With every new form of art and entertainment comes the debate over whether or not it is bad for us and whether it affects our children. Video games have caused the biggest concern in history on this matter, and in the wake of atrcoities like the Sandy Hook massacre there has been a huge focus on the effect of violent video games on the mind . Films and TV shows have been accused of corrupting minds in recent years, while previously paintings were vilified. Anti-Game lobbyists have come out in numbers to denounce video games, while the studios making them have fought back in defence of their work. Despite countless studies that show no clear link between playing video games and committing crime, and statistics showing that countries like Japan, which consumes a huge amount of video game media, have lower crime rates than countries such as America, people are still not fully agreed on whether or not video games are bad for our health. The Anti-Game side of the argument seems to present very speculative and mixed studies that poorly demonstrate any sort of point, while the pro-game side seems to have very clear factually backed figures and studies. Most readily available literature regarding the effects of video games on the mind is obscure and never concise or certain. After temporarily declining in popularity, video games are now once again one of the most popular and widely used forms of entertainment. Video game consoles are readily available in all first world countries and are already in over 50% of American homes (14). Fighting games (e.g., Street Fighter), first person shooters (e.g., Call of Duty) and Survival Horror games (e.g., Silent Hill) have greatly increased the level of violence since the days of early games like Pong, depicting more accurate and more visceral violence by utilising ever improving technology. Concerned parents and mass media have numerous wild claims about video games, and some have even claimed them to be amongst the most detrimental items ever to be produced. Despite the Gaming industries very reasonable and respectful approach to the problem, such as adapting voluntary rating systems to better inform parents what type of content a game will entail before buying it for a child ,and making it much more difficult for children to get their hands on games rated for adults, people continue to criticise the industry and accuse it of corrupting minds. Concerned parents and media groups take video games for their surface value and rarely look at what is underneath. They assume the content of a game is merely for gratuitous thrills and claim violent content exists is to sate an unspoken desire for violence.

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PART ONE/ WELCOME TO THE ARGUMENT/

The video game business has evolved from its humble beginnings as a mathematicians pet project into one of the largest industries in the world. In the last five years annual video game sales have surpassed both the film and music industries’ sales making it arguably the largest entertainment media in existence. Along with the growing number of video game sales is the production of more violent and realistic video games, which has resulted in the video game industry being targeted by the government, the media and lobbyist groups. As the number of violent games increased it was perhaps understandable that the suitability of their content for children and teens would be questioned and this reaction has not changed. It’s easy to see why a parent might be concerned that violent games are not suitable for their young children, but how did we progress from there to the idea that video games are to blame for tragedies like the Sandy Hook massacre? A recent study showed that 56 percent of American homes have a modern games console (14) so how is it reasonable to blame video games for the small minority of people who turn to crime and violence? What many consider to be the genesis of this controversy is the arcade video game Mortal Kombat, which was banned in multiple countries for its excessive use of graphic violent imagery, particularly in the fatality scenes of the game. These decisions were made without any evidence from research. Some people thought that if they didn’t like what they saw then nobody should. Mortal Kombat was directly related to the forming of the ESRB and all other video game rating boards (6). Although the Mortal Kombat controversy was the beginning of this entire subject, what really ignited the entire argument was the 1999 Columbine Massacre in America. The Columbine shootings were carried out by two students, who were supposedly huge fans of the game series “Doom” (7), and the day after this tragedy tabloid papers shamelessly rolled out claims that video games were to blame. With once again no evidence the headlines were ambiguous in the extreme. After the banning of Mortal Kombat, The Columbine Massacre and other key events the American Government began to crack down on the availability of violent or M rated games and severely decreased the number of M rated games sold to minors in only a few years (5). Despite these efforts to crush violent games their number has increased hugely over the last decade along with the hardware capabilities. Games are now not only graphically explicit (Early Mortal Kombat, for example) but realistic enough to heavily immerse the player so that they feel like they are pulling the trigger and killing a target. And why shouldn’t they? War, crime and violence exist in our world so why would we pretend they don’t? Lead Bioshock Designer, Ken Levine summarised this point perfectly in a facebook post: “No individual piece of art has any particular responsibility to fulfil a particular agenda. One of those responsibilities (for art as a whole, not for every example of every art ever produced), should be to show things as they are, for every Rom Com, there are devastating movies about the pain of love, whether that’s Eternal Sunshine or Amour. For every movie that portrays valour in war (Saving Private Ryan), there are movies that focus on its most dehumanizing elements (Full Metal Jacket)” (30).

