Violence doesn't make games more enjoyable, says study

A new study's claimed that violent content doesn't, to the average player, provide motivation to consume games.

Researchers at the University of Rochester and the think-tank and consultancy company Immersyve, based in Orlando, Florida, reached their conclusions after conducting two surveys of 2,670 frequent game players and four experiments involving more than 300 undergraduates.

"We wanted to know if the violent content by itself was motivating because these games also do offer compelling challenges and stories," said Andrew Przybylski, lead author of the report, speaking of the likes of WoW, Halo 3 and Team Fortress 2.

"We found that, on average, violent content didn't add to motivation for play."

One part of the study used two versions of Half-Life 2, one violent version and the other less so.

Players either had a weapon that was like a shotgun or they had a psychic power.

"We manipulated the blood level and the gore level, so when people had the gun and they were told that it was going to be a kill or be killed situation, when they actually took out an adversary, it was very bloody, it was a very violent game," Przybylski explained.

Exhaustive details on MetroNews.