Submission + - Study shows most gamers prefer less gore.. (rochester.edu)
moller writes: Researchers at the University of Rochester have a paper (link to the press release) being published today in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin describing a study which showed that most gamers preferred entertainment which provided a wide range of choices, new challenges, and a large degree of autonomy over games with violent and gory content. From the article: "For the vast majority of players, even those who regularly play and enjoy violent games, violence was not a plus," explained Andrew Przybylski, a University graduate student and lead author of the study. "Violent content was only preferred by a small subgroup of people that generally report being more aggressive," added Przybylski, however, even these hostile players did not report increased pleasure when playing more gruesome games. The study consisted of two main parts — the first was a pair of surveys asking 2,673 gamers questions about their favorite games; the second involved over 300 undergraduates testing their responses to violent video games using Half-Life 2 and House of the Dead III. The games were modified to have controllable levels of violence and gore in order to provided a controlled test environment.
