The video game industry is one of the fastest growing parts of the entertainment market, over 100 million regular gamers are joined by many more each day.

Number of notable cases of crime with video games heavily involved in the past year; errr, 1? maybe less!

Same perceived collapse of society, different decade.

George Kokkinos, West Drayton, UK

"...a few decades ago it was rock music, before that it was "immoral" dances like the waltz, and now how many people think waltzing maligns our youth?" - Martin, Cambridge

Exactly. Communication and activity media do change our preceptions - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Duncan, Bristol,

There's an article in last week's New Scientist, "Mind-altering media" that makes the point that the link between exposure to violence in films, video games etc. does have a casual effect on people's behaviour, and that this is widely accepted by researchers in the field. It is only the media and commercial interests that give the impression that the jury is still out. Personally I love shootemups and enjoy horror movies but I have to physically uninstall the PC games as I become addicted.

John, London, UK

Every time I see "people who play driving games tend to drive more aggressively" I want to show these people the "pirates prevent global warming" graph- recognise when it's not a simple cause and effect as sensationalist media would have you believe! People who want to drive fast
a) will tend to drive a little faster in real life
b) play driving games.

As far as the murders that are committed by young people with mental problems, when was it last suggested in the news that these youngsters were self-medicating psychosis by finding a harmless outlet for their feelings in violent games? It's just easier to blame society's real ills on a fall-guy that the population in general already largely disapprove of- now it's games, a few decades ago it was rock music, before that it was "immoral" dances like the waltz, and now how many people think waltzing maligns our youth?

Martin D, Cambridge, England

"Its all about interpretation. One could say that what the study really showed was that people who are aggressive when driving on the road tend to like to play driving games." - Pete, Cov

I believe the study demonstrated driving behaviour shortly following a driving game session. It was about influence not about predilection.

"Also, the 'driving on the road' component of the study consisted of being put into a driving simulator - i.e. a bigger, more expensive and slightly more realistic video game - which makes the study's conclusions even more irrelevant." - Joe, Oxford

Which is a lot better than just asking someone's subjective opinion - which is what this study is based on.

Duncan, Bristol,

Also, the 'driving on the road' component of the study consisted of being put into a driving simulator - i.e. a bigger, more expensive and slightly more realistic video game - which makes the study's conclusions even more irrelevant. Telling someone who plays racing games to "imagine they're driving on the road" before putting them in front of a stripped-down driving game seems a bit flawed as a research method...

Joe, Oxford,

@Brett Girdlestone
Get your facts straight, the murderer in that case did not own or play Manhunt, the victim did.

There needs to be more explanation around 18/15 video games. Any other toy or book that has an age on is refers to difficulty. (ie. a book for an 15 year old is just more difficult than a book for a 12 year old) People need to be told what BBFC ratings mean.

B, London,

Tom your comments are disrespecting, to people that play games. Have you taken the time to play them? .yes I agree that young people should play other games i.e. sport . its finding the right mix of exercise and computer game playing. As for violent games you cannot blame the companies blame the parents as most of the games with violence have a 18 on their label and its down to parents to take responsibility for the computer games there children play ..Most game players are intelligent people as some of theirs game are complex in there execution . so if you want to post comments on pages like this can you no what your talking about and stop blowing hot air .

gary, tunbridge wells kent,

I have to admit that I'm sick of tired of video games being blamed for the disturbed scum of this society who take it upon themselves to rape, maim or murder.

Are you trying to tell me that there was no violent people in the world before video games?! No lunatics?!

Then what was Adolf Hitler's excuse....he didn't have a copy of GTA to play on now did he?

What about the Boston Strangler...he had no manhunt to play on did he?!

To assume that any entertainment media influences people to kill is complete ignorance of the real issue here.

I think that this country needs to stop trying to look for excuses for the violence in it's society and we need to reside ourselves to the fact that there are simply some evil people in this world and they aren't influenced by a game or film...they are simply mentally unstable.