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

FIGURE 1/ FATALITY FROM MORTAL KOMBAT 2

-NOTE: ORIGINAL PIXEL RATIO AND RESOLUTION OF GAME SPRITES-

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PART TWO/ WHY DO WE PLAY/

Humans crave different experiences. We want to try things we haven’t tried, feel things we don’t usually feel, reach others like ourselves and have a purpose. It is why Leonardo sculpted David, and is why Romero programmed the Doom games to give the world a piece of their soul to experience. Video games have become one of the most common pastimes in the world, are enjoyed by fans of all ages and are unarguably a part of our modern culture. They have fallen prey in the last decade or two to the restless eyes of censorship when once it was violent films and angry music that received the attention. As Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo so beautifully puts it: “Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock n’ roll” (16). One genre of game that has really jumped into the spotlight over the last decade is the horror survival genre, which are usually very violent and designed to scare the player. They are the perfect medium to illustrate the point about immersion, and while the anti-game side of the argument stick to its claims that people play violent games to emulate committing the acts themselves,for the sole purpose of satisfying some hidden need for bloodshed (1), the truth is that violence, crime and darkness are simply tools to improve the feeling of reality. If a game is trying to create a real experience then being realistic must be an integral part of that? On the subject of survival horror, I had the pleasure of speaking to Alex Shchepetilnikov, game developer for Northern Ireland’s own Billy Goat Games at Q-Con 2013. I asked him why he thought so many people play violent and/or horror/scare games compared to only a fewyears back and he answered: “It’s funny that, I got into an argument with one of my colleagues a few weeks back about how the horror genre has benefited greatly from being more of an indie scene. But yeah, anyway, man, to answer , I think it’s simply because games are a way to escape from the normality of everyday life and horror games especially force you into a frame of mind that you are just not going to be in otherwise, as for the violence, I mean the sense of being in the game in a title such as let’s say Silent Hill, would be far less powerful if the graphics where blocky and the consequences weren’t severe, without the blood and the grime it just wouldn’t feel real” (32). Alex’s answer perfectly sums up my point. We don’t love the gore and fear in games but, in fact, hate it just as we do in real life. That is the point of games. To give us an experience that is outside of our normal lives while staying in a context we can relate to and feel. Of course, that is not to say that horror games achieve their effect through mindless violence alone, because they are crafted intelligently and consider subjects like composition, writing, visual style and atmosphere. Is it not insulting to the creators to claim violent games are just the mindless fulfilment of people’s primal instincts? While the focus has been on realism and violence in games this isn’t the only type of game available. Many games achieve many different effects ranging from pure escapism to simple relaxation. Outlast is a game that is dark and brutal, while Super Mario Galaxy is happy and innocent. These two games have virtually no similarities other than the fact that they are games, and yet both have been blamed for a list of crimes. Mario Galaxy, despite its happy, colourful and innocent form, has been accused of promoting animal violence(18) and anarchy to name but a few. Video game writer Jeff Ryan’s comments about Mario really do highlight how silly this is: “The other franchises let you experience the adrenaline and horror of war, or deep fantasy worlds, or pro sports. A Mario game lets you pretend to be a middle-aged chubster hopping onto a turtle shell.” (17).

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

FIGURE 2/ SCREENSHOT FROM OUTLAST

Now that’s a face only a mother could love

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FIGURE 3/ MARIO GALAXY 2 PROMO ART

