This book is an academic work which reviews and critiques the research literature concerning violent games and their alleged effects on players. It examines the debates about the potential effects of these games and the divisions between scholars working in the field. It places the research on violent video games in the longer historical context of scholarly work on media violence. It examines research from around the world on the nature of video games and their effects. It provides a critique of relevant theories of media violence effects and in particular theories developed within the older media violence literature and then considers how useful this and newer scholarly work might be for policy-makers and regulators. The book identifies where gaps exist in the extent literature and where future research attention might be directed.
"In Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent? Gunter presents a broad review of research on video game effects, including some very early studies on general media effects up to and including relatively recent meta-analyses of violent video game effects. ... This book might be useful as one of several texts in an undergraduate course on the history of research on media effects." (Jeanne Funk Brockmyer, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 61 (45), November, 2016)