Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Characters in Popular Video Games

Notes

[1] Additional post hoc analyses revealed differences across game system in some of the variables under consideration. Specifically, PlayStation games were more likely to feature perpetrators that were children, males, or liked, and less likely to feature Asian perpetrators. Nintendo 64 games were more likely to feature justified motives for aggression. DreamCast games were more likely to feature human perpetrators, while no differences for graphicness emerged across the three games systems. Due to space considerations, details of these analyses have been omitted from the current manuscript. These analyses are available by request from the first author.

[2] Sega DreamCast was introduced in the July of 1999. Thus, the top 20 games were derived from sales figures from September to December of 1999.

[3] For each game, the first 10 minutes was examined for violence. Towards this goal, each game was played by a research assistant with home gaming experience. Research assistants were recruited with similar levels of playing experience, and were not aware of the intended purpose of the study. As each game was being played, the audio and video signals were run through a V.C.R. and recorded on a standard V.H.S. tape.

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