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meaningful play 2010 travel

Session Information

TitleVideo Game Violence: Is There a Role for it in Meaningful Play?
Presenter(s)Maria Chesley Fisk, Health Games Research
Erica Biely, Health Games Research
TimeFriday, October 22, 10:30a-11:30a
LocationLake Huron Room
FormatRountable
DescriptionWe will provide an opportunity to consider the perspectives of researchers and developers on the roles and effects of violence in video games. This spring, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Video Software Dealers Association and Entertainment Software Association's case against a yet-to-be-enacted section of California Civil Code that prohibits the sale of violent video games to minors and requires strict labeling of games. The considerable controversy over violence in video games elicits talk of free speech, practical understandings of violence in games and more general media, and conflicting perspectives on extant research on the positive, negative, and unintended consequences of game violence.

Points that might be raised include the generalizability of media research to games, the appropriateness of commonly used study measures such as the competitive reaction time (CRT), the argument that violent games may have different effects on people with different personalities and life experiences, and the role of proactive teaching of pro-social approaches to conflict by parents and other educators.

We will serve as facilitators, moderators, and question posers. Attendees will be invited to share and contribute to a discussion that will be framed by the following questions:

  • Can violence play a positive role in serious and/or entertainment games? When is violence appropriate and/or necessary for a serious game?
  • Are the ESRB content descriptors (fantasy violence, cartoon violence, intense violence, sexual violence, violence, violent references, blood, animated blood, blood and gore) appropriate and appropriately used?
  • What advice can/should players be given about violence in games? What advice should parents be given?
  • What can game designers do to lessen any potentially negative effects of violence in games?
  • What additional questions could researchers address for the benefit of game designers? For the benefit of parents?
  • Has this discussion changed your views about violence in games in any way?

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