Joystick Warriors

Media Task Assignment

By: Absolom De Vera, Luca Fortini, Johnny Huynh, Macdonald
Nnadi, Sebastien Patiu, Marvin Truong
01
INTRODUCTION
● Do Video Games Cause Violence?
● Our beginning thoughts
○ Biased perspective
○ Experience
● What the documentary shows
○ Presenter based
○ Reality show
● The gamer’s intention
○ Focuses on the mechanics
○ Does not focus on the gore
● Film Industry
○ Similar to that of the video game industry
○ Horror
● Desensitization
○ Losing our empathy for each other
○ Cathartic
● Violence = Solution
○ Becomes pleasure
○ Stress Reliever
 02
What The
Documentary is About
and Its Issues
Who are the people highlighted
as the subject within the
documentary?
The people highlighted as the subject
within this document are predominantly
young male gamers.
 What themes, issues and
conflicts are represented in
the documentary?
Theme:
❏ Violent video games create a mindset that violence
should be the first response to any kind of conflict.

Issue/Conflict:
❏ Violent video games desensitize the violence.

❏ Violent video games don’t create violence people,

what they do is glorify violent culture.
How these issues are important:
❏ Violent video games has the ability to change people’s
behaviour, making people violent & aggressive when facing any
sort of conflict.
❏ Violent video games cultivate fear, giving players a reason to
inflict harm on other people.
❏ It also brings up the idea of “us” & “them”
❏ War depicted in video games is fantasized
List of Contributors
❏ Sut Jhally - Professor of Communications @ University of Massachusetts Amherst
❏ Nina Huntemann - Associate Professor @ Suffolk University
❏ Evan Narcisse - Reporter @ Kotaku
❏ Leigh Alexander - Editor-at-Large @ Gamasutra
❏ Clive Thompson - Contributing Writer @ Wired & New York Times Magazine
❏ Matthew Payne - Assistant Professor of Telecommunication and Film @ University of Alabama
❏ Craig Anderson - Distinguished Prof. Of Psychology @ Iowa State University
❏ Elizabeth Losh - Director of the Culture, Art, and Tech Program @ University of Cali San Diego
❏ Henry Giroux - Global TV Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies @ McMaster University
❏ Justin McFarlin - U.S. Army 2005-2010
❏ Andrew Bacevich - Professor of History and International Relations @ Boston University
❏ Jonathan Gensler - U.S. Army 2000-2005
03
Biases
 Was There a Balanced
Cast of Contributors?
❏ lacked contributors that stood on the side that
video games are good

❏ A different cast would have made for a much

different documentary
 Perspective of This
Documentary
❏ Clear Bias For Anti-Game

❏ Portrays Games as a marketing Scheme

❏ Violence is dominating games market

❏ Games make children more violent

Best selling Grossing games of 2013

1) GTA V
2) FIFA 14
3) Call Of Duty; Ghosts
4) Battlefield 4
5) Assassin’ Creed IV
6) Tomb Raider
7) FIFA 13
8) Lego Marvel SuperHeroes
9) Minecraft
10) The Last Of Us
Best Grossing game of 2010’s Decade

1) Minecraft
2) GTA V
3) PUBG
4) Mario Kart 8
5) Red Dead Redemption 2
6) Terraria
7) Animal Crossing: New Horizons
8) The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim
9) Diablo 3
10) The Witcher 3 : Wild Hunt
Improvements From Games

❏ Team work
❏ Creativity
❏ Problem Solving
❏ Patience
❏ Resource management
❏ Reaction Time
❏ Vision
❏ The documentary says that gamers are more violent than
non-gamers.

Research from UNSW Sydney, JCFS Chicago, Molecular

Psychiatry, etc. shows the opposite.

If a video game causes some form of violence, than it’s

typically slight frustration.

This isn’t limited to violent shooter games. Any difficult

or challenging game can evoke this response.

Example: Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy.

 Since the documentary
didn’t really have people
that were heavily involved
in the gaming space like
shooters, we found our
own.
1. Do you believe that violence in video games (namely shooters) makes us insensitive to violence in the real world?
2. Do you believe that video games cause violence?
3. Would you consider yourself violent?
4. Would you consider yourself racist?
5. Would you consider yourself homophobic?
6. Would you consider yourself sexist?
7. Are you involved/a part of a close-knit gaming community?
8. If you are, what is your experience like? Would you say that the atmosphere is hostile, aggressive, and violent? Or
friendly and positive?
9. Have you been to a gaming event before?
10. If so, how would you describe the atmosphere and the people taking a part of it? Violent and hostile? Friendly and
welcoming?
11. Have you met people from gaming that you have become close with? Have they been truly hostile or friendly?
12. Has video games ever made you want to go out and enact real world violence towards living beings?
13. Do you consider yourself insensitive to violence, racism, sexism, and homophobic events happening in the real
world?
14. If not, would you consider yourself against/supporting the victims of violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia in
video games?
 “Video games have raised a
generation cocked and primed to
kill.”
This quote was said in the documentary, implying that violent shooter games are raising young
men to be violent and ready to kill at the tip of a hat.

