Replying to Does Gaming Affect Behaviour...

Exactly. According to psychology, there are two factors which effect aggressive behaviour (either with young children, adolescents or older persons), and both of them are rather independent of video games.

The first one is his/hers social situation - this includes both wealth and the relationship with the family. Also, this happens to be the most common cause of violence in the world. You can see buying games as a way of losing money, but I doubt this influence can be big enough. And the second factor is the psychological status of the person itself, usually referring to the existence of certain neurosis/psychosis. Again, violent (and other) video games may cause one of these "illnesses" to occur, but other causes are overwhelming.

What can we conclude from this? Games do have a small part in driving a person crazy/mad/destructive, but their influence is small enough when compared to other issues an individual may encounter.

Whenever you watch the news and see a mentally unstable kid go on a killing spree, the parents always ultimately blame video games. Personally, I think it's just an excuse for poor parenting. . . although it doesn't work as they expect since they must be poor parents if they allow their children to play violent video games if they think it's turning them into a psychopath. . . I dunno, it's a complicated subject, and I'm going to steer clear of it when I go to do my psychology coursework this year

Also, when you see people trying to explain why people drive / talk / whatever more aggressively, they usually go for video games, despite the fact that our behaviour is governed by our genetics and chemical imbalances, and fine tuned by learning from our superiors and our peers. Video games are none of those, unless you really do have a mental disorder, in which case the parents should be more vigilant towards their children playing video games if the signs of them becoming more aggressive after a game of Gears of War are obvious.

Indeed as you said, it depends on the person.

I skateboarded for 9 years on and off, and perhaps in later stages with enough to be a professional.

However I have watched 100's skateboard video's, played every single tony hawk game ever made, the first skate games made (like in california games), sk8, sk8 2, andy mcdonals game, thrasher skate and destroy, grind session etc etc.

But I'll tell you what, it has no effect on my skateboarding what so ever, the only effect is my attitude towards the newbies, as alot of them turned out to be "omg tony hawks mannnn" kind of people.

I highly doubt GT of NFS will affect any future driving for me either, nothing I watch that's over top does, I'm far too sensible and I suppose if your the opposite, you might say "scared" of the effects.

Skateboarding for example (where things can be alot more controlled and less deadly than car mostly), I tried the *all out* approach of trying something stupid I knew I could not do (like alot of people do on a daily basis) and found out from the first attempt that it sucked.

So I no longer consider that option, that's for sure, but I decided that before tony hawks came along lol.

yes gaming definitely affects the behaviour of the person, but it depends on how much you get involved in games.

I read in a recent survey that people who play Racing games tend to drive more rashly and also break road rules.
I am an avid player of NFS series where speed matters. I play an average of 4 hours each day. So as I get on teh road I get the same feeling as I'm in the game, and I tend to go faster zipping across the vehicles. But this happens only when I'm driving alone, when I've some one acompanying with me I'll be normal.

But the best part of playing such games is it helps me to keep alert on the roads and aslo gives me quick reflex to counter any unexpected blocks in the road.

So gaming does its benefits as well as ill effects.

Just to jump in here and throw my opinion out... I apologize if I step on someone's toes or if I repeat things that have already been said like 10 times <__< I read a few posts from this thread just to try and see if anything I say would be redundant with them, but I'm just going to say what I think now.

Like... Literally three days ago my English class was having this very discussion, about whether or not video games can be the main cause of violent acts or if they're going to be a contributing factor at all.

And, it basically boils down to every person is going to interpret the game differently.
But that is true of ANY story-type-activity.
Hell, the people thta go and shoot up their schools "because" of a video game they played would have been just as likely to do it if they watched a violent television show or read a violent book.
Has anyone actually blamed a violent or disturbing book for a shooting or related incident though?
I haven't ever researched that question, but none that I know of.

Video games, are not the central cause as far as I can tell. Because most of the disturbed individuals who are affected so much by playing these games, if the games were absent from their lives, would only find some other form of fuel or inspiration.

