[Professor S]

I think that videogames do desensitize people to images of violence, but not violence itself. I'll use myself as an example:

I have played a lot of violent games, played violent sports and I love violent movies (horror and over-the-top action). I know that violent and grotesque images don't really effect me as much as they used to, but I think the majority of people can differentiate entertainment violence from the real deal.

I was bouncing a little under a year ago, and I saw a woman get hit by a car travelling at a very high speed. She went flying andher head dashed against the ground. Running up to help on instinct, I saw blood pooling under her and her body unnaturally twisted.

I basically watched her die. Its not something I will ever forget and I am tearing up a little right now thinking of it.

That was not entertainment. This was not Vice City or Halo. This was not Saw 2. This was a real person in real life who was severely hurt and dying, covered in blood and broken glass. There was no comparison to the effect that it had on me.

My question to these researchers would be the following:

What images were you showing in your testing process? Were they recognizable and used in entertainment? Or were they photos of real violence or graphic materials such as holocaust photos or journalism war photos? Did you try and create the illusion of real-life vioelence in your study, or just use images?

To me, this smacks of modern pseudo-science. I'll manipulate my experiements to the point that they will show what I intended to discover in the first place.