Proving that there really is a study for everything, an interesting new analysis applies International Humanitarian Law (IHL) to a variety of war-themed videogames to see how they stack up.

Playing by the Rules was undertaken by a pair of Swiss organizations, Pro Juventute, a children’s rights group, and Track Impunity Always (TRIAL), an association with a focus on international criminal justice.

The aim of the study was to “raise public awareness among developers and publishers of the games, as well as among authorities, educators and the media about virtually committed crimes in computer and videogames.”

Titles were played by gamers under that watchful eye of representatives from both organizations, along with three lawyers that specialized in IHL. Games tested included Army of Two, Battlefield Bad Company, Call of Duty 4 & 5, Far Cry 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 (referred to as Metal Gear Soldier in the report) and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Vegas.

For each title the study offers general information as a lead-in, then offers up context of the conflict in question and lists violations encountered along with legal analysis.

From FarCry 2’s Violations Encountered and Legal Analysis section:

The scenes portray extensive shooting in civilian areas and the shooting of civilian objects, including shooting at a church. All these acts go unpunished in the game. Even if we assume the attacks are not directed against these objects, the excessive destruction of civilian objects amounts to a violation of the principle of proportionality.

 

IHL allows for some collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects in carrying out hostilities, however, any expected damage must be proportional to the direct and concrete military advantage anticipated.

Overall the study stated, “The result is as deflating as reality. The organisation calls upon game producers to consequently and creatively incorporate rules of international humanitarian law and human rights into their games.”

Among the recommendations offered were:

It would be very useful if developers would incorporate more specific rules on how to conduct an operation in their games, in terms of the weapons allowed, the behaviour allowed, the military targets sought, the degree of collateral damage permitted, etc. The message of the scenes should never be that everything is allowed, or that it is up to the player to decide what is right and what is wrong. In real life, this is not the way it works.

The full study can be viewed here (PDF).


Thanks Bart! (Soldat_Louis)

A survey commissioned by CNET UK asked gamers to weigh in on the failure rate of the current generation of game consoles.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Microsoft’s Xbox 360 came in first (last?), with 60% of the respondents indicating that their 360 had failed at some point. Sony’s PlayStation 3 broke for 16% of those who took part in the poll, while the Wii stopped working for just 6%.

Even worse news for Microsoft, of those who did report their 360 breaking, 32% said the console broke twice and 19% claimed it stopped working three or more time. One unfortunate respondent indicated that their 360 failed six times.

The 360 failure rate fell to 34 percent for respondents who had purchased a console since January 2008.

Of those with broken 360s, 72% percent returned their machine to Microsoft for fixing, while 15% chose to toss the 360 or try to fix it themselves.

All in all, 1,128 people took the poll, with 591 owning a Wii, 562 owning an Xbox 360 and 473 possessing a PS3.

CNET notes that the poll has its faults—those surveyed do not constitute a random sample—but adds that since console makers do not release such information, this is about the best we can go on.

GP: What about you, how are your consoles holding up? My launch 360 red ringed once (under warranty) and my original PS3’s Blu-Ray drive failed once (also under warranty) but the Wii keeps on ticking, although it hasn’t been plugged in since February.

Recent research suggests that the Wii Fit is “no panacea” when it comes to providing a workout.

As part of a study (PDF) funded by the American Council on Exercise, 16 volunteers between the ages of 20 and 24 underwent Wii Fit training to determine the effect the title can have on health.

After establishing a baseline fitness level in each participant, each was then subjected to six activities chosen from the game especially for their ability to aerobically challenge— Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Advanced Step, Super Hula Hoop, and Rhythm Boxing. Of the six activities tested, Island Run and Free Run had the best results, though “neither was sufficient enough to maintain or improve cardiorespiratory endurance as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

John Porcari, Ph. D., one of the lead researchers on the project, had this to say about Wii Fit:

I guess anything is better than nothing, but we were a little bit underwhelmed with the exercise intensity of some of the exercises. The Wii Fit is a very, very mild workout.

In fact, playing Wii Sports may be a better workout than Wii Fit, as Alexa Carroll, M.S., the study’s author, noted:

You’re better off doing Wii Sports than Wii Fit. In Wii Sports there’s more jumping around, and you’re not constrained by having to stand on the balance pad. I just think there’s much more freedom of movement and you get a better workout.”

|Via IndustryGamers|

Research from Nielsen indicates that the average time spent in front of the boob tube by American children is on the rise.

The usage, which includes viewing DVR, DVD and VCR content, in addition to videogames, rose to an average of over 32 hours a week for kids ages 2-5 and to over 28 hours for kids between the ages of 6-11.

