Do video gamers tend to lean towards pacifism?

[Smith_3]

I have really been wondering about that for a while. I played alot of video games in my day, and also alot of the "violent" ones like Counter Strike or Quake. I also spent very much time on online message boards with gamer clan communities and computer nerds of all sorts, and I really got the impression that when it comes to actual real life violence, real military strikes etc., the gamers community is largely very opposed to it. Is it just my impression or can anyone confirm to have similar experiences?

[Ano Genitus]

1. They tend to lean towards televisions.

[Forkboy]

2. heh

:rofl:

Hey, nice av too, btw.

[Yukari Yakumo]

3. Depends

I don't go out looking for fights or anything like that. But if I saw Jack Thompson on the street, I would not be able to resist taking his ass out.

[Rob H.]

4. I used to play a lot of violent video games, too

Mostly dungeon crawlers and first-person shooters where I got to blow shit up, but I'm too big of a reading/music/computer/movie dork to be real-world violent. :)

I find myself more drawn to platformers now, especially clever and fun ones like Psychonauts and the Ratchet & Clank series.

[MedleyMisty]

5. I've never understood the argument that violent video games encourage violence

I'm as peaceful a person as you can find in real life.

And probably part of that is because I take my frustrations out on pixels rather than on actual living beings.

Everyone I've ever known who enjoyed violent video games could tell the difference between a video game and real life. Maybe this is a generational skill and people who grew up without games think that they are real life? I don't know.

Really though, gamers are individuals just like everyone else and I imagine that you can find all political leanings and philosophies of life and personalities in gamers that you can throughout the species.

[HornBuckler]

6. Well

Most nerds (in the traditional sense) are quite intelligent - that usually equates with pacifism. Ya know, Star Trek and shit.

:)

[DireStrike]

7. No. The community is split.

It may be a little slanted towards peaceful players, but that's only based on my anecdotal experience. And some games are just FILLED with gung-ho, bomb-em-now types (see: America's Army.)