With all the furore surrounding violence in games – not to mention the faux-controversy often stirred up by publicity seeking publishers you might be forgiven for thinking that violence is one of the things that gamers look for above all else. Not so, says a new study.
Researchers at the University of Rochester gave 2,500 ‘frequent’ gamers one of two customised versions of Half Life 2. One game armed the player with a shotgun and had particularly bloody death animations. The other used ‘psychic energy’ to hit opponents that caused no physical damage but just made enemies ‘evaporate’.
Players were asked a series of questions about their enjoyment of the game and howlikely they would be to play it again. No significant difference was found between the two groups, suggesting that the lure of violence was not what excited players who enjoyed the game.
“We found that, on average, violent content didn’t add to motivation for play,” said Rochester Uni’s Andrew Przybylski, “The reason why children gravitate to something like Halo, Halo 3 or World of Warcraft or Team Fortress isn’t necessarily because they want to get at the blood or the acts of violence.”
via Kotaku
