Research Jerking: Bad Guys in Games Exhibit Bad Behaviour

Stop the presses! According to The Statesman, the University of Texas has conducted two studies into computer game avatars and the sociological effects they have on game players.

The researchers have concluded that choosing a ‘negative avatar’ will make you more likely to exhibit aggressive and antisocial behaviour in the game. Well, what do you know?

To verify the obvious, assistant professor Jorge Peña sat a group of subjects down and randomly assigned them ‘Sith’ or ‘Jedi’ designations in a game called “Jedi Knight II.” It turns out that the ‘Sith’ characters went off doing nasty deeds and showed little teamwork in comparison to the ‘Jedi’ characters. Another experiment assigned players as either Ku Klux Klan members or physicians in a virtual museum. The same differences occurred.

In both experiments, users were asked to write a story about an ambiguous picture - the ‘bad’ characters detailed “stories of murder, revenge and scorn and did not incorporate any relationships”, reports The Statesman.

“What’s interesting here is not only did using the avatar in the dark uniform affect a negative attitude and point to individual problems, but also showed less group cohesion,” said Peña.

Perhaps it’s less of an insight into sociological problems and more of an innocent player kicking back and having fun within the confines of the game. Of course, if you give someone the ability to play as a bad guy, they’re not going to be goody two-shoes are they? But, we at SPOnG aren’t qualified researchers, so we should probably keep our crazy thoughts to ourselves.

Nicholas Merola, a graduate student who co-wrote the study with Peña, said that game designers should benefit from these experiments, particularly when creating games for younger players.

Thankfully, a Texan University student who’s been a gamer for 12 years has a say in the article, and injects some manner of sense to the debate. Stewart states that both good and evil sides in a given game can be sociologically inept, citing Counter Strike and World of Warcraft as examples.

“Some people, myself included, are of the opinion that it really doesn’t matter what faction you are. The choice of avatar is not the only way you can judge someone.” Stewart explains. “I’ve met some really nice undead rogues and some really annoying Draeni mages.”