The previously mentioned “chubster” himself

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

While I refer to video games as art throughout this essay it is important to discuss why they are art and why it is not simply a matter of opinion. I have talked about how video games create emotional experiences, how they are pulled forth from the designers mind and given to the world to experience so in this alone they are already art. But how do we say what is art and what is not? Very simply we don’t, because it only takes one person to consider something to be art for it to be art. Art is an experience that cannot be specified. When you read someone’s experience of a game you cannot help but think of it as art. For example, art columnist Roger Ebert explained his feelings about the game Braid: “Describing it as such doesn’t seem like much until you experience the game’s absolutely ethereal feel, which can range from whimsical to melancholy, depending on how you interpret its journey and story. Its backgrounds are like organic Van Gogh paintings. Its jigsaw puzzles reveal the downward spiral of a loving relationship. And its finale, a kind of gaming masterpiece, uses the flow of time to show how the hero really is the villain.”(31). Interesting how Ebert draws direct comparisons to great artists, such as Van Gogh, when he himself is guilty of making pretentious claims about video games not being “real art”. Ebert published the article that included the quote above mere months before publishing another article titled “Video games can never be art” an article in which he states “I remain convinced that in principle, video games cannot be art” and basically concludes that video games cannot inspire any learning within ourselves and therefore hold no artistic value (34). Video games are sometimes perceived as nothing but a business, but there are smaller studios and independent developers. Games like Super Meatboy or Fez have beautifully crafted 2d graphics, and there is no difference between that and well drawn comic art or a beautiful painting. Art is a very vague concept to begin with, even dictionary definitions of the word differ from dictionary to dictionary and they are generally very loose and general, the most accurate definition I could fine about what I feel art is was from Google Dictionary and it reads as follows: The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power (35) This is a general description of art, but if you take it to be the definition of art then games easily fall within this meaning. But because video games are the new big name on the scene it’s claimed they aren’t art, which is what was said about Cinema when it was new and will be said about the next innovation.

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PART THREE/ THE NUMBERS DONT LIE/

While many consider it comm on sense that a person's actions can't be blamed on their video game collection there is more to it than the obvious. Not only are games not to blame, but research has consistently shown a link between video game sales and loweri crime rates, as illustrated below. But how much do youths really play games? In a journal published by Gentile and Walsh it is stated that the average American child aged 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;17 years plays video games for 7 hours a week (9). This average masks wide differences between boys and girls and children of different ages. In the present study, for example, adolescent girls played video games for an average of 5 hours a week, whereas boys averaged 13 a week (9). These figures focus on America, which is a hub of modern gaming and makes more sense to refer to than Northern Ireland or England. A good place to start looking at crime rate vs game sales would be comparing America to another country that consumes video game media on a massive scale, for example, Japan. Nation Master reports that in 2012 America had eleven times more assault crimes, 19 times more car thefts and an astounding 198 times more murders committed with a firearm than Japan (19). Compare that to the amount of video games being sold in these countries. VGCHARTZ report states that last year Japan sold over 55 million games and America sold over 60 million games, but it should be noted that in the previous three years Japan outsold America(20), which means that despite having similar game sales figures, America completely outranks Japan's crime figures. Not only do the figures reveal that game sales donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t seem to cause spikes in crime rate, they actually show that as video game sales have risen over the last decade violent crime rates have dropped in almost perfect sync. Research was presented in the New York Times last year about the relationship between crime rates and video game sales, and, according to that, between 1994 and 2010 the number of violent crimes among youth offenders fell by more than half to 224 crimes per population of 100,000. At the same time sales of video games have more than doubled since 1996 (21). It seems clear from the figures that there is nothing more to the anti-game argument than personal opinion and misconception. However, that is not to say video games have no effect on people. Over the course of this ongoing debate, anti-game lobbyists have presented countless research showing that violence and violent games do have a very real effect on the brain (8), which brings me to the next section of this essay.

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

FIGURE 4/ THE AVERAGE GAMER

Statistics show no correlation between games & crime rates

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BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

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PART FOUR/ THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON GAMES/

In a recent Journal published by the University of Missouri, it was shown that people do, in fact, have an increase in aggression and adrenaline after playing a violent game (22), and the same study also showed that people who viewed gratuitous violence were more likely to be callous or crude towards other people immediately after playing. This is because the brain simply reacts to violence (all violence, not just video game violence) in a very specific way. Columbia Medical University published a report that showed that when you are viewing violence your brain assumes you are in a violent situation and automatically causes the parts of the brain that suppress aggression and control inhibition to become less active so that you are more capable of defending yourself. However, this effect is temporary and only really active immediately after viewing violence (24). So what does this mean? Does it mean that if you view violence you will become a more violent person? It just means that your brain does react to violence and, if you are playing a violent game, you will temporarily have your inhibitions lowered. The same chemical reaction would take place if you watched a boxing match or watched a violent film. Violence and aggression are part of human nature as much as compassion and kindness. Livescience in partnership with the University of Utah published an article talking about the evolution of aggression in humans, and one of the writers, biologist David Carrier, stated “Aggressive behaviour has evolved in species in which it increases an individual’s survival or reproduction and this depends on the specific environmental, social, reproductive, and historical circumstances of a species. Humans certainly rank among the most violent of species”. He added that we are also one of the most altruistic and empathetic species (25). Evidently violence is just part of the human condition so why would games, a form of expressive art, not reflect that reality? Just as Vincent Van Gogh demonstrated the suffering of his troubled life in his paintings, violent games are demonstrating very real, emotional experiences. Presenting the world as a perfect place without any pain or suffering is not artistic but dishonest. Why would we teach people that violence, pain, anger and suffering are not natural parts of life?

