Abstract
Since their advent in the late 1970’s, video games have represented a fusion of the technology of the television and the computer. Public concern about ‘video game addicts’ and the often violent nature and content of the games has been accompanied by varied (and often conflicting) findings from psychological researchers all over the world. This literature review examines the key areas of research which have developed so far, summarising core findings in the investigative areas of addiction, aggression, social role, and cognitive and physiological effect. However, the continued technical advancement of video game design and technology (coupled with a burgeoning demographic of games players) represents a major challenge for researchers. The author proposes that steps be taken to standardise a system of classification and experimental method in order to maintain the credibility of future studies in the years to come.
Introduction
In the last 20 years, computers have escaped from the confines of academia and permeated public life. Terms and concepts such as ‘process’, ‘recall’ and ‘buffer’ are now as commonplace in modern psychology as in the media labs of MIT. For psychologists, the early interest in the technical operations of the computer has been overtaken in many ways by concern over the effect it has on social interaction and our perception of ourselves. Nearly every aspect of daily living is influenced by the microprocessor in some way or another. Authors such as Sherry Turkle (1984, 1995) and Nicholas Negroponte (‘Being Digital’, 1996) have charted the increasing significance of the computer in the modern psyche, and the potential effects of this technology have been the subject of a broad range of research across all facets of psychology.
Video games have raised interest and concern since they first appeared in the late 1970’s. Early newspaper reports of ‘Space Invaders addiction’ and ‘video game fever’ were merely indicators of what has since developed into an interesting area of research: the social and psychological impact of video games. Over time, the playing of these games has become widespread (with the reduced costs and subsequent world-wide proliferation of the technology) globally. Twenty years later, they have become as fixed and important an element of youth culture as music and movies (J.C. Herz, 1997). Yet controversy continues today over the addictive qualities and violent content of games - US Senator Joseph Lieberman has called video games "digital poison" and blames them for playing a significant part in America’s "culture of violence".
The continued popularity of video games has resulted in a diverse range of literature. Despite this diversity, most of the psychological research can be divided into one of two areas: the cognitive impact of video games (i.e. effects on memory or spatial ability) and the social effects of playing them (i.e. addictive potential, effects on aggressive behaviour). The majority of research papers evaluate the social effects of video games, a response to the most common public concerns about the games: their addictive potential and their often violent content. Gender differences are another popular topic of investigation. Other research explores the potential benefits of these games as therapeutic exercises (certain games make various cognitive and physiological demands which have been found useful as therapy for the elderly or disabled). One key point is that subjects in the vast majority of studies are children and adolescents; most video game players are not adults, although a number of studies have been done with university students.
There are two fundamentally different forms of ‘video game’ - games that are played at home on computers or consoles (dedicated games-playing machines), and coin-operated machines that are played in public arcades. Although there are obvious significant differences between the two, for the sake of simplicity the terms ‘video game’ and ‘computer game’ should be taken as applying to either type unless specified otherwise. Although arcade machines represent the current state-of-the-art technology, in time, the most popular games are often ‘converted’ to the home computer systems (Fisher, 1994). Many of the games that were originally arcade-only machines in the early research (i.e. Asteroids, Space Invaders) are now widely available on home formats! Griffiths (1997) notes that "the playing characteristics and addictive processes [of arcade and video games] are thought to be almost identical".
This literature review will summarise the key findings of the research done so far; although the findings of various papers have often been contradictory, there are certain areas where a level of consensus has been reached. However, as the body of research into the effects of playing video games has grown, the nature of the games played has changed considerably. Advancements in computer technology have led to increasingly realistic graphics and sound, advanced artificial intelligence and more immersive, interactive environments. Researchers who have consistently worked in the field have remarked that each successive generation of games could have a markedly different effect on players than the last. Papers published ten years ago seem outdated in many respects, although there is evidence that core findings remain valid.
The focus of the current research literature tends to emphasise psychological aspects of video game use, rather than specific content. Over the course of this literature review, I will demonstrate how the increasing need for a "taxonomy of games" (Griffiths, 1993) has affected the validity of the findings of various papers, and suggest how advancements in game design, technology and social presence could be handled by psychologists to prevent them ‘re-inventing the wheel’ with each successive level of development. A significant property of all games is that they are interactive: much of the research points out this key difference between video games, and television and cinema which are non-interactive. The concepts of ‘immersion’ and ‘emotion’ represent key elements of the interactive video game playing experience, and in my conclusion I explain why recognition of this, and incorporation of other aspects of video game ‘culture’, would be beneficial to future psychological research.