Jonah Leech

Professor Barnes

English Composition II

17 March 2019

Casebook

BBC Science. Are Video Games Really That Bad?. 2015, https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38qzq8.

Accessed 9 Mar 2019.

A group under BBC, known as BBC Horizon, created this documentary as a means to show the audience
exactly what video games do to our brains. The documentary is available to watch for free on dailymotion.
This documentary is almost an hour long so there is a lot going on that can be used for showing both
sides of scientific thoughts towards the everlasting effects of gaming. The entire documentary is a view of
both sides, and the scientific reasoning behind both sides. To summarize most of the documentary, there
are scientists that believe the gaming industry explicitly incites violence and that it puts you in the shoes
of a killer. On the opposite spectrum, the other scientists believe that gaming has benefits, where it opens
the players mind and it has no real world affect on the violence of players. The purpose was to inform the
audience of scientific thoughts and explanations of the real-world effects of gaming. The audience being
those who want to determine through science if video games do cause those effects or if they don’t. The
publisher / creator of this documentary is BBC, that’s an extremely well-known source. The information is
very relevant and does not weigh in on irrelevant information. All information within the documentary is
through scientists and those who have pledged to research these effects specifically. The documentary
was created in 2015, so in terms of technology currency, it is very relevant as well. This documentary also
reflects very well for answering my main question, which is “ How do video games actually influence
those who play them?”. The science and many interviews within the documentary provide great
answers for this question.

DeCamp, Whitney, and Christopher Ferguson. “The Impact of Degree of Exposure to Violent Video

Games, Family Background, and Other Factors on Youth Violence.” Journal of Youth &

Adolescence, vol. 46, no. 2, Feb. 2017, pp. 388–400. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10964-016-

0561-8.

The author of this article is Whitney Decamp and Christopher Ferguson. This source would be good for

gathering quick statistics that measure a wide variety of people. The problem is that it is short scope of

the findings, but the findings are also good because they are very specific. The intended audience for this
are those who need to get good statistics that have specific details (such as those who were tested, what

race / age / gender). The article does not follow any sort of bias. The article was created in 2016, again, in

terms of technological relevance it is very recent. A reason this article works well for me as well is that in

the conclusion, it states that the data which was gathered can be used to show how video games aren’t

causing violence but family and social factors are. This adds to the ability to answer my question, where

there is now a counter argument for what does cause violence for the youth associated.

Fournis, Gaël, and Nidal Nabhan Abou. “Violence, Crime, and Violent Video Games: Is There a

Correlation?” Psychiatric Times, vol. 31, no. 9, Sept. 2014, pp. 1–4. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&A

N=103912595&site=eds-live.

The authors of this article are Gael Fournis and Nidal Nabhan Abou, both medical doctors. Again, a very

science and data driven article – there is a ton of statistics to go about with this article. Something that

adds to their credibility is literally their credentials. They aren’t just people researching the topic, these are

doctors who have that knowledge and ability to successfully determine their findings and what they can

correlate to. What also helps to add to their credibility is that they are psychologists. In terms of recency, it

is a bit dated, coming in from 2014. As stated previously, though, in terms of gaming and technological

advances this is pretty recent. The authors, like previously, intend to show statistics regarding the impacts

of video games and a person’s behavior. There findings, as shown farther into the article, were very

conflicting because they found that the correlation was very weak and that video game violence did not

always have a negative effect. This works well to help with my question because, again, it offers great

insight to the results of how video games can cause violence – but also that the correlation is weak and in

comparison to other forms of violence, video games remain very low on the spectrum.

Goldbeck, Lauren, and Alex Pew. “Violent Video Games and Aggression.” National Center for Health

Research, 27 Mar. 2018, www.center4research.org/violent-video-games-can-increase-

aggression/
This article is written by Lauren Goldbeck and Alex Pew. Out of all of the sources prior, this is definitely

my favorite one. The way the information is portrayed with this is extremely valuable, and it gives a great

overview of what many research findings have found over time. There is great resources that are cited

and the others do a great job at the end, in the conclusion, of stating that video games can definitely be a

cause of aggression (but also not all aggression is violent) but there are many other factors in one’s life

that can actually cause the violence. Such as mental health issues, access to weaponry, or family life.

The article is from 2018, so very recent, giving a more updated view on this controversial topic. There is

also an instance where the authors state that the findings for this topic are really hard to tie into for the

youth up until their adulthood because there needs to be a lot more sampling and lengthy research. This

source is good for answering my question because it shows that the APA (American Psychological

Association) has weighed in with their findings, and that video games are a factor for aggression.

Keim, Brandon. “What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence.” PBS, Public Broadcasting

Service, 28 Feb. 2013, www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/what-science-knows-about-video-

games-and-violence/.

This article was written by Brandon Keim, from NOVA (PBS). This is one of my top tier articles as well. It

has different accounts and interviews from different people and their findings of video game violence

studies. A great piece I found was under the second section of the article, where a scientist from Ohio

State University says that through their findings, it shows that video games don’t cause aggression but

rather amplify what aggression is already there. Which I can concur with from my personal experiences

as well. PBS is a very credible and reliable source. As is the information used throughout this article.

There is also accounts, which have been a pattern from most of these sources, that many findings are

extremely credible yet and it may take 20 to 30 years to find a direct correlation. This article was created

in 2013, so, again, it is a bit dated. It works well for me, though, because it gives good insight on how the

realistic viewpoint is of video game violence and it helps provide a decent base for answering my

question.
Penney, Linda. Personal Interview. 10 Mar. 2019.

This interview was conducted with my grandma, who raised me. The reason I’m keeping this is because I

am a huge video gamer (of all genres, child themed and explicitly violent) and have been playing games

since I was very young. She gave me great insight at how early on in my childhood I was a very angry

kid, and that she thought the cause of that was because of how much video games I played. BUT, she

stated that as I got older she realized that it wasn’t the video games that had caused me to be angry, but

my family life and social factors were the true cause. She stated that video games had, in a way, given

me a release from my stress and helped me cope and stay calm with the unbearable childhood

circumstances I faced.

Schuna, Courtney. “Video Games Aren’t a Cause of Violence.” Advance-Titan (Oshkosh, WI), vol. 124,

no. 4, 4 Oct. 2018, p. A4. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&A

N=133039147&site=eds-live.

This article written by Courtney Schuna, is a quick and good mind opener for how the average gamer

understands gaming and its effects. The author points to specific studies done by a couple different

sources that point out how video games aren’t the cause of violence. This source, though, gives a new

spectrum of this topic. Where there is now talk of how it does not cause violence, but rather, makes us

desensitize violence! Very interesting to think about, and I think this is great for helping me answer my

question because it opens a whole new can of worms for another possible outcome or answer to the

violence topic. Something which adds to their credibility is that the author does not just spit out their

opinion, they acknowledge what effects gaming does have, but combats and counterargues with facts.

Most specifically, how games can teach us about the actual behaviors of people and valuable life lessons.

This article is definitely more geared towards gamers, but it can also be geared towards those who may

not understand the underlying facts in gaming and certain themes that are apparent in games. It is

definitely a great mind opener and will be essential to the answering of my question.