Recent advancements in video game realism and graphics have increased the ability of video game manufacturers to depict gratuitous bloodshed and violence. The aggression generally associated with popular video games has been met with concern throughout the country and on the University of Wisconsin campus.

“Technology has made video games much more realistic and vivid,” James Gee, professor of educational psychology in the School of Education, said.

Gee added improved graphics and interfaces have “made it drastically easier to show blood and gore.”

According to Joanne Cantor, UW professor emerita of Communication Arts, “repeated exposure to video games can make violence less disturbing and upsetting.”

Canton said she feels video games are often played for extended periods of time and the effects of such violent games are more pronounced if played for such a duration.

“Violent video games desensitize people no matter what their age,” Cantor said.

Statistics from a Wheeling Jesuit University study on violence in video games reported playing video games can actually help distract people from the stresses of everyday life, regardless of the content.

Gee conducted a similar study at UW that supported evidence from the Wheeling Jesuit study. His study concluded that the majority of research on the possible negative effects of violent video games has not provided any real link between the actions of game-players and the games they play.

Gee cited Japan as the prime example for the overstatement of the negative effects of video games.

“Japan engages in more violent video play [than America] … and yet it has much less violence,” Gee said.

While critics oftentimes focus on the negative effects of violent video games on children, many have disregarded college students and other older demographics.

The older demographics playing games such as Half-Life and Grand Theft Auto have an alternate way to execute complex, planned thought processes and do not represent attitudes of brute violence, Gee noted.

The abundance of research surrounding video game effects has been aimed toward children, but recent research has begun to include the college-age demographic into findings as well.

The average video game consumer is 28 years old. According to Game-Research.com, consumers over the age of 18 were responsible for 97 percent of the total $7 billion dollars in sales for the video-gaming industry.

“Chess is a game with a strategy based on war,” Gee said in noting similarities to violent videogames. “[N]o one thinks of chess as a violent game; the focus is on strategy.”

Repeatedly playing games where much of the focus is on carnage and bloodshed socializes people to shoot now, think later according to Cantor.

“The effects are quite strong and negative [and] most of the research out there is accurate,” Canton said.

Both Gee and Cantor agreed restrictions should be placed on allowing children to play M-Rated games.

“Small children shouldn’t be playing horror games,” Gee said. “It is the parent’s responsibility [to limit them from doing so].”