The controversy surrounding the potential effects of violent games has taken a positive turn in the past year; blanket witch burnings appear to have abated and - certainly in the UK with initiatives like the Byron Report - measured analyses are coming from the top-down. While we all wait with bated breath for those results, another voice in the crowd adds to the din.
PhysOrg reports on a study out of at Iowa State University published as "Violent Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis" which confirms that, indeed, kids learn from games and violent games teach aggression.
While this may be feel like (another) nail in the coffin of the games industry, in fact the researchers aren't hellbent on taking it down. Instead, they promote caution in the design and development of games:
And because learning occurs from video games, regardless of whether the effects are intentional or unintentional, the [researchers] added that this "should make us more thoughtful about designing games and choosing games for children and adolescents to play." ... Because video games were found to be such effective teaching tools, [they] propose greater educational use of today's smarter technology found in those games -- technology that "thinks" along with students, adapting instruction to each student's current skills, strategies or mistakes.
Whether this caution actually trickles down to the consumer technologies we know and love is a whole other story.