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

FIGURE 5/ THE LAST OF US PROMO ART

Pain and Suffering are a real part of life, why pretend otherwise?

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PART FIVE/ GAMES AND EDUCATION/

Violence in video games is without a doubt the biggest source of bad press. However, the other side of the argument is the effect of video games in general (not just violent ones) on intelligence and education. There is some truth to this as if a child were to spend all day playing games without going out or doing homework they would likely suffer negative effects, and this is also true for adults. But people have been “bunking off” for as long as there have been people. I email interviewed Stephanie Chan from Giant Bomb (Video game media giants), who has written many articles regarding games and education, and I asked her if she thought games were interfering with education. She replied: “We all know the negative press but honestly I think there is a another story to be told about children and games, sure playing way too much games may cause a drop of performance in school but as I said in my last post: Children can also learn from the creation of, and interaction with video games dispelling the harsh stigma of the child/video game complex and bringing a revolution to the educational system. A revolution that will be gamified.” (31). A study on Education.com stated that Video games themselves do not tend to be the direct cause of lower grades, but anytime your child sacrifices time that should have been spent studying, he or she increases the risk of getting a lower grade on a homework assignment or the next day’s big test (26). Not only is there nothing to suggest that games can directly cause a person’s intelligence or work effect to decrease, but there is actually extensive evidence that video games can be educational and improve key skills. The same study that showed games are not directly the cause of poor school performance also stated that over 90 percent of games are not violent and can be considered at the very least somewhat educational, and it was claimed that playing video games can teach people about history and improve skills such as multi tasking, motor skills and reaction times (26). Games, like movies or books have a massive capacity to teach by engaging you in a given subject. Take a game like Assassins Creed 2 for example, which includes accurate historical facts, and, just like books, games can introduce people to new words and broaden their vocabulary. In the last 50 years IQs have been rising constantly in industrialised nations, and this is due largely to the increase in technological advancements. Kids are becoming IT savvy at younger ages, and they are learning all the time due to constant internet access, movies, books, video games, social media and TV (25). So does this come down to Occam’s Razor? Personally I think it does, and I think the simple answer is that many of the older generation do not understand video games. Through a mixture of techno-phobia and the human instinct to fear that which we do not understand, they condemn them for simply being. Not only have games been accused of damaging children’s learning, but they have also been blamed for the rise in obesity. The Daily Mail recently published an article exclaiming “Playing computer games increases obesity in teens by making them hungry”. At best this is scare mongering, Video games go hand in hand with physical relaxation, and what people do in their down time is not to blame for things like poor diet and lack of exercise. A study group from Michigan State University followed a group of 480 12-year-olds for three years. Both the children and the parents were given three weekly surveys about their internet use, how much they played games and how often they used a mobile phone. Parents were also asked about the children’s school performance, height, weight, race and social behaviour, while the kids where tested in numeracy, English and social confidence. The group concluded that even though video games were used more than either the internet or mobile phones, they were unable to use the figures to predict weight and bmi, and instead they found that race, physical activities, diet and social status where far more related to individual changes. Another argument that has been made about video games is that they are designed by a sexist industry for sexist male players.

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

FIGURE 6/ THE SWAT PIXEL ART

There are alot of ways to waste your time on a computer, who knew?