Average videogame usage per week was measured at one hour and 12 minutes for the 2-5 age group and more than doubled—at two hours and 23 minutes—in the 6-11 year old range.

The report also noted that children in the two-five year old age group were more likely to watch commercials than any other group, including adults.

A new study undertaken by a group of Massachusetts General Hospital researchers attempts to further explore whether a link exists between playing violent videogames and aggressive behavior in adolescents.

“M-Rated Video Games and Aggressive or Problem Behavior Among Young Adolescents” surveyed 1,254 7th and 8th grade students in Pennsylvania and South Carolina in late 2004. Youths were asked which five games they had “played a lot” in the past six months and were asked to detail any “delinquent,” bullying or physically aggressive behaviors.

Among those who were current game players, 48.8% (67.9% boys and 29.2% girls) had at least one M-rated game on their most-played list. Cross tallying and crunching variables led the researchers to conclude:

M-rated games remained a strongly significant predictor of engaging in bullying and physical aggression However, we found no significant relationship between playing M-rated games and being a victim of bullies, or engaging in delinquent behaviors.

Boys were then split off from girls and their responses analyzed separately. With boys “M-rated game exposure ceased to be a significant predictor of bullying, and aggressive personality,” though “M-rated game play was still a significant, though weaker, predictor of fighting.”

With girls, “frequent M-rated game use became an even stronger predictor of bullying and fighting.”

The group concluded:

Overall, our hypothesis that heavy play of Mature-rated, violent games would predict a greater risk for common problem behaviors, even when controlling for potential confounders suggested by previous research, was partially supported.

The researchers pointed out a few limitations of their study, which included the fact that “Involvement in problem behaviors is common among adolescents.” Also, responses from the children indicating their top five games of the past six months were not independently verified.

Interestingly, in touching on legislation that seeks to ban children’s access to “violent” videogames, and asking “who would determine whether a game fits these critieria,” the study states, “Because of these complexities, it is unlikely that a narrow category of games could be clearly identified and supported by research as broadly harmful to young people.”

GP: We have an inquiry in with one of the researchers to make sure that's it's OK to post the whole study (PDF) on the website.

Update: Just a note that the research team included Dr. Cheryl Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood.

Update 2: Here's a link to a PDF of the full study.

Joystiq’s latest Law of the Game column breaks down the theories of a research paper released last week by a Michigan State University College of Law Professor.

The paper’s author, Renee Newman Knake, argued that videogame legislation advocates could take cues from the environmental movement and employ “ecogenerism” in their bid to improve the chances of such legislation being passed in the future.

Mark Methenitis, the author of the Joystiq piece, begins by noting that Knake’s premise “starts from the basic flawed premise that we have ‘proven’ a ‘causal’ link between media violence, specifically video game violence, and real world violence.”

Methenitis then picks apart Knake’s focus on “ecogenerism,” or controlling “pollutants” (videogames in this case) in a child’s environment. He offers multiple responses to Knake, including the following analogy:

A multi-vitamin for children, in appropriate doses, has many positive and no negative side effects, except in rare cases. However, an overdoes of vitamins can be fatal. Parents who bring home vitamins don't put them out in a dish on the floor and let the kids go nuts with them; they keep them in a childproof container and give them one a day.

Methenitis concludes that the views of this research paper are “at best, a rose by any other name,” offering:

The courts have frequently said that the activity of the bedroom is beyond the scope of government control, and I, for one, think the activity of the living room should be as well.

Results of a study performed by researchers at Iowa State University have led them to believe that there is a relation between “frequent” videogame playing and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Video Games and Cognitive Control was designed to quantify the effects of playing videogames on two types of cognitive activity—proactive and reactive. Proactive attention is described as a “gearing up” mechanism, or where a player can anticipate what is coming next, versus reactive attention, which is more of a knee-jerk response (a monster jumping out).

A visual task was used to test both attention types with brain waves and responses measured in both frequent videogame players and occasional players. Both groups were charged with identifying “the color of a word when the color and word matched, such as ‘RED’ presented in red, or did not match, such as ‘RED’ presented in blue or green.” This is also referred to as the Stroop task (as seen in Brain Age).

While reactive control was similar in both groups, frequent gamers (particpants in this study who play four or more hours a day) had a propensity for exhibiting “significantly diminished” proactive attention. From a press release:

These data reveal a reduction in brain activity and disruption of behavior associated with sustained attention ability related to video game experience, which converges with other recent findings indicating that there is a relation between frequent video game playing and ADD.

While admitting that the study did have a few limitations, the researchers hoped that “our results may serve to constrain the claims of some scholars, game manufacturers, and journalists who have suggested that playing action video games ‘improves attention.’”

