For years, violent and horror games have been criticized for promoting aggression and creating a bad model for gamers. Common knowledge often creates chaos around this matter, but researchers are presenting us with a completely different scenario, and in reality, we might have a LOT to learn from controversial games.

We are past the days when people treated games as a distraction from serious matters; it has been decades since we understood that playing games can improve attention, memory, reaction time, coordination, and so much more. But whenever we hear about these benefits, they are always presented in the prettiest packages: cozy games, a complete absence of violence, and an educational touch to them. And do not get me wrong, I am an avid cozy gamer, but it is undeniable that they are easier to sell to a bigger audience. On the other side, we have horror, shooting games, and overall violent gaming experiences, and those have been pointed to as the culprits for everything that goes wrong with the younger generation of gamers, but how true is this sort of speech?

Thankfully, that has been on the minds of several researchers, so now we have data to conduct this discussion. In a big study examining the well-being benefits of video games (1), New Zealand researchers discovered that survival horror games were one of the best genres to foster emotional well-being, autonomy, and a sense of social integration. Another study might give us some insight into why this happens (2). Violent games let players gain status, feel dominant, regulate anger, and rehearse danger safely, creating a safe space to regulate difficult emotions. When so many emotions are evoked, it allows the player to reflect on morals and broader societal issues, and this can actually create players who are more empathetic and exercise their critical thinking more often. One great example of that is the 2014 study that showed evidence that gamers who played as terrorists had a sharpened view of the morals they violated during the match. On the other hand, the ones who played as a UN soldier had less reflection on the immorality of violence (3). The thing is that when playing as a UN soldier, people felt like their actions were justified, therefore there was no need to feel guilt. Common knowledge could not predict that the so-called bad example could actually evoke such profound and important feelings in players.

Agency also plays a huge part in the benefits of these types of games. If you are not familiar with this term, agency is a sense of autonomy and the capacity to control the influence of your actions on the environment. This is very important in any game because it allows the player to immerse themselves in the world presented to them. But in shooter or horror games, we have fear playing a huge part of the narrative, and this is where things get interesting. One study compared the differences between playing and watching a horror game, and although both groups had the same amount of fear, the players had more physiological responses to the experience (4). This means that you can enjoy the sensations tied to a scary experience without feeling more scared than you would be if you just watched the same thing. And if you are playing, you can always choose whether you open the scary door or not, and that is a huge benefit of having agency. Having the power over the narrative is important to feel safe, even if the purpose is to feel terrified.

Playing shooting games might also prepare you better for stressful and fearful environments. A research group exposed gamers and non-gamers to a virtual environment to assess their fear response, and FPS gamers experienced less fear and surprise than non-gamers (5). his can be tied to their familiarity with the virtual scenario, but when we think about the use of Virtual Reality (VR) as exposure therapy (6), we can have gamer patients who have a higher tolerance to the feared situation, thus providing higher improvements in their healing journey.

But the bigger question is: Can violent video games increase aggression? There is a lot of back and forth on this matter, and differences in methodology might create different results, but one thing is certain: simple explanations will not give us the proper answer. This is not a matter of simply increasing hormones. We also need to take into consideration personality traits, tendencies toward aggression, and differences from person to person. One study took all that into consideration, assessing the hormonal response, aggression, and the Dark Tetrad personality traits, and the results showed that playing violent video games decreased cortisol, especially in those high in Machiavellianism. They also showed that playing these games did not increase aggressive thoughts among players, regardless of the type of personality trait presented (7). That means that, mostly, these games can foster relaxation and stress relief, and we should not be so quick to blame these types of games as if they are the cause of violence.

So maybe it is time to rethink what we mean when we call a game “bad.” The truth is that controversial games are not "mindless entertainment" or "dangerous distractions". They can be controlled spaces where players rehearse fear, confront moral dilemmas, build stress tolerance, and even strengthen their cognitive skills. None of this means that every game will work the same way for everyone, or that playing them without limits is risk-free, but it does mean that the conversation around them needs more nuance. Instead of asking if these games make people violent, we could start asking how they can be used to help people grow. We already know they can teach focus, decision-making, and coordination. And now we are learning they can also help to build empathy, resilience, and emotional regulation. Maybe the real problem was never the games themselves, but the way society underestimated what they could do.

References: (1) Exploring the possible mental health and well-being benefits of video games for adult players: A cross-sectional study (2) Understanding the Desire to Play Violent Video Games: An Integrative Motivational Theory (3) Being Bad in a Video Game Can Make Us More Morally Sensitive (4) The differential effects of agency on fear induction using a horror-themed video game (5) Gamers’ versus non-gamers’ emotional response in Virtual Reality (6) Creation of Interactive Virtual Environments for Exposure Therapy Through Game-Level Editors: Comparison and Tests on Presence and Anxiety (7) Games, hormones, and “dark” personalities