Taking video games to task

Editor's Notes

• #4: I’d like to share a slide from my media effects courses – one that shows us how we might better understand the way in which media content – the Stimuli – might eventually trigger a human Response. Often times, we study media content because we are deeply concerned about how on-screen content might be expected to impact the frail minds of audiences (such as children, in this example). Such a focus is a noble and a reasonable one, but it doesn’t consider one incredibly important element for the research model: the organism.
• #5: Looking to my communication studies roots, I’m reminded of the very simple definition of the communication process offered by the late James McCroskey – communication, to him and Virginia Richmond (his partner and research associate) was a process of stimulating meaning in the mind of another. That is, a “thing” was communicated whenever meaning was created in the mind of the receiver of a message. Sender characteristics, channel characteristics, and even message characteristics can of course impact this “stimulation” process, but it wasn’t until the receiver of a message “assembled all of the bits of the thing” that we could conclude that a communication had occurred. As media scholars, it is paramount that we understand the same goes for audiences – from passive movie audiences to co-creators of video game violence: the moral panic is not about the content, but about the “nexus of moderating and mediating factors” (to borrow from Joseph Klapper) that lead to media’s potentially profound impact on us all.
• #8: Another incredibly important aspect of video games: They are inherently unfinished texts. That is, games are created in order to be completed by the gamer, not simply consumed by a (passive) audience member. In this process, gamers take control over the narrative and the on-screen action, writing each page of the game with each button press and action.
• #15: Procedure   Participants (N = 110, 63 females, M age = 20.5, SD = 1.62, n = 62 upper-level undergraduates) were recruited to participate in a study on playing video games from a large, mid-Atlantic university, and were given course credit for participation. After obtaining informed consent, participants were randomly assigned to play a custom-made version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA:SA; Rockstar Games, 2004) with either a closed-ended waypoint mission or an open-ended freeplay mission. Prior to gameplay, participants were asked to complete a short demographic profile along with measures of self-reported video game play and physical activity lifestyle habits. They were also given a tutorial with the video game in the form of a custom-created level that allowed them to practice walking, bicycling, and driving controls prior to the experimental game session (these being the three transportation choices available in-game). Following gameplay, participants were asked questions regarding body shame and presence. Experimental sessions lasted between 20 and 30 minutes in total, with 10 to 15 minutes of this devoted to gameplay.