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As someone who has taught martial arts to/trained with a fair few military folks, as well as a gamer and one-time indie game developer, I've always thought the

As someone who has taught martial arts to/trained with a fair few military folks, as well as a gamer and one-time indie game developer, I've always thought the link is minimal and not causal. Convincing the average human to do violence to another takes a _lot_ of effort. Real violence is nothing like games, and has a viscerality that games cannot prepare one for. I would question whether anyone that conflates the two has ever had to inflict injury on another human. If games made people violent, the military would send people copies of GTA V. Yes, the American army have their own game, but that's a recruitment tool and not a violence-desensitiser.

arca_vorago 9y ago
As a combat vet I would even go the opposite direction, having a cathartic release in virtual form can often lower desire for violence levels. Sometimes I just need to launch chivalry and chop some heads off ya know what I mean? Games like insurgency and arma actually really helped me with my now under control PTSD, my theory is that I was doing CBT immersion therapy on myself. "I would question whether anyone that conflates the two has ever had to inflict injury on another human." Indeed. If you don't mind me asking, what martial art(s) do you train in?
- numismatex 9y ago
  My thoughts exactly. I'm not a combat veteran, but I've suffered from PTSD due to violent situations. I think we're retraining our brains in the EMDR and CBT sense. Any game will do, but competitive games like Rust and PubG are my favorites. DoTA 2, Destiny 2 and many others have a special place in my heart. Seeing the WHO support a diagnosis of "video game addiction" turns my stomach. Yes, some gaming is escapist. Yes, if someone has little to no joy in life they'll take it from games and build neurological patterns, and behaviors around them. Any experience that yields dopamine people end up calling addictive. I'm not shocked at how out of touch a psychologist must be to ignore the fact that many gamers are suffering from issues elsewhere in life, many games are likely poor, and other gamers likely have little time or opportunity to do anything else. "It's addictive." -- Well, it's therapeutic, the cheapest form of entertainment, often virtually connects us to others and ends our isolation, creates grey matter and helps us retrain our brains.
- zrb05292 9y ago
  You are probably aware but in case not I’ve read in the past where researchers used special video games as a therapy for PTSD. Something about how the brain isn’t able to tell the difference between real danger and virtual danger so it’s a sort of safe immersive therapy (I’m explaining very poorly). http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2011.0003 http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2011.0003

arca_vorago 9y ago

As a combat vet I would even go the opposite direction, having a cathartic release in virtual form can often lower desire for violence levels. Sometimes I just need to launch chivalry and chop some heads off ya know what I mean? Games like insurgency and arma actually really helped me with my now under control PTSD, my theory is that I was doing CBT immersion therapy on myself. "I would question whether anyone that conflates the two has ever had to inflict injury on another human." Indeed. If you don't mind me asking, what martial art(s) do you train in?

numismatex 9y ago
My thoughts exactly. I'm not a combat veteran, but I've suffered from PTSD due to violent situations. I think we're retraining our brains in the EMDR and CBT sense. Any game will do, but competitive games like Rust and PubG are my favorites. DoTA 2, Destiny 2 and many others have a special place in my heart. Seeing the WHO support a diagnosis of "video game addiction" turns my stomach. Yes, some gaming is escapist. Yes, if someone has little to no joy in life they'll take it from games and build neurological patterns, and behaviors around them. Any experience that yields dopamine people end up calling addictive. I'm not shocked at how out of touch a psychologist must be to ignore the fact that many gamers are suffering from issues elsewhere in life, many games are likely poor, and other gamers likely have little time or opportunity to do anything else. "It's addictive." -- Well, it's therapeutic, the cheapest form of entertainment, often virtually connects us to others and ends our isolation, creates grey matter and helps us retrain our brains.
zrb05292 9y ago
You are probably aware but in case not I’ve read in the past where researchers used special video games as a therapy for PTSD. Something about how the brain isn’t able to tell the difference between real danger and virtual danger so it’s a sort of safe immersive therapy (I’m explaining very poorly). http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2011.0003 http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cyber.2011.0003