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Balancing Violent Video Games With Non-Violent Ones Can Bust Stress

By R. Siva Kumar | Update Date: Dec 21, 2015 10:11 PM EST

Everyone thinks that video games make children aggressive and violent, even though a lot of evidence to the contrary is available. So what exactly is the solution?

Actually, it is important to have balanced video games that counterbalance the violent games with the non-violent ones, according to HNGN.

Over the years, studies show a link between video games and stress management. In 2010, Texas A&M International Institute Associate Professor Christopher Ferguson, who conducted a study on video games and their effect on children, said: "More recent research has not found that children who play VVG are more violent than other kids, nor harmed in any other identifiable fashion. A recent longitudinal study of my own ... finds no long-term link between VVG and youth aggression or dating violence," Ferguson wrote in Time  in 2011.

The list of violent games that enable the users to vent their aggression include "God of War," "Call of Duty," "Sengoku Basara" and "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage." Others that depict no violence yet bust stress include "Tenacity," "Journey" and "Flower."

The myth associated with violence in video games was created due to an earlier study by two University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students, who found that "while playing video games can improve mood, violent games may increase aggressive outcomes," according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Non-violent games such as "LittleBigPlanet 2" and violent games such as "Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage" were tested. "The findings suggest that video games can be used to manage negative emotions, but doing so with violent games might be problematic. If video games are going to be sought for emotional release, the authors recommend players seek out nonviolent games," the University of Wisconsin-Madison reported.

Today, as researchers prove that video games may not be all that villainous as they are made out to be, these studies show not that violent games alone can help to bust stress, but that there should be a balance, blending violent as well as non-violent ones, depending on a person's preference.

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