Director of Research for the National Institute on Media and the Family Dr. Doug Gentile, also a professor at ISU and in charge of the school's Media Research Lab, did not have his name listed in this study (other than the citation of his previous work).

The study is being published in the October 2009 issue of Psychophysiology.

Image via http://gonzoartist.blogspot.com

Results of a study conducted by the Mind Research Network indicates that playing Tetris increases gray matter in the brain, leading to improved brain efficiency and a thicker cortex.

Adolescent girls were chosen for the research, which was conducted over a three-month period. Adolescents were chosen because of the likelihood of researchers to be able to see changes in developing brains, while girls were chosen over boys since the latter group typically has had “considerably more computer game experience and, therefore, may not show detectable brain change after game practice.”

MRI scans were used to assess brain activity and progression.

Co-investigator on the study, Dr. Richard Haier, noted:

Tetris, for the brain, is quite complex. It requires many cognitive processes like attention, hand/eye co-ordination, memory and visual spatial problem solving all working together very quickly. It’s not surprising that we see changes throughout the brain.”

Image from Rihards Rozans

Did you know that playing violent multiplayer games will make you more aggressive against strangers than friends? That's the conclusion of a new study published in the latest issue of the Evolution and Human Behavior science journal. PC World's Game On column also looked at the study.

The study, conducted by psychologists from the University of Missouri, observed 42 young men divided into 14 teams of three. The players played Unreal Tournament 2004 within their team and against other teams. When playing against teammates, the mode was Deathmatch. When playing against other teams, the mode was Onslaught. Before and after each match, the testosterone and cortisol levels of each player was tested.

According to the study's abstract from the journal's web site:

For 14 teams of three young men, salivary testosterone and cortisol were assessed twice before and twice after competing in within-group and between-group video games that simulated violent male–male competition. Men who contributed the most to their teams' between-group victory showed testosterone increases immediately after the competition, but only if this competition was played before the within-group tournament. High-scoring men on losing teams did not show this immediate effect, but they did show a delayed increase in testosterone. In contrast, high-ranking men tended to have lower testosterone and higher cortisol during within-group tournaments. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that men's competitive testosterone response varies across ingroup and outgroup competitions and is muted during the former. The testosterone response during the between-group competition also suggests that violent multiplayer video games may be appealing to young men because they simulate male–male coalitional competition.

This seems to follow what I have found personally. In first-person-shooters or player-vs.-player competition in MMOs, challenging people I know is more about camaraderie. Against people I don't know, it is more about survival of the fittest and bragging rights.

What emotional responses have you found when competing in video games?

Kids Help Phone, a Canadian counseling service for youths, has released results of a survey it conducted into online gaming habits.

Entitled Online Gaming: Child’s Play or Obsession, the survey collected data from 2,793 respondents, of whom 63% were aged 14 years or younger and 64% were female. 59% percent of those polled indicated that online gaming gets in the way of their school work, while 47% indicated that their parents do not, or may not know what games they are playing online.

The study noted that respondents from Northern Territories (the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) spent more time gaming online and were more likely to be unable to quit gaming on their own versus youths from the rest of Canada. Why? According to one respondent from the region, “Cause [kids] don’t have anything else to do.”

The report includes advice aimed at both parents and gamers themselves to assist in responsible gaming, including putting the family’s computer in a central location of the house for monitoring purposes and encouraging parents get their kids to stop playing online games at least a half an hour before bed.

The report also notes some benefits of gaming:

Despite some negative press in recent years, online gaming does offer young people benefits, such as improving memory, building knowledge, developing better eye-hand coordination, etc. It also offers youth who are isolated (either geographically or socially) a quick and, to an extent, safe way to connect with others.

The full 44-page report (PDF) can be downloaded here.

In a move that has been rumored for awhile, Nintendo announced today that it had dropped the price of the Wii console to $199.99, a savings of $50. The price cut takes effect on Sunday and it marks the first price drop for the console since it was released in November 2006.

Sales for the Wii have been slipping in Japan and the United States, and price cuts on Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 have only fueled the increased competition. Sony released a statement yesterday saying that PS3 sales had risen 300 percent in the United States with a $100 price cut and the release of the slimmed down version of the console last month.

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America's VP of sales and marketing, said in a statement:

"Our research shows there are 50 million Americans thinking about becoming gamers, and this more affordable price point and our vast array of new software mean many of them can now make the leap and find experiences that appeal to them, whatever their tastes or level of gaming experience."

NPD released numbers last week that, among other things, gave a breakdown of console ownership in the United States. Kyle Orland analyzed much of the data available to get a better picture of the console landscape.

