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+--- Thread: CBS News: Stop blaming the video games! (/showthread.php?tid=3314)
CBS News: Stop blaming the video games! - Dark Jaguar - 30th October 2005
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/28/tech/gamecore/main992768.shtml
In a surprising move, this article (which is very obviously being written BY a gamer, admittedly) from CBS actually seems to handle the issue responsibly.
SEEMS to, now let me play devil's advocate here and note one thing. An anecdote is not sufficient evidence. However, at the same time it does bring up a point. If games cause people to become violent, then why aren't all gamers violent? They may say "well, maybe not all gamers are, but in the small few who do turn violent, it's the games that did it".
I might as well argue that when I flip a coin, every time it comes up tails, an invisible dragon did it. The dragon only makes it tails half the time though. It's an unfalsifiable position to take! In a short sentance, it is not scientific. To make it scientific, they need to design a test wherein the majority of those who play games would turn violent more than what random chance would allow. Considering what we can see with violence statistics, which are less that controlled I must admit, I have my doubts such a test would actually conclude that people who play violent games turn violent. Remember, it would have to be double blinded in some fasion... I suspect the best way would be if the party that is playing games and the party that was not were not even aware that there was another group being tested.
At most, from the statistics I've seen, it would have to be video games PLUS some other element. If they do a test showing that the presence of both DOES yield violent behavior more often than chance alone would account for, then it is clear what that means. The parents of the world would then need to check to see if their kids have this extra element and then would have to be prudent and withhold games from their children.