Comments on: Confusing Fantasy with Reality

By: Bellekh

Bellekh — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:47:27 +0000

nice work, man

By: Floyd Zamarripa

Floyd Zamarripa — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:44:05 +0000

You are most definitely getting it straight, Wanderer. What you are describing is called “confirmation bias” and it is one of the biggest reasons why studies like this set off my BS Alarm.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:40:08 +0000

Let me see if I’ve got this straight:

We take a premise: Video games are bad.
We compare the agreement with that premise by gamers and non-gamers.
We discover that people who play video games don’t think they’re bad.
We therefore claim that proves video games are bad. Because, y’know, they’ve corrupted the minds of those gamers so they don’t agree with the researcher.

Last I looked, “you don’t agree with me” is NOT valid proof that someone is wrong about something.

I think we could prove equally well that NOT playing video games is bad, because people who don’t play games think they’re bad, and we, as healthy gamers, know they’re not. This faux researcher thinks otherwise, so she must be wrong.

By: Just To Pile On… « Broken Toys

Just To Pile On… « Broken Toys — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:10:25 +0000

[...] sure, darling, that University of Maryland study quoted in Fox’s “Sexbox” squib isn’t exactly what it was advertised to be. This study didn’t involve thousands of young children. It didn’t even involve “real life [...]

By: Speaking of Puke Bowls… « CHOPSTIX

Speaking of Puke Bowls… « CHOPSTIX — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:10:04 +0000

[...] Yay for crisper and more realistic details in new video games. But there is a HUGE difference between not becoming upset when you see a CG character’s head getting blown off…and not being understand it’s fake. Way to distort science, lady.* A nice, concise summary of the study can be read here. [...]

By: Floyd

Floyd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:12:17 +0000

Killen doesn’t have to give permission for Cooper Lawrence, or anyone else, to reference her work (and misrepresent it, it seems.)

I am still awaiting a response from the professor, but until then I will assume she hasn’t even heard of Mass Effect or Cooper Lawrence. Again, it is clear that Lawrence was referencing Killen’s study, there are no other studies of video games from the University of Maryland.

By: Wai Yen Tang

Wai Yen Tang — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:04:46 +0000

Had Dr.Killen confirmed that Cooper was referring to her study?

By: Floyd

Floyd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:01:20 +0000

Sorry Wai Yen Tang, but we do know this. This is the only study that has come out of the University of Maryland that has any similarity with the comments Cooper made.

By: Wai Yen Tang

Wai Yen Tang — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:04:49 +0000

We don’t know if Cooper Lawrence is explicitely referring to Dr. Killen’s study. It might be another study that is relevant, so we can’t jump to conclusions.

By: Floyd

Floyd — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:44:16 +0000

I whole heartedly agree on this point.

If the study had gone the other way, it would have been reported video game stereotypes alter the minds of adolescents. Faux science like this are Lose-Lose situations for the entire world, industry and art form of gaming.