Carmack: violent games "potentially positive"

id Software's John Carmack has defended violent video games, arguing that they could in fact reduce aggression in players.

"There is more evidence to show that the violent games reduce aggression and violence," the technical director told IndustryGamers.

There have actually been some studies about that, that it’s cathartic. If you go to QuakeCon and you walk by and you see the people there [and compare that to] a random cross section of a college campus, you’re probably going to find a more peaceful crowd of people at the gaming convention."

"I think it’s at worst neutral and potentially positive."

Carmack also dismissed the controversy around the issue.

"I never took seriously the violence in video games debate. It was basically talking points for people to get on CNN and espouse their stuff on there," he suggested.

"There was an E3 where all that was going on where I was giving interviews and the reporters would start going into their questions, and I wasn't supposed to talk about any of that. My wife was there and she’d start kicking me when I was about to go, 'Well, I think…' And in the end it didn’t matter, it didn’t make any impact on things. I never felt threatened by it and it turned out not to matter."

John Carmack is one of the founders of Doom developer id Software.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ially-positive