Long versus short violent videogame play: do players habituate?

Numerous studies have found evidence that after playing violet videogames for 20 minutes, people experience short term increases in aggression, hostility, and anger. The current study used 62 males and 36 females from different backgrounds, aged 18-31 years, to investigate whether or not players habituate during longer, more realistic lengths of play. Participants were randomly assigned to play the first-person-shooter (FPS) game Quake III for either 20 or 60 minutes. State anger was measured pre-game and post-game using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI). Participants in the long condition showed a smaller change in state anger (CSA) from pre-game to post-game than those in the short condition. This difference was however, not statistically significant. Results suggest that at some point between 20 and 60 minutes, players’ affective response begins to attenuate. Gaming habits were also investigated and it was found that on average gamers play for 106 minutes in one sitting. In addition, desensitization effects were investigated. Results supported the hypotheses that females would show a significantly larger CSA than males and that participants unexposed to violent videogames would show a significantly larger CSA than exposed participants. The current research suggests 106 minutes of game-play in future research will provide more representative results of the ‘real world’, in turn, helping future researchers predict the types of people who may be negatively affected by violent videogames in both the short-term and long-term.