Proposal:
For my research essay, I will examine how video games can be used to reduce real-world violence and be of therapeutic use. People generally feel that video games are the root cause of many issues. While video games are present in the homes of many people who have committed violent actions, they are not the cause. Politics have done many negative things to video games, with the fearmongering that occurs over the news. My sources, however, show that video games have a positive influence on many different people. From the ways that these studies can help people with incurable illnesses to help people connect with themselves and others around them better,
Sources:
Background: Video games are a great aid in schizophrenic treatments. PlayMancer is a European Union initiative that is used to treat specific mental ailments, A specific game developed by PlayMancer, this game is made up of many different mini-games that have been specifically designed for the different ailments and their studies.
How I could use this: This source can be used to help show how video game research has been slowly coming towards showing how video games are a great way to help people. The therapeutic nature of video games can be used to aid in simple and smaller measures of mental health.
Background: A Gamer is defined as someone who plays games, whatever way people play games no matter what. This source specifically highlights the social aspect that many games have through things like MMOs and other types of online games in general.
How I could use this: I could have used this source to show how the social aspect of video games can be used to help bring people together. The findings of many people report having better friendships online than the ones that they have made in real life and interact with daily. The long-lasting nature of online friendships that many people experience and tell of is on the same level as those who report having long-lasting childhood friendships.
Background: Violent video games have been around since the 1970s, while the violence has fluctuated to various degrees. The presence of violence in games has always been a major concern for people and politicians. These concerns stem from the general concern of violent media that has always been present and evolved from comics, movies, and TV.
How I used this: The state of research in video game violence is a wild land of the found conclusions. Each study has shown different results, and things like gender control and such can show how the brain stimuli of people vary wildly. The found aggression of people who play games has also been found multiple times to be lower than those who consume violent TV. I used this source to help disprove multiple studies by my opposition in my rebuttal and research paper.
Background: This source details the different studies done to see how video games can be of therapeutic use. It has been shown that autistic children have many different benefits like facial memory, response to stimuli, and learning. Video games have a vast use in clinical studies, and they have been shown to change brain structures like how Super Mario 64 affects participants’ gray matter.
How I could use this: I will use this source to show how video games can be of therapeutic use. The detailing of how VR games can help people with mental disabilities and brain damage is one of the ways that video games can help people.
Background: Virtual Reality games are great in aiding health in general. Studies have also shown that games can help with the acceptance of mental awareness. VR games are a great way to study rises and falls in aggressive behavior due to the more personal nature that virtual reality possesses in comparison to regular video games.
How I could use this: I can use this source to show how VR games can promote general health in people. The lack of causation between mental illness and video games has been proven. While many people with mental issues have been shown to play games, there is zero proof that these games have caused the illness.
Background: The source details a study into how video games can have a positive effect on people and their mindsets. While many studies have found negative effects on well-being, they often do not have a control game to offset the negative effects. This study uses two different games to test the effects of games and their positive effects. Tetris was used to show that there are positive effects.
How I used this: I used this source to help define the healthy play and use of video games. The healthy use vs the unhealthy use is very clearly defined through moderation and obsession. This source I utilized this in both my Causal Argument and my Research paper, and I think that this source was a great way to help illustrate the differences between the two extremes of play.
Background: The different themes and subdivisions of video games and how people use them as a pastime are delved into. From the two large categories of Gaming as meaningful and purposeful to Push and pull influences on the amount of gaming. These two broad categories and their subcategories which I won’t get into boil into the Meaningful and purposeful gamers as being healthily integrated into their lives, having a purposeful connection like relaxation, and experiencing a culture of people with similar interests. Push and pull influences are over how their personal lives interact with their gaming, how they interact with those around them, and how they interact with things outside of their control.
How I used this: I used this source similarly to the last source to help prove the poor effects that people feel when using video games as a coping mechanism for their problems. While some people’s issues and problems aren’t as bad as others it is not good no matter what for one to use something as the sole outlet for their problems.
Background: Gaming can be used as a supplemental source of helping depression. The large downward spiral of mental health during COVID was felt by about 44% of the male population according to the study. The study found that certain game genres like RPGs were a good way to help depressive episodes through healthy online interactions with people who also play whatever RPG is chosen.
