Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games be a Force for Good?

• DOI: 10.1037/a0018941
• Publication Date: 2010-06-14T17:50:11Z
• Authors: Christopher J. Fe...
• Keywords: Moral Panic; Video game

Violent video games have been a source of controversy in the United States and elsewhere for several decades. Considerable concern has raised public scientific communities about alleged deleterious effects violent games. These concerns may coincide with periodic moral panics media's influence, particularly on youth. This paper argues that negative exaggerated by some elements community, fitting past cycles media-focused panics. By contrast, potential positive game play ignored debate The current considers research areas, including aggression, but also nascent fields visuospatial cognition, social networking, use as educational tools. It is argued violence should be broadened to include both effects.