Video games : Are they too violent? Any correlation?

Video game violence

See also games directory entries (click here)

From time to time there is a so-called public outcry (possibly really some vested interest manipulating the media) against video games because their violent content supposedly inspires actual real-world violence.

Time and again studies have sought to prove it, and failed because there appears to be no causal link between the games and the actions of some people who commit violence.

Not only is there no causal link in that direction, it is also noted that of those people who commit physical acts of violence, very few of them play violent video games.

A more logical explanation is that someone who is pre-disposed to violence might enjoy playing this type of game, rather than the other way around.

However even this suggestion is flawed because, through history, these types of criticisms have been targeted at anything new and strange that the "older" generation doesn’t happen to like: Jazz and comic books, for example.