Electronic Games, Violence in

In the past 10 years, the content of video games has come under greater media scrutiny as some of the topselling games have become more graphically intense and violent. The names of these games are now familiar: Mortal Kombat, Doom, Grand Theft Auto, and others. Unlike television or film, much of this content remains a mystery to the generation who are too old to be interested in playing these games. Fortunately, a number of content analyses have been done to determine the amount of violence present in video games. Content analyses are particularly helpful for illuminating the types and level of violence found in these games.

Like film, video games come in a variety of genres that delimit each game's themes and content. These genres may be nonviolent (e.g., puzzle games, card games, educational games) or predominantly violent (e.g., shooters, fighters, action). Games in most genres contain a mixture of violent and nonviolent content (e.g., sports, strategy, driving, simulations, adventure, fantasy role playing). For example, sports genre games include boxing, hockey, and [Page 285]football as well as tennis and golf. Some racing games focus on racing skills (e.g., Need for Speed, Gran Turismo), but others award points for running over pedestrians (e.g., Carmageddon) or allow players to shoot each other (e.g., Crash Team Racing). Although genre is useful for understanding the type of game play, genre designations do little to illuminate the content of games.

The Grand Theft Auto series of electronic games features numerous forms of violence. Players assume the role of a carjacking criminal who can be made to perform a range of antisocial behaviors, from killing police to beating prostitutes to death after having off-screen sex with them. Since the appearance of the first title of the series in 1998, Grand Theft Auto has been immensely popular and profitable.

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Because video games are a comparatively new medium, there are not as many content analyses of game content as there are of movies or television. One of the earlier studies, from 2001, found that 64% of a sample of games contained violence even though they had been rated E (Everyone) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). The same researchers published a subsequent study of all 396 games released up to April 2001 and found that 94% of games rated T (Teen) contained content descriptors by the ESRB for violence. Content analysis of a subsample of the T-rated games revealed that the same percentage actually contained violence, suggesting the content descriptors found on T-rated games are accurate.

Another set of studies used the National Television Violence Survey (NTVS) content coding scheme to look at the 60 most popular games across three platforms: Sony PlayStation, Nintendo N64, and Sega Dreamcast. The NTVS defines media violence as