Study By Kansas State University Demonstrate First Person Shooters Causing Temporary Periods of Aggressiveness and Adverse Psychological Effects

First Person Shooters is a genre of videogames that have become
extremely popular since the start of the 21st century.

First Person Shooter, a term used to describe a genre of video games in which the primary gameplay is centered at shooting some entity whether that be an animal, human, or even futuristic aliens, all in a first person perspective. However, just how much can playing these video games affect us? The department of psychology in Kansas State dug deep into this controversial genre to test just that. An approach called “The General Aggression Model (GAM)” measured the  physiological arousal, state hostility, and how aggressive participants who played first-person shooters were after an hour gaming session.  Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman, the men who created the GAM, concluded:

The individual difference variables and the exposure to that violent video game interact to increase the aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal of that person. Those three internal state variables interact to lead to a decision process that could lead to an impulsive decision

While playing and being exposed to these violent video games, aggressiveness and other physiological arousal occur for the duration of gameplay. The GAM did not conclude any of these symptoms being permanent, causing violence, or being a factor in one's daily life after a gaming session. There is a risk however to these temporary effects as individuals may react differently. With prolonged gameplay, violent video games can cause mild to severe symptoms such as headache, anger, sweat, increased blood pressure, and heart palpitations (Weaver 2003).

According to a survey from 22 respondents on reddit's gaming forum, most players who do feel aggressiveness or adverse psychological from playing first person shooters only feel the effects during gameplay and never more than 20 minutes. Another 30 respondents from students at the University of Maryland College Park were asked whether they feel these effects can be prolonged or are strictly temporary and the majority answered the latter.

Duration of time reddit and UMD players felt any form of aggressiveness and/or adverse cognitive effects while playing First Person Shooters.

Several Factors Can Contribute to These Effects but Graphics is Not One of Them 

This video game genre has been around for well over two decades and is among the most popular and profitable. From shooting pixelated nazis in 1992's Wolfenstein 3D to crashing photo realistic physics based terrain in 2013's Battlefield 4, FPS has certainly evolved over time. The core of the FPS genre is essentially still the same however, a first-person perspective shooter. Claims about realistic graphics as being the cause for aggressiveness amongst players couldn't be further from the truth. To note, there have been claims as far back as the early 2000's criticizing FPS video games for their violence and realism and this was when the genres graphics were primitive compared to today's. Former US army ranger LT Col. David. Grossman says "video-games violence is making killers out of some children", this was a statement from an interview in 2002. The core gameplay for most first person shooters is by their nature violent. It wouldn't be surprising seeing a player getting angry when their characters face is blown off 5 times in a row by an enemy and currently there isn't sufficient evidence that a players anger is prolonged or causes violence. Vaughan Bell, clinical and research psychologist at King's College, London , says "The verdict from the now considerable body of scientific research is not that video games are a new and ominous threat to society but that anything in excess will cause us problems."

Graphics have greatly improved for first person shooters
over time but the core mechanics are still the same.

New generations of video game consoles revolutionized the first-person shooting industry in both graphics and game play options. First person shooters are now typically played online where users can fight one another, a feat not possible on a wide scale 20 years ago. It isn't the realism introduced with these games that might trigger negative effects to the players but rather the core gameplay mechanics, social environments, and prolonged game play. Studies suggest that in just 30 minutes of playing violent game in an online environment, one’s behavior can become slightly more hostile (Weaver, 2003). As gamers grew so did the technology and online play adds new social stresses combined with the already present stress these types of games bring. This results in negative aspects such as anger, depression, and loss in attention span with prolonged periods of gaming time with first-person shooters (Dolan, 2012).

First Person Shooters Are Becoming More and More Popular

Violent first person shooters such as  Call of Duty are becoming increasingly popular with every release. It has become almost a trend to get the newest Call of Duty in the video gaming world every single year. In fact, Gamefly, a website where one can rent video games online, usually has some type of FPS genre as their highest rented games. This shouldn't be surprising since violence as being popular in America's media is nothing new, it has been around since the 1910’s. It's seen in many forms of media as well such as movies. “Saw” a horror movie franchise has had 6 sequels since its original in 2004. Despite the lack of difference between the sequels they are all considered nationwide successes. Violence in video games are now evolving because of the increase in their budget. First person shooters can have budgets that exceed modern day movies. These factors lead to first-person shooters being around for a very long time so it’s inevitable that a lot of people will continue to play them.

The Future and How Virtual Reality May Be a Concern for Video Game Developers

Although the realism in first person shooters are not necessarily the culprit, virtual reality gaming is unknown territory and VR developers are being cautious in its development. Recently sony removed a suicide option in its upcoming VR headset project morpheus. "The medium is so powerful, so we need to be careful with what we provide" says Yoshida a developer of project morpheus. Its clear that the immersion VR is bringing will undoubtedly affect the experience gamers have with first person shooters but with these recent claims it's safe to assume the experience will have much more of an impact than just starring at those pretty graphics from afar. 

Playing first person shooters are a past time many of us gamers like to enjoy but players should be mindful on the temporary effects they may have on them. It isn't abnormal to get angry whilst playing these games but there are small risks such as heart palpitations being a concern. It is also highly unlikely that a sane individual would cause real world violence from playing these games simply because their effect on us isn't to that point yet and hopefully never will be. It will be interesting in seeing how the genre develops over the next decade as new technologies and game play mechanics immerse players in this genre.