[quote name='speedracer']My problem is how you isolate games as an influence. I just think the whole premise is absurd, that media can influence negative behavior to a degree that it should be controlled. I don't have a problem with people wanting to control their kids media consumption, but to blame an act on a book, movie, or video game just doesn't pass the smell test to me.[/QUOTE]
theoretically shouldn't be hard to identify the influence of a specific media type at all. in terms of making it affordable on a research grant (ignoring trying to get a half-million-dollars to research vidya games), hard but doable. in terms of time, though, since you're implicitly pointing out these studies need to be longitudinal in design, that's the rub. longitudinal studies ruin careers, simply put.
but it's important to consider that 7-year-olds who play GTA might respond differently to prolonged exposure than 18-year-olds.
you also have issues of defining a "gamer." There's variation even amongst all of us in terms of knowledge, interests, time dedicated, etc. The dude with a dusty PS2 who plays Madden only - are they a "gamer"? Or the cat who plays nothing but Atlus soopa-japanese-cat-
ing-SRPGs?
The term "gamer" has a specific meaning, but I think we're in search of it. It's a term that lacks the precision the people who use it think it has.
There are a lot, a lot, a lot of complexities that the research field on games and media effects have not sorted out. But I hardly think they're impossible. They just need folks to challenge them.