Videos - only a game? by Howard Fienberg The average teenager
seemingly solves all his problems with guns in the virtual world
of video games. So might video games serve as a 'gateway'
device, turning players of violent games into real-life
murderers? The American court system is trying to find out.
Relatives of victims in the massacre at Columbine High School
have sued the makers of video games, saying that the games led
to the killings (1). However, research has so far failed to
identify any concrete link between video games and violence.
Indeed, the most recent studies indicate that we may never get
the evidence locked and loaded. Several old studies connecting
virtual and real-world violence failed to control for
differences between violent and non-violent games. Could mundane
video games like Pong inspire violence the same as first-person
shoot-'em-up games like Doom? Countless other experiments failed
to control for important factors which potentially obscure what
arouses a kid when he or she plays a vi