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Games arouse and desensitise you

Says research into ones about violence.

Gamers in Omaha have stood up to yet another pile of papers claiming videogames make teenagers violent.

Researchers this time claimed that games about violence increase aggressive thoughts and desensitise you to real-life violence.

The argument is fairly simple. Clever people (who went to university to learn this, remember) used brain scans to prove that a game about violence - presumably something like a gory shooter - causes more arousal than a non-violent game - presumably something like a role-playing or adventure game.

Which is quite true, unless it's a lesbian alien sex scene.

"Exposure to violent video games, even E rated video games, increases aggressive thoughts, increases pro-social behaviour and increases general arousal," Dr. Greg Snyder told KETV7.

The man in the white coat went on to use more graphs to prove that gamers playing these games react less to real-world violence than their pacifist counterparts.

"The more normal it is, the more likely it is they're going to activate or engage in those behaviours when provoked or even unprovoked," added Snyder.

But local teenagers said that was a load of old rubbish, backed by comments from both parents and a weird Gamers in Omaha group.

"Just like any new media, it gets attacked," said Ryan Miller from the Gamers in Omaha group. "When any new genre of music comes out, it gets attacked. TV will, of course, get attacked. I'm sure, way back when, books got attacked."

We're fed up. But we know how much you like this sort of thing. Would you be more likely to kill us before or after you played a game?

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