Russell McLean, Southport, England

There are two issues at stake here. On the one hand, children and adolescents lapse into a kind of electronic autism and display the traits of an addictive personality when playing these games on a regular basis, of that there is no doubt and this can never be a good thing for a person during crucial formative stages of their lives both physiologically and pyscho-socially.
The other issue is that there are always people out there who are predisposed -- primed almost -- to carry out acts of random murderous violence and if the catalyst of violent video games didn't trigger it something else would. There will always be people Alex from A Clockwork Orange who are just plain sociopathic; when stuck in prison he found the sex and violence he craved and missed in the Old Testament.
I find video games odious because of the less extreme bad behaviour they bring out in normal kids but banning them certainly won't prevent another Columbine or Blacksburg

Osborne O'Lughnasa, London,

"There should be a ban of gaming. It is so highly addictive" -Meera, London, United Kingdom

I thougt we had showed the world that communism doesnt work, but Meera here has proved me wrong.

I wouldnt her to be *my* mum.

Pete, Cov,

"Can people completely distinguish game from reality? A recent study demonstrated that people who play driving games tend to be much more aggressive when driving on the road" -Duncan, Bristol

Its all about interpretation. One could say that what the study really showed was that people who are aggressive when driving on the road tend to like to play driving games.

Pete, Cov,

Can people completely distinguish game from reality? A recent study demonstrated that people who play driving games tend to be much more aggressive when driving on the road. This wasn't just a survey of opinion or speculation but a measured study. People think they are unaffected, but their preceptions and moral standards can be subtely shifted.

Duncan, Bristol,

I wondered how long it would take the media to start publishing about game violence after the horrendous events at Virginia Tech. They lasted a few days at least...

Martin, Chester, UK

QUOTE
Some gamers aged under 15 said that they found violence in games rated for over18s “upsetting”, and a few said that they had suffered nightmares after playing.
ENQUOTE

So why are Parents allowing under 18's to play 18 BBFC titles?
The same goes for Movies - Parents should monitor what their kids are playing/watching. BRing consoles and TV's and PC's out of the bedrooms of children and into family rooms!
"Won't the kids whinge?" - Why, yes! Let them whinge - they may also learn some fundamental skills too like social etiquette and CONVERSATION!
Sheesh!

Martin, Gloucester, UK

"Players of violent video games claim that they recognise the difference between brutality meted out on screen and violence in real life."
Of course they would claim so, wouldn't they?
Is this called research?
Research should look into what proportion of criminals played violent games frequently. That might correlate the tendency to misdeeds with gaming behaviour, rather than just rely on words mouthed by gamers.
I.e. does the behaviour precede / stimulate crime? If so, then clearly something should be done about violent games.

Bill, Bristol, UK

Ok I used to play Manhunt a lot and it really was not that violent or bloody game...I can tell you Soldier of Fortune was much more bloody and even that was not too bad...probably due to the fact that graphics have been the limitation so far.

I don't believe that anyone in this world has killed someone purely because of a violent game...its usually a combination of lots of factors that has lead to them becoming a killer and the game is only a very very small part of it, if any part of it at all.

But games do make a good scapegoat for people to blame all their problems on and also a good way for newspapers to sell loads of copies with sensationlist healines and articles of little real value, pleasing their shareholders and raising their stock.

James, Maidenhead,

At most, video games and other media provide a vocabulary for the violence. When I was little we pretended to be Transformers, shooting each other dead with laser-gun noises. When my dad was little, they pretended to be cowboys and indians, making gunshot noises. No doubt in the 17th century kids played Cavaliers and Roundheads, making musket noises -- and before that they probably played Normans and Saxons and "killed" each other with swishing sword noises.

Though the vocabulary changes, the violence is consistent, because -- sadly -- violence and cruelty are inherent aspects of the human race. Children have always behaved with cruelty and even sadism towards defenceless animals and weaker children. And were our chlidren really innocent little angels then they would be repulsed and terrified by these games -- not fascinated by them. The games are a SYMPTOM of the inherently violent nature of humans -- not a cause of it.

