Offline Aggression and Online Aggression

In video games, aggression can come in many forms. Yet, most people do not truly know what it’s like for aggression to carry between real life and gaming. I find it easy to make this distinction between fictional and the real life that we live in. Rises in aggression and the lack of distinction between the two worlds that some people exhibit have been a major worry for people all around the world, especially politicians and doctors. The “harmful” video games that have come out in years past are believed to be the root cause of many aggressive actions and mindsets, but they are not the sole reason for which these actions occur. 

Whenever a tragedy linked to video games happens, I think of the term “offline aggression.” This phrase, in my opinion, carries different connotations depending on who hears it. For the average person who isn’t versed in the ways of psychology, ultra-violent games seem like the most aggravating method for “offline aggression.” However, in a study by Elias Aboujadou and Vladan Starcevic, published in “Mental Health in the Digital Age: Grave Dangers, Great Promise” they state, “the findings of this study suggest that there is little or no difference between the effects of lower level and higher level aggressive media content.” This immediately sets a precedent for these researchers as they have established the lack of differentiation in how people are affected by thresholds of violence. This can then feed into the “offline aggression” and how different levels of aggression can be difficult to separate based on severity. 

An act of aggression committed in the real world is what qualifies as “offline aggression.” These acts of aggression can vary in their severity as distinguished in Aboujadou’s study. The catastrophic and monumental acts of “offline aggression” are what people majorly focus on. While the minor upticks in aggressive behavior do matter, it is the major ones that get media focus. The lack of focus on minor acts of aggression committed by gamers is not that bad, as not every type of aggression can be categorized as negative. A categorical organization of these events, actions, and consequences could be quite helpful in helping the general populace understand what truly happens during the aggressive tendencies that people exhibit. 

In the article, “Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games be a Force for Good?” by Christopher J. Ferguson, aggression is defined even further: “Aggression can thus be distinguished from aggressive play in which two or more consenting individuals are wrestling, playing war, and so forth, but mutually enjoy the activity.”  Defining aggression in this way narrows down how we can classify “offline aggression” even further as now we can show how actions and their consequences have different effects. Consent is an important component of any action and whether or not all parties consent) is an important distinction. Calling simple roughhousing “offline aggression” is not accurate you have to take the bull by the horns in this situation and really focus on the maliciousness of the act. This rough and tumble mindset that people have toward the aggressive actions taken by others is at times concerning, as many “offline” and “online” aggressions have very harmful consequences to the people around them.

“Online Aggression” is the direct opposite of “Offline Aggression,” while offline aggression focuses on the actions taken in the physical world, “Online aggression” is the actions taken in the virtual world. The “online aggressions” taken are far more prevalent and easier to find as many games are labeled by the ESRB as being violent in some shape or form, even games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater are labeled as being violent even though it is a franchise of sport games and the most violent actions being taken are the results of missteps and falls. These types of violent actions do not truly contribute to the two different forms of aggression as one is not taking some sort of nonconsensual action against another and falls more under the self-harm category. Even then that is not truly accurate, since being injured during a sport is something considered more of an accident in general.

In “online aggression” consent is a much trickier matter in online games it can be argued that in Player versus Player combat, all people do have some sort of consent by participating in the games and modes that have these options. At the same time, when things like surprise attacks and raids happen upon unsuspecting victims the presence of consent is a much trickier matter.

More often than not, single player games are story driven adventures that take the player along some sort of recreation of the hero’s journey. Sandbox games are a hybrid of both single player and multiplayer modes, as they can be played either alone or with friends. These genres are a little trickier to classify in terms of “online aggression” as the term has been previously defined as non consensual acts of violence. Certain types of mulitplayer modes have an automatic informed consent due to the nature of play. On the other hand this is not always true as in games like Minecraft where players are given free reign to do whatever they want in either single or multiplayer. One could play the game alone as a farmer and occasionally butcher farm animals for food and fend off the occasional monster attacks or they could destroy the homes of the local NPC (Non-Playable Character) populace.

In conclusion, Video games are a major concern for people all around the world, from politicians to parents, but this should not be the case whatsoever. While aggression is sometimes given from the games that people play, the increases in “offline aggression” are often minuscule. Both forms of aggression; “online” and “offline” have similar definitions, an aggressive action taken towards something in a nonconsensual manner. The slippery slope of the multifaceted nature of “online aggression” does muddle the affair just a little bit, but the definition is still easily definable. 

Aboujaoude, E., Starcevic, V., Aboujaoude, D. O. C. A. D., & Starcevic, A. P. O. P. V. (Eds.). (2015). Mental health in the digital age: Grave dangers, great promise. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. ProQuest Ebook Central – Reader.

Ferguson, C. J. (2010). Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games be a Force for Good? Review of General Psychology, 14(2), Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games be a Force for Good? – Christopher J. Ferguson, 2010 (rowan.edu).