Annette John-Hall: Using video games to reduce violence

We've heard it for years - a violent culture begets violence.

Conventional wisdom says, if you want to understand the not-so-subliminal reasons for incivility, you don't have to look any further than the movies, the music, and the video games - the elements of pop culture we so readily identify with and glorify.

Those blasted video games are the worst. Violent video games, more than violent television shows or movies, can increase aggressive thoughts and behaviors because they're interactive. At least that's what the American Psychological Association says.

Always sounded a little simplistic to me. I can't imagine a video game having more of an influence on a kid than a parent. But when Philadelphia has suffered 34 homicides in 33 days, you can't help but wonder about everything.

What I do know is, I didn't expect to come to this conclusion.

'Aha' moment

How about this: Yes, young people are playing violent video games, but as a way to decrease their aggressive thoughts, not increase them.

And parents are using video games as effective tools for raising their children.

That "aha" moment presented itself at the University Family Fun Center in University City, where Eric Small reigns as the gaming king supreme with a joystick as scepter.

It wasn't always this way a decade or so ago when many of the city's arcades, including Family Fun, were considered hot spots for crime.

But that was before Small, 39, better known as "Big E," took his childhood passion for gaming and parlayed it into international tournaments held right here in Philly. Next up is Winter Brawl 6, Feb. 18 and 19 at the Sheraton Suites Philadelphia Airport, where Small expects more than 1,000 gamers to take it out on each other - but only on the video screens.

"Never had a problem," says Small, who is as affable as he is a physical contradiction to his name. "I have security at the door to make sure nobody walks out with a PlayStation, but [the competition] is all friendly arguing and bickering."

Small's gamers battle in games like Street Fighter and Soul Calibur V, master assassins and superheroes fighting to the death.

You would think any game that takes Leonardo da Vinci's quote "Our life is made by the death of others" as its credo was just the kind of violent indoctrination that easily impressed minds don't need.

But actually, says Kenneth Scott, a Street Fighter aficionado, its effect is the opposite.