J. Paul Dyson, Huddersfield, United Kingdom

It is impossible to allow for every trigger and remove it. So a far more practical method is to look into spotting and treating the potentially dangerous behavior. The kid in the latest incident in America was already acting very strangely. Why wasn't he offered at least some kind of counseling?

Video game violence is no different to comic or cartoon violence. And surprisingly few mass murderers have tried to emulate a cat trying to kill a mouse by increasingly preposterous methods. If we ban violent video games in case they set off someone who is already having difficulty with reality, should we also stop women wearing clothing that shows any flesh just in case we set off a potential rapist, or remove all kids from their parents in case they are about to be molested? Both crimes are far more common that someone throwing a wobbly and murdering a bunch of people, so surely they are much more urgent.

John Bailey, London, UK

How about we stop using games as a scapegoat for problems that already exist in our society! the reason these games sell so well is that there is a market out there of people who want to play violent games. You know there are millions of people playing violent computer games right now and so far about 98% have managed to not kill their families. I find it amazing to watch as the same people who protest the regulation or control of firearms are so quick to boycott a compact disc. If somebody murders somone it is the perpetraitors fault. There are some pretty violent books in the world too perhaps we should ban them too ,i mean history is far too violent for our children to learn about in school anyway.

maybe if we close the door wrap our homes in cotton wool our children will grow up to be well adjusted humans.

Christopher lawless, Dublin, Ireland

One of my staff (20 something) was introduced to WOW and became SO addicted we'd find him in the office hours before his shift - online at a company computer (a T3 line) because his home connection was dial-up. Some weeks he'd be online for over 24hrs in the office.
My manager finally had his security badge denied access to the office so as to prevent him playing whilst he was supposed to be working on the raised floor.
'Addiction' is the correct term as very real 'withdrawl' occurred once he was denied T3 access. He went so far as to alter the passwords on the office computers (prior to denail of office access) resulting in impaired staff effectiveness.

Violent video games may not encourage violence in the physical world but let us not dismiss the well known influence of audio-visual productions on the human psyche. It was/is practiced by governments and companies world-wide to induce their audiences into desired actions. (i.e.: 'Why we fight'?)

Larry, Middletown, USA/NY

It is fairly obvious that for the vast majoirty of 'normal' people these games have no effect at all. The only people who might be affected are those who are disturbed some in way already.

Those kids who blame Grand Theft Auto et al. when they get caught doing something stupid are just looking for someone else to blame for something they would of done anyway ("I didn't start it, it's billy's fault").

There was plenty of violence and murders going on before films, videos or computer games were invented - all some people want to do is find a scapegoat for the ills of our society.

Al Smith, Cardiff, UK

I personally think that anyone who has the delusion that killing in a game is just the same as in real life, and thus feels the need to recreate it must have a mind in a similar state to that of a murder who dosent play games.
Though in some cases, a person with some mental issues can use games as an outlet. Virtual murder is much less severe than real murder, after all.
Violent games take so much blame, when it turns out that the criminal just happened to have a pass time.

Paul, Liverpool, United Kingdom,

The article says "MOST players recognised that the adversaries they killed in games were not real"... what about the others? Did they NOT recognise that the killings were not real? A few disturbed minds are enough to worry about.

MMQ, Columbia, USA/MO

Good grief. Why can't people take personal responsibility for their own actions and quit pointing their fingers at video games and other things. It ruins gaming for everyone else who have actually can play mature and violent games and have the self control not to go out and "sticking an axe in someone."

Brandon Cerge, Orange Park, Florida

This half-baked 'debate' over video game 'violence' has never been anything other than dead in the water. Why is this even news?

bert, London,

I think we are missing the point. For a normal balanced individual the difference between simulated violence and the real is clear; for these people the risk that violent gaming will provoke them to real violence is small.But not all of us are mentally stable and for a very small number of unbalanced individuals these games may well provide the trigger for real life violence. This is something that no broad survey will reveal and to base conclusions on such distorted data is wrong headed. We should instead be looking at how those with mental and social skills problems are affected by the games. It only takes one disturbed person..........