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FIGURE 7/ BAYONETTA PROMO ART

You can see why some might call Video Games sexist

BEN LEGGETT/ DISSERTATION 2013/

PART SIX/ VIDEO GAMES AND SEXISM/

Video games have been part of the world for over thirty years, and they have been ever changing since their genesis. Long gone are the days of 8 bit pixel sprites and games like space invaders. Video game technology has evolved to the point that we now have “life-like Graphics”,’ fully orchestrated soundtracks that suck the player into the experience and story writing that has achieved such high levels that they can challenge eventhe greatest literature. The debate about video games being a waste of time, about their connection with violence and even their validity as art forms rages on, but one thing that has been a constant throughout their history is sexism. In countless video games women have been put into the role of damsel in distress, or the basic love interest for the male lead, or have even been there as eye candy. As much as I am a massive fan of games I cannot deny that it has only been in recent years that strong female characters have emerged as more than merely part of the scenery. Of course, there have been a few strong women peppered throughout game history, Samus from Metroid, for example, or Tera from Final Fantasy 6, but compared to the amount of strong male characters and pointless scantily dressed female characters they are barely worth mentioning. However, it is unfair to blame video games for this, because it is a reflection of society itself and how it has changed, because sexism was present in our culture long before video games. In the modern world of gaming it is common for women to be strong lead characters in games - Lightning from Final Fantasy 13, Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Heather from Silent Hill 3 to name a few. It is still true that many games are generally marketed toward men and the industry itself is primarily male, in April 2013, MP Chi Onwurah stated that “It is certainly the case that the video games industry is a modern one; one would hope that it would be reflective of society, including those who play games, but it is not,” she then went on to claim “My figures show that only 6 per cent of those who work in ICT in the UK games industry are women, despite the fact that they make up 50 per cent of those who play the games.”(28) Based on figures published by the ESA, her claims are true. The figures show that 45 percent of gamers are female (28). EA executive Gabrielle Toledano disagrees with this, as he told an interviewer for Kotaku “The video game industry is being painted as more sexist than other male-dominated workforces” he also went on to say “ but the issue isn’t just in video games. And it’s not what’s holding us back.” (29) I can’t help agree with what he is saying, games are not inherently sexist and should not be blamed, the blame should fall to our society, men and women. There are men and women both out there who think games aren’t really for girls. I surveyed 20 people in Belfast about playing games, I asked 10 men and 10 men did they play video games regularly and if not, why not? Of the men I asked only 1 said he did not play games and said it was because he just didn’t have much interest in them, of the women I asked, 7 said they didn’t play games, 2 of them said they didn’t have much interest in video games and 5 of them gave very similar answers, generally stating that video games aren’t really meant to appeal to girls (33). This survey conflicts with the ESA statistics about how many gamers are girls, however the ESA’s survey was conducted with a much larger volume of people, so I cannot use my own survey as definitive proof. My personal conclusion on the matter is that sexism does definitely still exist in our society, including the gaming industry but the games themselves shouldn’t be blamed, the people who decided video games are only for men should be blamed.

