However, the study also mentioned a certain percentage of gamers do play for the violence, although this segment tends to be more aggressive overall than the typical player. Even for these aggressive gamers (you know who they are, they killed your poor level 35 character in Stranglethorn 20 times one day with their own level 80 draped in 2000 gold worth of player-killing weapons and enchants), violence and gore wasn’t enough. There had to be a real game under the flying viscera to keep them playing.

None of this is very surprising to us at Vox, what with being gamers since the days of Pong, which is about as non-violent as you can get while still being able to pwn noobs and throw the horns in another player’s face. The reason you see so much violence in gaming is because combat and melee provides a natural medium of conflict, an easy way to challenge the player without having to create some arcane system or plot. Just “here’s a zombie, here’s a crowbar, have fun.” It’s simple, it’s easy to understand, and the developers can go back to coating everything in the shiny glossy anti-aliased 3d candy shell that consumes 80% of the game’s budget.

In some games, fighting and violence even seems to just get in the way, the Silent Hill games come to mind here, even if force-feeding monsters a lead pipe now and then serves to underscore the game’s themes. And of course, we’re all familiar with those annoying random battles with useless stupid monsters that plague the RPG genre like a bad case of a contagious disease that makes you suddenly shoot blood from your eyes without warning.

Anyhow, it’s about time more game developers got the memo, especially those window-licking idiots who screwed up Silent Hill Homecoming by transforming a game about secrets and atmosphere and tension into Monster Wrestling V THIS SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY BE THERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRE! Moronic troglodytes, the lot of them.

You can read more about the study at this Science Daily article.

Of course, as a supposed adult myself, the only reaction I can offer is, “duh.” My generation grew up on video games, what with the Atari 2600 (I had the woodgrain one!), followed by the Nintendo and Sega, then the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, then the almighty Playstation and the sad, outclassed Nintendo 64. Now, you can get console systems everywhere, I think I got an Xbox once for free with a pizza and a two-liter Coke. Not to mention the handheld systems. Nintendo has sold enough DS units to equip every man, woman, and child in Europe, with a few left over for the housepets.

Of course, as our games become more interconnected, allowing us to play with griefers, cheaters, aimbots, and teabaggers across the globe, they also take up more of our social space. It’s been said that World of Warcraft is a chat room with a game attached, and that’s almost true. It’s very much true for Second Life, which has, for many, taken the place of the old text-only MUCKs for socializing in ghastly ways anonymously. Certainly, more people know me by my Warcraft character’s name than by those ancient syllables bestowed upon my brow at birth. Raise your mouse hand if the same is true for you.

The generation that follows us will fall even deeper into games than we have. They’ve never seen a game that wasn’t 3D outside a web page or on Daddy’s dusty old NES box. Developers will find new ways to simulate and heighten the artificial experience of their games, while third-party innovators will make bank patching their own software into those true game worlds. We’re seeing the start of it now. Second Life can run web pages in-game. World of Warcraft offers plug-ins for playing other games while you’re inside WoW. Spore figured out how to generate huge worlds and complex designs with procedural content. So today, half of American adults play video games, eh?

Tomorrow, the next study will be talking about those American adults who don’t.

Find out more about the the Pew Internet & American Life Project study at this Associated Press article.

Socializing is a skill, and one that must be practiced. Kids and adults who avoid social activities, have few local friends, or have been bullied and picked on in realspace tend to turn toward video games as a life and experience away from the traumas and failure of the real world. With the advent of the internet, this phenomena is becoming more common. Hell, I know more people by their online handles than I do by real names, and I’m a beautiful social butterfly, flitting merrily between flowered gatherings and sipping of the nectar therein. What’s it like for someone who would rather crack their teeth out with a crowbar than spend time outside their cave?

Take a look at the full BBC article and decide where you stand. When is the last time you saw a sun that didn’t involve shaders and particle effects?

In this video from the TED Conference, David Perry discusses the implications of gaming and what the future may hold for those generations that grew up attached to online, social games.