Michael Joel, Oxford, England

Meera, is chess 'real' or virtual? What about D&D? What about if you're playing it on a computer?

What makes you think you the right to specify what others can and can't do? I say we should ban all team sports as they encourage aggression against others for arbitary reasons - what sort of example is that for 'youngsters'?

Micah, London,

Hmmph, I notice that all the images used in this article are from World of Warcraft, yet the explicit violence is all from Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt.

I am a WoW player, and i manage to do a full-time job, eat, sleep and even go out and see friends (most of whom dont play WoW btw.)

And what exactly does "distort personal priorities with unhappy results" mean? Im not off becoming a teenage mum if thats what youre referring to...

Anne, Wolverhampton, uk

Maybe it would be more obvious to ignorant parents if they were shelved in an adults only section of shops and beyond an 'adults only' warning banner in online shopping baskets. Stack them next to video nasties and shop-legal porn and then less informed parents might learn to equate adult games with other gritty grown-up entertainment.

Zippy, Leeds, UK

The people who make these outlandish claims probably never played a video game in their life. Gaming is part of the recreation industry and is perfectly safe. I and many people I know have been playing games since the Sinclair Spectrum was available and we all hold sensible jobs and are perfectly well adjusted. Addiction is a word that is too easily bandied about. Games are not addictive full stop. I know plenty of youngsters who are bright, intelligent, communicative, sensitive children who love video gaming. Gaming is used as an excuse by morons who need one to excuse their poorly developed lifeskills when they find themselves in trouble. "Oh its not my fault Im a victim of video games" Paul is correct 18 means 18.

John , Bath, BANES

Re: Meera

Age restrictions on games will work as poorly as age restrictions on videos and alcohol.

What we need perhaps is to tax them out of the teenage price range, and to provide heavy subsidies for educational games?

Mark, Woking, UK

Its people like Jack Thopson that have brought religion into the games argument, not myself. Quotes like "The Bible doesn't promote killing innocent people, Grand Theft Auto does" just shows a little ignorance can go a long way

Colin, Birmingham, midlands

"While parents agree that there should be age-appropriate labelling,"

The games industry and retailers have been doing that for years, but most parents are pretty lazy and are happy for the telly and console to babysit for them. Even if it involves slaying hookers and dealing drugs.

As a side note I consider myself a hardcore gamer, and I despise the GTA/Manhunt style of garbage that's being popularised at the moment.
But most people are sheep so there is probably a couple of years left on that particular dead horse.

Ben, Manchester,

When I was a kid and, at the time, had no access to a computer my friends and I used to hang about the streets and parks. Fine you may say, that's what kids should be doing. To an extent, I would agree. We spent time clinbing trees, cycling, fishing etc. However we also would play with fire, knives, fireworks and air pistols, air rifles, high power catapults. One game we played involved firing 'Whistling Moon Traveller' rockets at each other in running battles. The point i'm making here is that kids enjoy pushing the limits of what they are allowed to do, it's part of growing up. Remember that this was BEFORE violent computer games existed. Removing a virtual outlet for these adolescent experiments does not mean that kids will not play dangerous games. Is it not better to play this out in a virtual arena of your own peers than to risk genuine injury like the loss of an eye, burns etc. in the real world ?

AndyC, west drayton, middlesex

For the love of all that's good and decent, don't bring religion into this. The amount of "history" in those books is questionable, although I'm not questioning the moral lessons to be learned from them.
I've been gaming for over 20 years and have yet to murder, maim or rape anyone. I have a family and I've managed to hold down the same job for over 10 years.

Yes, some games glorify violence, but they're usually poor once the novelty wears off. The good games, the ones that are well played and fondly remembered only use violence as a means to an end.
Grand theft auto might let you make some morally dubious choices, but it's the gameplay and plot that keep you coming back. It's not a lot different from watching a good, but violent gangster film. The fact that it's interactive never disconnects me from reality.