Have these price drops affected your decision to buy a new console?

A university of Southern California researcher has published the results of what has to be the first ever census of videogame characters.

Dmitri Williams and colleagues other universities conducted their research in 2006, though the results were just made available, according to a New Scientist article.

The researchers gathered the top 150 games sold across nine platforms and had gamers play each title for 30 minutes while researchers made a detailed demographic study of each character that appeared on the screen. Character stats were given additional weight based on the sales total of the game they appeared in. Resulting demographics were then matched up with U.S. census data from 2000.

The data showed that white videogame characters were over-represented in games by 7.0% and Asians by 25.0 percent, while African-Americans were under-represented by 13.0 percent and Hispanic/Latinos by 78.0 percent. Females, children and the elderly were also under-represented versus actual census results.

Games produced in Asia could account for some of that group's over-representation Williams theorized.

He also noted that the games industry may have trouble attracting customers from under-represented segments. Williams added:

For developers this would be a missed opportunity. For players it is a potential source of identity-based problems."

GP: Duplicate story, sorry. Thanks eagle-eyed GP readers.

Dr. Christopher Ferguson (left) of Texas A&M International University dropped GamePolitics a line this morning to say that he has published a new study with some interesting findings about media violence.

Ferguson's new work (co-authored by Claudia San Miguel and Richard Hartley) appears in the Journal of Pediatrics and maintains that youth violence is linked to depression and peer delinquency, not consumption of violent media. Ferguson summarized his findings in an e-mail to GP:

We examined multiple risk factors for violence in a sample of 603 mostly Hispanic youth... We assessed results across seven separate measures of youth violence and serious youth aggression, including the Child Behavior Checklist aggression and rule-breaking scales as reported by both children and their parents, involvement in violent and non-violent criminal behaviors and bullying behaviors against peers. 

 

We found that depressed mood and association with delinquent peers were the strongest and most consistent risk factors for youth violence across outcome measures.  Parents' use of verbal cruelty in domestic relationships and the child's antisocial personality traits were also reasonably strong predictors of violent behavior.  By contrast video game violence exposure and television violence exposure were not found to be predictors of youth violence. 

New research indicates that in-game advertisement which feature violent elements may be more memorable to players than nonviolent ads.

MIT's Technology Review reports on the study conducted in part at the University of Luxemburg

[Researchers] developed a simple racing game called AdRacer... A player drives around a virtual course and scores points by hitting targets along the way--as she drives, unobtrusive graphical ads are displayed as billboard graphics... while a camera records her eye movements. After playing, each player's ability to recall of brands shown on the side of the road was tested.

 

Those who played a violent version of the game, where the goal was to run down pedestrians, resulting in a blood-splattered screen, demonstrated significantly better recall of advertised brands than those who played the regular version...

Of course, while violent ads may increase the player's memory of the product, they could also be a public relations disaster in the making. Technology Review notes that University of Luxemburg researchers have also found that ad violence can lessen a gamer's opinion of a brand.

GP: The screenshot at left is from the University of Luxemburg's AdRacer.

There have been several studies over the years which have used an MRI to show changes that occur in a gamer’s brain after a bit of play time.
 
Here’s another one.
 
Researchers at the Mind Research Network found that playing Tetris for three months had increased efficiency and beefed up the amount of gray matter in the brains of a group of adolescent girls.  The results, which will be published in BMC Research Notes later this week, showed that focusing on a “challenging visuospatial task” such as a video game could not just increase brain activity but alter the structure of the brain as well by thickening the cortexes.

So, what benefit does a fatter, more efficient brain offer?  According to one of the study’s authors, Dr. Richard Haier, it may be a way to help combat the mental decline that occurs with age.
 
Not bad for an activity many consider to be a waste of time.
 
Via: Wired
 
-Reporting from San Diego, GamePolitics Senior Correspondent Andrew Eisen...

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Adelaide has linked regular video game play to gambling addiction.

Australia's ABC News reports on comments by Paul Delfabbro of the University's school of psychology. Delfabbro's team studied more than 2,500 Australian teens and found that more than half admitted to gambling within the preceding 12 months. Delfabbro commented on his findings:

If you look at those young people who are classified as pathological gamblers you will find that they do have a higher frequency of involvement with many different types of videogame. They're much more likely to play games on Xboxes and similar consoles. They are also more likely to play arcade games...

 

Some young people who don't have a lot of structured activities in their life... what they'll often do is spend very large amounts of time playing videogames or often be more likely to be the ones who go off to street venues to play arcade games.

