Ever since the first school shooting tragedy at Columbine the possible dangers of video games have been brought to the forefront of the public’s mind. Since then the possible linkage between video game violence and real world violence has been debated by consumers, campaigned on by politicians and studied by psychologists.

Professor Christopher Ferguson, a researcher at Texas A&M International University has published a study that goes a long way towards illustrating that the link between video games and violent crime is nothing more than worry and speculation. He points out that the methodology of previous studies is quite often seriously flawed, and that many researchers in the anti-game camp fail to acknowledge any of these flaws in their research, as well as ignoring any previous research contrary to their own viewpoints. He also discusses the fact that most video game critics are older (35+) and that many are elderly. Most of these outspoken critics are very unfamiliar with the medium, displaying their ignorance in interviews and writings, such as the incident with Mass Effect last year and critics who claim that players are awarded points in games like Grand Theft Auto for committing antisocial acts.

He discusses the idea of ‘moral panics’ and ‘culture wars’ being largely responsible for this debate, with some politicians attacking video games as a way to say they’re taking action against violent crimes without actually having to address the more complex, multi-layered causes behind them. News media has long been known to do better by reporting alarming, negative news than positive news.