How I used this: I used this source in both my causal and research paper and I used it to show how games can be used to help aid in helping depression as long as it is not used as the sole coping mechanism. While different genres of games help in different manners and ways those with online interactions can help people through what their facing.
Background: The impact of video games on players socially, educationally, and entertainment-wise are all spoken of and broached upon. The effects of different levels of aggression and how they affect different mental functions and abilities are shown to vary. Multiple different collection methods of player behavioral data are taken to accurately measure how the content is affecting the player. Different players are affected by different levels of aggression.
How I used this: In both my Causal and Research papers his source I used this to show that while aggressive people can be affected by aggression present in games, it is not the games that cause aggressive people to act in this manner. The quote “that comes through playing a specific video game varies from player to player depending on how the content of the video game is displayed and interpreted to the player’s mind.” indicates how different mindsets can be affected by games as a whole. It is not just aggressive people being affected by aggression but it can be related to people who like puzzles being affected by large amounts of Tetris.
Background: The importance of finding accurate measurements of aggression in children and the link towards video games. Monitoring children with mental disabilities and their relationship with video games is important because of the higher risk they pose of being affected by aggressive stimulants present in certain video games.
How I could use this: I could use this source to show that while people with mental issues are often the source of violent actions linked to video games this is not always the case. It is important to show how those with disabilities are vulnerable to what happens but only a small percentage go on to commit horrible crimes.
- ProQuest Ebook Central – Reader Mental Health in the Digital Age
Background: This study is on the different levels of aggressive content and how people are affected by these levels. The research goes in-depth on how aggression can be defined and in which ways different people engage in what many would consider to be aggressive behavior
How I used this: The definition of aggression is an important distinction in my paper as aggression is defined as nonconsensual acts of violence towards another. So children engaging in a game involving rough housing are not engaging in aggressive behavior. This is very important to distinguish between because to many people any type of aggressive behavior is automatically assumed to be a negative because of games. This study goes on to show that there is little to no difference between how people are affected by different types of aggression in media.
Background: How players are affected by different genres of games like MMORPGs and VR games are looked into because of the influx of issues seen in the news. The study, however, finds that MMORPGs often have a positive effect on gamers and their social interactions due to the collaborative nature of the world. The consequences of gaming in general are also looked into and the study found that only those who are engaging in problematic play and use are truly negatively affected.
How I used this: I used this piece in both my rebuttal and my research paper to show how my opposition has the negative effects of video games misconstrued in the public eye. The second quote I used from this source shows how people expected that Virtual Reality games would have the highest rate of affecting players’ aggression when in reality these games had zero effect on their mental state whatsoever.
Background: The nature of how players have been affected through aggressive content and the exploitatively bombastic approach the media takes in linking these small and benign behaviors to horrendous incidents that are the sole fault of video games are looked into. The correlational data between violent game releases and minor spikes in particularly violent crimes are noted.
How I used this: I used this source to show the statistical fall in crime rates since the general debut of video games. While the source does try to link different horrific crimes to the release of video games I used a different source to actively disprove it and my opposition. The supposition of linking violent crimes to video games is purely speculative especially because of the noted fall in crime rates.
Background: The study attempts to prove how aggressive games can suppress different areas of the brain overtaking areas such as the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex. The study of players in different phases of play in one game is used to show these different manners in which they suppose the brain will react to stimuli.
How I used this: I used this source in my rebuttal to show how the process of studying how aggressive and nonaggressive stimulants affect players. The source states how they used only one game to show the difference between aggression and nonaggressive behaviors. I used this to illustrate the flaws in some studies in the lack of a control group to show how different games entirely affect behaviors as calm segments of otherwise aggressive games will still leave remnants of aggression in players.
Background: The study outlines how media violence is a major risk factor for a rise in aggression and youth violence. The study follows incarcerated juveniles and separates them by gender. Different studies don’t usually cover the female side of aggression so the study uses a different spin on the same level of study that every researcher has done.
How I used this: I used this essay in my rebuttal to further illustrate how flawed studies are looked at. The quote I used from the article is the researchers stating that they are testing incarcerated teenagers to see how video games affect them. This is not a good practice to test levels of aggression as these compromised individuals have been found to already possess levels of aggression that the average person doesn’t have.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Good collection of sources, FrogSprog.
I’ve never seen the “How I could use this” category.
Fun distinction.