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This week on VG Pulse, we are left without supervision again, and start off with side notes of funny college essays and broken blu-ray drives on laptops before diving into the news. We have some interesting news this week in that the Oculus Rift has been bought out by Facebook, and that anti-video game California Senator Leland Yee has been arrested on charges of corruption, bribery, and gun trafficking! We skip the forums this week and finish off with my first look of FFX/X2 Remaster! All this and more up next on VGP182! -Aki
Show Notes
Music
Intro – Kill La Kill / Uzu Sanageyama Theme
Outro – Kill la Kill / Satsuki Kiryuin Theme
Links
Let’s Play GTA 5
Facebook Buys Oculus
Demanding Refunds
Leland Yee Is A Hypocrite
EA Loses Worst Company In America
The Special Edition Has Reached Critical Mass
Don’t Consume 4 Liters Of Energy Drink
First Look
Final Fantasy 10/X-2 HD – PS3, PSV – ESRB “T” – DarkGodAkito
Wikipedia
Official Site
Amazon
Hosts
MillenniumX17
DarkGodAkito
Hey guys, I just discovered your Podcast and after listening your last VG episode regarding Violence on Video Games I couldn’t help but write this message because I love psychology!
VIOLENCE AND VIDEO GAMES
So far any study done trying to proof a direct connection between violent behavior and violent games has been a text book example of two common fallacies: “simple cause” or “correlation proves causation”.
First definition: “It is assumed that there is a single, simple cause of an outcome when in reality it may have been caused by a number of only jointly sufficient causes”.
Second definition: “Correlation between two variables does not necessarily imply that one causes the other”.
Basic example: X person killed Y. Before killing Y, X ate many donuts.”
Non sense conclusion assumed by sensationalistic media of your choice:
“Eating many donuts caused violent behavior.”
There is a pretty good book about this subject called “Grand Theft Childhood”. Why is this book different than any other book that touches the same subject? Answer because of the authors and the study-based focus. This book was written by Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D. and Cheryl K. Olson, Sc.D. co-directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, a division of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. The study done among kids, teenagers and parents was a $ 1.5 million study founded by the U.S. Department of Justice. No study done before was that scale and that budget.
This book not only disagrees with the assumption that “violent games cause violent behavior” but also mentions that in most cases censorship from the parents and media is mostly useless. Teenagers are familiar with Internet and in most cases the kid/teenager will play that “forbidden game” in someone else’s house. According to that book communication between the parent and the kid it’s always more effective than saying “do not do that” or “because I said so” without giving any kind of explanation. Playing a violent game or watching a violent movie next to your kid providing information about what’s happening on the screen could be more effective than throwing a label to his/her face and walk away. Also not all kids have the same level of sensitivity, what makes a kid laugh can give other kid nightmares for months. Any case should to be treated as an individual case and there is no general rule that will work for everyone. Unfortunately most parent associations do not like listening these recent studies and evidence because that implies that they have the final responsibility, not the media, not politicians or the teachers. Nobody wants to listen “that’s your responsibility” instead of “that’s not your fault”.
Thanks for your time and have fun!