Methodological difficulties, and Christian responses to video game violence

As discussed in Michelle Brown's article, there has been a proliferation of media effects studies since the advent of new technologies such as television, which have mainly been concerned with whether exposure to violent incidents on television somehow encourages violent behaviour. While there have indeed been several hundred studies looking at this, hundreds more have analyzed the methodologies of said studies and argued for and against such causation. Brown alludes to the fact that since there are apparently contradicting results coming out of these studies which often utilize very different methods, it is very easy for research to fall into a "binaristic" model.

One major problem that I did not grand much credence to while reading Brown's article before class has been defining violence, which is not trivial given the majority of violence children are exposed to is cartoon violence. And within the category of cartoon violence itself there are distinctions, as some of it is more realistic and immersive than others. It is also useful to ask about whether the violence act is being portrayed as a positive thing. The importance of such distinctions is evidenced in this montage of cartoon violence from over the decades.

Additional difficulties in showing how violent atypical acts might be related to the consumption of media via media effects studies have to do with the way in which research is done. The laboratory setting is fundamentally different than real life, and adopting the theory that experience, including witnessing violence, provides scripts of how to act, then the laboratory experience is a very unusual setting without as many scripts. Further difficulties arise when considering whether periods of short term aggression or continued exposure somehow desensitizes some individuals to violence to the extent that they will completely abandon normal behaviour and commit an act of violence when it no longer seems worthwhile to adhere to norms. Even if it can be shown that exposure to violence increases short term aggression, what I am most interested is the change in how one comes to relate to the other, and unfortunately we are barred from measuring the slight changes in perception and thought processes which compose our consciousness. This is also of interest to me because of the Christian notion that thought and the will are important to living a good life.

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." (Matthew 15:19)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27-28)

A thoughtful Christian’s response to video game violence specifically might be concerned with the emotional state maintained, and acts of the will that are made, while playing video games. Christ taught that sin was not merely present in the physical action, but that sin could also be present in an act of the will; that one might sin in thought as they might sin in deed. I think that a Christian, even recognizing that a game is a fantasy environment, should have to come to terms with willing death in video games, and finding joy in succeeding in an attempt to kill. Recognizing the notion of transference in more and more immersive games, a Christian perspective on video games needs to confront the question of to what extent an avatar in an extension-of-the-self, and what it means to feel joy elicited by terminating representations of human beings.

Counter-points to such a characterization might be:
1) Does one actually feel negative emotion (e.g. hate) while playing video games?
2) There is no other person who is the target of a negative will.
3) Is there actually a will to death or harm while playing video games? How different is moving controls to overlap shapes in Call of Duty from, say, Pong?

The fact remains though, that we choose to participate in a narrative involving the glorification of killing. What does this mean, and how can a Christian come to terms with feeling pleasure while playing violent as opposed to non-violent games?