Those sort of young people who've had this need for more sort of unstructured activities probably also drift into gambling a bit more because it's another activity which you can do if you're out on the street.

However, University of Sydney psychology professor Alex Blaszczynski said that the evidence gathered by Delfabbro does not support a causal link between video game play and compulsive gambling:

Does an interest in gambling lead to people becoming involved in video games or do video games lead to people becoming involved in gambling? Or is there a third factor which accounts for both gambling and videogames?

There’s also the possibility that some people with certain characteristics would then tend to engage in both video and technology type gaming activity and gambling as well. And that may well be linked to things like risk taking or impulsivity or other factors.

The University of Adelaide research will appear in next month's Journal of Gambling Studies.

Reports this week that the Center for Disease Control found higher than normal rates of obesity and depression in adult gamers have drawn criticism from some game and tech-oriented observers.

Cnet's Don Reisinger writes:

Due to its small sample size, methods of data collection, and location focus, the study's findings have to be taken with at least one grain of salt.

Moreover, the study found that the majority of those surveyed are overweight, regardless of their gaming patterns.

John Timmer of Ars Technica also sees caveats in the CDC research:

One of the most obvious problems... is that the study is based on survey data gathered online back in 2006... it's important to note (given the conclusions about weight) that the Wii didn't hit the market until the end of that year.

The scope is limited, as well... This limited sample is not a definitive representation of gamers in general, and mainstream reports have ignored the study's own admission to this...

Indeed, western Washington has a climate that's rather unique within the US, one that may influence decisions on indoor vs. outdoor activities... The survey data was also completely dependent on self-assessment... The correlations are curious and more study is needed.

Jordan Lund of GameStooge adds:

When you look at the actual data, the differences aren’t as extreme as you might think. For example, male gamers have an average BMI of 28.05 while non gamers score a 26.55... To put it in relative terms, you’re looking at the difference between Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown...

Yesterday, GamePolitics reported on a new study by the Center for Disease Control which indicated that adult video game players are more likely to be depressed and overweight than non-players.

Today, we're reminded that if you don't like the results of a particular study on video games, just wait a while. A new one will be along.

Today's happier news comes by way of the Washington Post. The WaPo reports on publisher-funded research indicating that video games may play a positive role in ameliorating the harmful effects of stress and depression.

Popcap's popular Bejeweled (screenshot at left) comes in for a mention:

In a preliminary study that PopCap commissioned and funded, researchers found that volunteers who played Bejeweled displayed improved mood and heart rhythms... [the] study was published this year in the Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine. Now, the company is about to launch a second phase of testing to see if the video games can have measurable effects on clinical markers of depression...
 

Many of these steps are based on the idea that depression and other disorders -- as well as everyday stress and worry -- involve systematic patterns of thought and self-doubt, and that games can distract people and put them in a different mental zone. You don't have to play with a computer or an Xbox 360 to notice the effect: Anyone who has used a crossword puzzle or Sudoku game to decompress after a difficult day recognizes the idea.

Other researchers are testing games as a means of normalizing heart rate patterns through the regulation of emotional responses.

The Center for Disease Control reports that the average adult computer game addict is 35 years old.

According to The Telegraph, the CDC partnered with researchers from Emory and Andrews Universities on the study of more than 500 adults in the Seattle-Tacoma area. The results are not encouraging for gamers, with investigators finding correlations between video game play and health risks:

• Female gamers reported greater depression and poorer health than non-gamers
• Male gamers reported higher BMI (body mass index) than non-gamers
• Gamers of both genders reported a higher than normal reliance on the Internet for social support

The CDC's Dr. James Weaver III commented on the data:

As hypothesized, health-risk factors specifically, a higher BMI and a greater number of poor mental-health days differentiated adult video-game players from non-players.

Video-game players also reported lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns.

Internet community support and time spent online distinguished adult video-game players from non-players, a finding consistent with prior research pointing to the willingness of adult video-game enthusiasts to sacrifice real-world social activities to play video games.

The data illustrate the need for further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease.

The research will be published in the October, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, reports Medical News Today.

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics reports that extensive video game and television usage by children may lead to abnormally low levels of vitamin D.

The Washington Post reports that a lack of vitamin D may lead to bone problems, heart disease, diabetes and other conditions. Low vitamin D affects roughly 70% of Americans aged 1-21, with about 9% having a level so low that it is considered deficient.

Researcher Micha Melamed of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York commented on the findings:

It's astounding. At first, we couldn't believe the numbers. I think it's very worrisome. This appears to be another result of our unhealthy lifestyles, including a sedentary society that doesn't go out in the sun much.

Via: Times of the Internet