Mock: Question 1

Plan:

Introduction- Establish question, name textual analysis (Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Fallout 3)

Name method of resarch (eg: google [search Violent games cause violence]), What source does it give me (secondary/academic/varied), number of hits (395'000)

Answer:

My topic is Crime in the Media with the hypothesis Does the desensitization of violence in video games encourage people to commit crime?

The texts I decided to analyze were two 18 certificate games and one 15 certificate: Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Call of Duty: World at War.

My first method of research was to use the search engine Google to try and get a wide range of secondary sources to draw information from. I typed Violent games cause violence into the search bar and was presented with 395'000 results. From looking at the first few results I found I had a mix of academic and more public/popular opinion and criticism. Two results caught my attention; the first was http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/goldstein.html which is an academic secondary article and the other was http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1723 a popular opinion article. Both articles spoke against the idea that games cause violence and were very good sources as one provided me with a scientific view point from a recognised proffesor and the other (although biased) provided me with a number of obvious points speak against my hypothesis. I accessed both these sites through google on November 6th 2008.

After finding two very different sources that oppose my hypothesis I decided to look up Jack Thompson on Wikipedia as I had heard of his campaign against violent media in the past. Although the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(attorney)#Disbarment_proceedings (accessed November 17th 2008) did give me plenty of information on Jack Thompson and his work it gave me very little information to support my hypothesis; It simply gave me a few points on which Thompson based his campaign (Need to mention type of theory he seems to follow).

After using websites I decided to look into another source by using newspapers. Using the archive section of my local library I found an old issue of the Daily Mail (April 30th 2008) which had a story of a stabbing outside a game store during the midnight launch of Grand Theft Auto 4. Although there is no real evidence to support the idea that games cause violence the article does present many connections and it is presented in a clear and professional manner.

I then decided to follow up the newspaper source with book sources; Contexts (by Karen Sternheimer) and Studying Videogames (by Julian McDougall & Wayne O'Brien). Contexts generally contradicts my theory and simply writes off games influencing violence as nothing more then a scapegoat. Studying Videogames (page 59, Chapter 3) gives views and evidence for both sides of the argument. 

After reading up on several secondary sources I decided to look into getting my own primary sources. A chose three games that all contain extreme violence to analyse and see if any of them had content that could influence users. 

I first decided to analyze the game Call of Duty: World at War to gain a certain level of perspective on the matter of extreme content in games and how necessary it is for the experience. CoD:WaW  is a WW2 game based within real battles and situations, it uses a very detailed gore engine that allows character models to be mutilated horrifically; limbs blown off, organs exposed by explosions and other such movie grade violence. However unlike other games that would feature this violence CoD was only certificate 15 rather then 18. This is because the violence within the game is pivotal in painting a realistic picture of real world events. I'm using this game as a case study because it will give me a certain level of perspective on my other case studies that use violence as nothing more then a feature from which to enhance and sell the game and let me see why there would be a different level of psychological influence. 

Next I decided to look at a more questionably violent game to get a complete contrast to CoD:WaW. The game I decided to look at was Gears of War 2 by doing two comparison play sessions with myself and someone else. Analyzing GoW2 from two different points of view gave an idea of how desensitizing regular exposure to violent media can be. 

The results I got from the binary player study of Gears of War 2 has strong elements of the Culmination Theory. it is also very similar to a Research study conducted by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman which seems to rely on the idea of Culmination Theory. However my analysis of GoW2 could also follow the theory of Reception Analysis because both of us took different thoughts and feelings from the play through.

For my final textual analysis I created a focus group to study the effect of violence in Fallout 3 on a varied sample of users. The sample consisted of 28 people aged 11-16 who were given a questionnaire asking them there age and how much they play videogames. The rest of the questions resolved around what they thought of the violence and how it made them feel. The reason I used 11-16 year olds for a game certified 18 was because most of the media focus of violent crimes caused by games is committed by youths too young to be playing the games. 

As well as textual analysis for my own primary sources I thought that emailing the makers of these more violent games to ask why they feel the need to implement such content and to see whether or not they think there is any truth behind such theories. I emailed Bethesda games Studios and Epic games asking them about their opinions and experiences involving violence in video games. Epic failed to reply and Bethesda simply said they couldn't comment at this time; both emails were sent on December 6th 2008.