I play the game, switch off and life continues as usual. It's just entertainment, pure and simple.

Andy Batley, Barnsley,

I agree, games can't be blamed for society's ills. However, the thrill of games for gamers is really the urge to progress and win points then it shouldn't be too big a deal to phase out material that is clearly distasteful and use the technology with other more wholesome exciting material.
Like the research, I have no 'evidence' that seeing people maimed and molested is doing me harm but my feelings tell me otherwise!
substitute it with

Kairen Cullen, London, UK

Colin from Birmingham, I agree with your point, but there is a difference between a game, in which gratuitous murder & violence are glorified and used for entertainment, and the Bible (or other texts) which are reporting these events from the history of Israel, and the surrounding nations.

David Ford, Chingford, London

What is wrong with these people?
If a 14 year old dies because his freind was addicted to Manhunt i ask how the hell does a 14 year old get a 18 game.
If you don't want youngsters playing these games then get the parents to not buy them for them.
Comon sense here; it's an 18 for a reason.
Stupid parents it's always their fault.
Sorry about blamming the parents but it does kind of link for a 14 to get an 18 game.

Brett Girdlestone, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire

ok i've played games since I was about 4 years old.. including very violent ones (manhunt included) and I have never beaten someone to a bloody pulp or hit them with hammers, nor have i slept with a prostitute whilst running a policeman over with my stolen pimp mobile.
I'm 24 now and if the effects haven't kicked in now I don't think they ever will, stupid people do stupid things, the game doesn't make somebody be a killer, it's just a person who wants to be a killer that copies a game and all the fools start placing the blame on the games... use your brains

Warren Brooks, Hyde, UK

In responce to meera's comments, everything enjoyable is addictive, and i see no reason to pick on the videogame industry [perhaps we should start on shopping first : ) ] I also disagree that video games are less real; i see them as being no more false than books.

As far as preventive action goes, can we seriously cut down on something with so little obvious signs of threat, and which is enjoyed by an audience of over half the population, and rising?

Chris Deans, Edinburgh, Scotland

Me - I would ban books. They are full of violence, and I've seen readers absorbed by them. They will sit and stare at the pages for hours. Ban them, ban them now. And tough penalties for those who sell books as well.

Paul, Stafford,

Meera, you say prevention is better than the cure...well its the parents and retailers who should prevent it. Not the developers. Rated 18 means 18.....

Paul Devereux, Skegness, Lincs

Nice to read a sensible viewpoint

tom, London, England

There should be a ban of gaming. It is so highly addictive. We should encourage our youngsters to play real games rather than virtual games. Prevention is better than cure. We should take preventive action. We must take responsiblity and ensure our youngsters do not get into these bad habits. There should be warning notices on all games as to their addictive nature. Youngsters need to be warned at an early age.

Meera, London, United Kingdom

Ive been playing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 on the XBOX 360 and have mocked up my Saab 93 to look like a Black Hawk Helicopter, worn full combat gear into the office today and have camoflaged my desk, I dont think anyone knows Im here yet. I dont beleive games have any effect on me.

Sshhhh ....CONTACT, GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

John Dowding, Bath, BANES

I think you'll find that the boy who was killed was the one into the game manhunt rather than the killer. I hate the selective memory the media has when it comes to trying to blame games for societies problems. So what, should we ban games? ok then, lets ban the bible first. thats got death, prejudice, slavery and child killing in it and it's supposedly the most popular book in the world.

colin mills, birmingham, midlands

As usual the eggheads miss the point.
Knowing the difference between right and wrong is not the question to ask.
The question to ask is: Does playing ultra-violent video games make one 'feel' more compelled towards violent acts.

I'll bet this Cho ho in Virginia knew the difference between right and wrong.

Once again I read one of these 'reports' and think: Horse manure.

sam, edinburgh, uk