Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Date of Graduation
Fall 2013
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science (BS)
Department
Department of Justice Studies
Advisor(s)
Tammy Castle
Benjamin Meade
Margarita Poteyeva
Abstract
Violent content in video games has come under increasing scrutiny as the media highlights the potential involvement of violent games in deadly crimes. In addition, internet gaming disorder has been identified as a subject in need of further research in the DSM-V. The current study investigates whether year, genre, platform type, and victim and perpetrator identity influence the total amount of violent actions in 280 video game trailers. The hypothesis was that year, genre, and platform type would produce the most variance in total violence, but victim identity and perpetrator identity were significantly more influential. Thus, there is a tendency for the presence of certain types of perpetrators and victims in game trailers to be associated with higher counts of violent instances. Research implications are discussed, including the suggestion that future studies should measure the intensity of violent actions and sexuality in video game trailers and limitations stemming from lack of inter-rater reliability, overlap of genre categories, and the nature of trailer content.
Recommended Citation
Keller, Emily Molly, "A call to violence: Trends in violent content of video games" (2013). Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019. 437.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/honors201019/437