However, our 7 survey respondents suggested otherwise.

 7 out of 7
Responded “NO” when asked if they
considered themselves violent.

7 out of 7
Responded “NO” when asked if video
games have ever made them want to go
out and conduct real world violence.

7 out of 7
Responded “NO” when asked if they
were supporting of legitimate violence
towards another person in video games
or in real life.
❏ The documentary says that violent shooter games open up opportunities for male
players to be sexist, racist, homophobic, and violent towards others.

❏ While the statement is valid, it was presented in a way that made it feel like it
represented the entire gaming community.

❏ In the survey, the seven respondents, six of whom identify as male, were asked if they
consider themselves violent, racist, homophobic, or sexist.
7 out of 7 7 out of 7 7 out of 7 7 out of 7
Responded “NO”
Responded “NO” Responded “NO” Responded “NO”
when asked if they
when asked if they when asked if they when asked if they
would consider
would consider would consider would consider
themselves
themselves violent. themselves racist. themselves sexist.
homophobic.

When asked if they were supportive of the victims of violence, racism, sexism, and homophobia in
video games, 7 out of 7 answered “YES”

6 out of 7 also said that they would actively try to intervene to stop the behaviour if possible.
❏ The documentary uses clips from gaming conventions where they took videos of
male gamers visiting booth for violent shooters and showing the Army’s presence at
the events.

They also show three young men talking about how violent shooters show what
happen in war.

The way they portray it makes it look like it’s an event filled with violent and
weapon-versed gamers and a military recruitment event.

So if there was a place that is filled with violent, aggressive, and disrespectful
behaviour, it would be at gaming events and within gaming groups.

So we asked.
 Responded “YES” when asked if they are part of a close-knit gaming

6 out community.

These communities included gaming groups, gaming clubs, esports communities,

and esports teams.

of 7 The one who responded with “NO” said that they really only converse and game
with friends.

We followed up by asking what the atmosphere was like in these groups and communities.

In response, ALL six respondents who are in a group or community describe their experience with these groups
as friendly, positive, uplifting, and welcoming to people from all walks of life.
Responded “YES” when asked if they have been to gaming event.

These events include esports watch parties, esports community nights, esports
community meetups, gaming/anime conventions, esports tournaments, and other
6 out
various gaming events.

The one who responded with “NO” said that they really only do game nights
with a small group friends.
of 7
We followed up yet again by asking what the atmosphere was like at these events.

In response, ALL six respondents who have participated in an event described the staff, patrons, and event as a
whole as friendly, welcoming, positive, and against any violence, aggression, or discrimination of any kind.
❏ The documentary discussed how women are un-equally treated and harassed in these
types of games.

❏ An example they showed was tweets harassing the twitter account Feminist Frequency
(@femfreq).

❏ While their points are valid, they do not mention or show any responses of people who
are defending FemFreq.

❏ After digging, the exact tweet used in the documentary was found alongside the
harassing tweets shown. The blog post used in the documentary was also found.
 When asked if they believe that video games cause violence, ALL 7 responded “NO”

They mentioned that if video games causes violence, it’s usually due to a bigger issue like poor parenting, or
giving it to a small child.

When asked if they believe that video games cause insensitivity, THE MAJORITY responded “YES.”

Those answering “NO” still shared the same thoughts of the ones who said “YES,” in that video games are a
small part of it and other forms of media play bigger roles.

When asked if they considered themselves insensitive, ALL 7 responded with “PARTIALLY.”

But rather than saying video games were the main contributor, they listed it as a small one. They viewed violence
from other media and the constant violence in the real world as the biggest cause.
04
Conclusion
 How We Felt
❏ After watching the documentary our
initial opinions were incorrect

❏ We understood the warnings that the

documentary was presenting
 How We Felt
❏ We were left with mixed feelings

❏ None of us are gonna stop playing

video games

❏ We do know understand the dangers

of excessive gaming
THE END
Works Cited
https://metro.co.uk/2014/01/16/100-best-selling-video-games-of-2013-revealed-4265929/
https://gamerant.com/best-selling-games-2010s-decade/
https://funtech.co.uk/latest/does-minecraft-make-you-smarter
https://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=3342
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/22/playing-video-games-doesnt-lead-to-violent-behaviour-study-shows
https://www.jcfs.org/response/blog/does-video-gaming-cause-violence-research-asks-you-think-again
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-018-0031-7
https://www.protocol.com/media-library/activision-blizzard-workers-protest-outside-the-entrance.jpg?id=27084798&wid
th=980
https://scontent-yyz1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/166452553_1816368131855927_4814820694761041
732_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=Z8BI158jVsgAX_W_xHX&_nc_ht=scontent-yyz1-1.xx&
oh=00_AT_YHcI-ES2QHTTXUl5MWabHzuJe_oHBbwvx9usnLDXZSA&oe=6207372D
https://esportsgen.com/esl-gaming-plans-to-invest-500000-to-develop-a-csgo-global-competitive-circuit-for-women-in-
2022/
https://thoughtmaybe.com/joystick-warriors/
https://femfreq.tumblr.com/post/52673540142/twitter-vs-female-protagonists-in-video-games