An American study has found that violence plays little part in whether a person will chose one game over another.

Click to enlarge

The University of Rochester in New York State conducted a study involving 2,500 people and the game Half Life 2. Half the students had a customized version of the game that used a shotgun to kill opponents, with particularly gruesome graphics, while the other half used psychic energy to dispatch the bad guys.

After finishing the game, players were asked a series of questions and how likely they would be to play the game again. The upshot was that there was not enough difference in the answers to show that violence had any impact on their enjoyment of the game.

“We found that, on average, violent content didn’t add to motivation for play,” said lead author Andrew Przybylski of the University of Rochester. “The reason why children gravitate to something like Halo, Halo 3 or World of Warcraft or Team Fortress isn’t necessarily because they want to get at the blood or the acts of violence.”