I know, I, myself was raised on violent video games and Television.
And I have always had a very vivid and creative imagination... Morbid 80% of the time too.
Half of my teachers asked me if I was going to start shooting people last year when I first started wearing my black trenchcoat to school. I still wear it, haven't shot anyone. (I know that's a little off-topic, but this all kinda ties together in my mind.)
So to recap... I've played violent video games my entire life, I have a violent, morbid and creative imagination, I wear all black most of the time, black trenchcoat, I carry a knife in my pocket at all times (Usually for contsructive purposes like openning packages)... And on occasion I am prone to listenning to metal (Though not as often... I'm listenning to Neil Young right now, for example)
And I can pretty much say for a fact that I am never going to be getting a small group of people together and going to shoot up my school... Or any other area where there are living people.
Why?
Because I'm not insane, obviously... My logic and common-sense still prevents me from being quite that stupid.

Video games do not remove someone's common sense. And they do not create an illogical mind from a logical, sane one.

What is my point?
I, in no plausible way, believe that video games are a catalyst for any of these violent acts and shootings.

I believe that if someone already has some mental issues (LIke a lack of conscience, logic or common sense) then observing fictional violence and mutilation may not be the best choice for them. That it might do nothing except amplify the negative conditions... But I wouldn't blame that on video games.

People who don't feel they can control themselves or can't logically see that shooting up your school "because you thought it wolud be cool like in the video games" is about the stupidest thing that could ever pall throught tehir heads, probably shouldn't be playing those kind of video games, watching those kind of shows, hearing those kind of stories, or reading those kind of books.

I tihnk that's all >__>
I apologize for the typos, I'm typing kinda fast.
And I'm sorry if that's poorly contsructed ond stuff, the original post was only supposed to be like one paragraph but I just kept adding onto it as I thought of more things...
And it turned into this.

Umm I never heard of any of those incidents.

And some of that stuff is true, but it is extremely minor and not necessairly bad.

You can say the same for standard ordinary life, it influences you to talk in a certain manner, do certain things, if you get too depressed about life not going your way (just like a game) you ay commit suicide.

So it's perfectly normal for one to use phrases and teachings on a reasonable level from video games if one plays them so often.

What we should be looking at is the differences, not the **** that matches up with other influencial media, life in general and otherwise.

Too much playing of games could lead to suicidal because of something a person could not achieve;
Too much playing could lead to changed behavior, and personality.

Such as :

-When someone asks you how old you are, you may respond with : Level *your age*
-When someone is really mad, you might say that that person is on aggro mode.
-When a person asks you for a pencil, you might say, "Press the accept button" and such;
-If your mom asks you how you are doing at school, you might respond with your character's stats.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Games are starting to affect the behavior of children by the millions.

Like when that kid who couldn't join a certain faction in WoW and commited suicide because he couldn't join.
Or when that kid who was trying to reenact a scene from WoW by jumping off a building thinking
that his colossal parachute in WoW would save him.

Gaming is affecting many people. One more example, Counter-Strike.

Say, when you're playing dodgeball, and you hit someone in the head.

You might outburst saying : "BOOM HEADSHOT!"

Or when you get someone in the back and they get knocked over, you might respond with :

"HUMILIATION"

WoW and Counter-Strike are just one of the many perps out there that are effecting many children.

So my answer is yes. Gaming does affect behavior.

Does Gaming Affect Behaviour...

No. Correlation versus Causation.

Long discussions made short.

May be it sounds stupid but there have been times when I have had that sensation to be in a real life Counter-Strike battle...

Yeah, I guess too violent games let you simulate an experience that you otherwise wouldn't have had in real life.

If flying a flight simulator gives you that chill of landing a aircraft, similarly a mission flight simulator gives you pleasure in shooting down other aircraft. Going the same lines, violent games like CounterStrike and Half-Life etc, give you the pleasure of bloodshed...

But then it has positive effects too... your quench for pleasure is restricted to that game. You play, you shoot, you feel relaxed. It helps you freshen up your mind. Above all it quenches the male thirst for destruction.

Telling people about addictions won't help them avoid them, heck tell them what could happen even if it won't and they'll still do it, Iv'e been smoking since I was 13 after all and I'm still a heavy smoker *shrugs*.

I can laugh and joke about killing without a problem, but as you said, gamers and what can for the majority tell the difference between reality and otherwise, so even though I joke about death and killing, I may not be relating to real killings and deaths .

Modularity and broadening ones horizon isn't so bad a thing as long as you survive. I have a fairly open humour and open mind because of aspects like gaming and such, i'm alot more layed back (perhaps I should be a little less so though).

Oh well.