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The Overall result of this dissertation suggests several outcomes. Firstly, there is definitely an effect on aggression when playing violent games. However, that is the brain's reaction to any violence. Secondly, there seems to be no correlation between crime rates and playing video games, and, in fact, as video game sales increase crime rates seem to be lower. Thirdly games do not utilise violence to sate bloodlust but as a tool of immersion to create consequences and emotional response. The experience is reliant on our brain's reaction to what it is viewing, and that reaction will not occur if the games do not trigger it by hiding away violence and war. Games do not seem to have any connection to poor school or work performance and, in fact, there is evidence to suggest that games can be educational and increase key skills, such as multi tasking and reaction time. Despite this some still believe that children are becoming addicted to games that damage their health and their intelligence. Doing too much of anything may cause harm, but games alone cannot be blamed as watching TV all day could be as detrimental as playing games all day. Finally, the research shows that sexism still exists within the game industry, although as a reflection of our society. AntiGame Lobbyists seem to have nothing but loose connections between aggression and video games, and the invalidity of these sources is highlighted through their wild claims, games such as Mario promote animal cruelty for example. Video games are an expressive art form that can take us out of our normal lives and let us experience new things on an emotional and psychological level. Games are misunderstood and misjudged usually by people who don't play them and merely take them at face value. Video games are a significant and important part of our society and should not be forced into being mindless unrealistic experiences that are devoid of any pain, violence, suffering or anger, all of which are natural and real parts of our existence.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY/ Books [Follows the format: Author, Book Name, Publisher, Date of publication] (1)Lt colonel Dave Grossman, Stop teaching our kids to kill, Crown Publications (31st October 1999) (2)Lawrence Kutner, Grand theft childhood, Simon & Schuster (15th April 2008) (3)Craig Alan Anderson , Violent Video Games effects on Children and Adolescents, Oup Usa publishing (25th Janurary 2007) (4)Yasmin. B Kafai, Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat, Games and Gender, MIT Press (4th March 2011) (5)Damon Brown and John M Gibson, Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Other Sexy Games Changed Our Culture, Feral House (2nd October 2008) Documentaries [Follows the format: Director, Title, Production Company, Date of Release] (6)Spencer Halpin, Moral Kombat, independent production (5th June 2009) (7)Nina Huntemann, Game Over, Media education foundation (24th January 2000) Journals [Follows the format: Authors, Title, Producing body, Date of publication] (8)Bruce D. Bartholow, Brad J. Bushman & Marc A. Sestir, Chronic violent video game addiction and the Desensitization to real violence, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of MissouriColumbia (July 2006) (9)Douglas A Gentile, Paul J Lynch, Jennifer Ruh Linder & David A Walsh, The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance, National Institute on Media and the Arts. (10)Michael R. Ward, Video games and crime, Department of Economics, University of Texas at Arlington, 330 Business Bldg., Box 19479 - UTA, Arlington (16th July 2010) Online Sources (11)Rick Nauert, In new study, video games not tied to violence in high-risk youth, www.psychcentral.com(27th August 2013) (12)Peter Suciu, Violent video games do not lead to violent lifestyles, www.redorbit.com(26th August 2013) (13)Maia Szalavitz, Violent Video Games Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Make Us Less Caring, healthland.time.com (26th August 2013) (14)Nielsen & Gentile Reports: http://bgr.com/2012/03/09/nielsen-56-of-u-s-households-own-a-current-video-game-console/ (15) Psych today http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mr-personality/201106/are-computer-games-makingchildren-stupid

(16) SHigeru Miyamoto Quote - Rock ‘n roll (17) Jeff Ryan, Quote from personal twitter (18) Peta, Mario supports animal cruelty http://features.peta.org/mario-kills-tanooki/ (19) Crime solutions American Crimes http://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=5 (20) Nationmaster report on crime rates in Japan compared with US http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Japan/United-States/Crime (21) Polygon gaming on Violent Youth Crimes http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/13/3983830/violent-video-game-sales-coincide-with-drop-inviolentyouth-crimes (22)Effects of Playing Violent Video Games, Sara Prot Craig A. Anderson, Department of Psychology & The Center for the Study of Violence Aug 2010 (23) Violent movie exposure, Research http://www.research.vt.edu/resmag/sciencecol/media_violence.html (24) Columbia Medical Report, Dec 5th 2007 http://newsroom.cumc.columbia.edu/blog/2007/12/05/fmri-technology-to-identify-changes-inbrain-when-viewing-violent-programs-3/ (25) Livescience on Human Nature http://www.livescience.com/5333-evolution-human-aggression.html (26) Education.com on Games and Education http://www.education.com/facts/quickfacts-video-games/videogames-lower-academicperformance/ (27) Mp Chi Onwurah on Sexism in gaming http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-04-26-mp-highlights-lack-of-women-in-games-industry (28) ESA statistics on gaming http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp (29) Kotaku Interview with EA Executive http://kotaku.com/5977427/ea-exec-says-blaming-sexism-is-a-cop-out-and-doesnt-explain-whywomen-arent-in-more-gaming-jobs (30)Ken Levine, Lead designer of Bioshock, facebook quote Misc Sources [Format is relevant to item] (31) Stephanie Chan - Giant Bomb Email Interview (See Appendix 2) (32)Alex Shchepetilnikov, Billy Goat Entertainment NI, In person interview. (33) Personally conducted survey (see appendix labelled “Appendix 1 Survey”) (34) Roger Ebert’s Journal http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art (35) Google definition of Art noun noun: art; plural noun: arts; plural noun: the arts the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power. “the art of the Renaissance”

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RATED M FOR MISUNDERSTOOD - BEN LEGGETT - GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER 2013/14 - FINAL DISSERTATION SUBMISSION