Dictating Morality: The Problematic Epistemologies of Engagement
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Videogame violence frequently prevails as the focus of circular debate at the expense of addressing more pertinent social and cultural issues. The primary point of contention that arises from these public disturbances, seemingly regardless of the videogame in question, is whether videogame violence is a causal factor in displays of antisocial behaviour and therefore whether this type of game is detrimental to society as a whole. The origin and substantiation of the contemporary form of this phenomenon could arguably be traced back to the advent of the cognitive behavioural approaches to the issue of the audience relationship with screen violence, primarily in relation to cinema. However, psychodynamic and cultural studies approaches to this issue have also produced material for moral panics regarding the relationship between the player and their chosen game. This chapter explores long standing moral panics surrounding the player’s relationship with game violence and investigates the methods by which they are justified. This research is based on a review of cultural approaches to the topic of the user’s relationship with screen violence, as well as cognitive psychological and psychodynamic perspectives. All three approaches have been instrumental in understanding the relationship with the screen form but when utilised individually they do not form a holistic overview of the user’s engagement with game violence and therefore, moral panics regarding exposure to game violence cannot be substantiated via their findings. It can be argued that it is only in examining all three approaches that we begin to develop a clearer understanding of our relationship with game violence, therefore aiding in diminishing the authority of the moral panics surrounding this topic. It is also essential that we find new ways to investigate this relationship as opposed to applying techniques utilised in the last century for investigation into non-interactive screen engagement.