Carmack Games help 'reduce aggression'

id man and Doom mastermind John Carmack believe videogames can actually help reduce aggression rather than cause it. "People just play games now and I never took seriously the violence in video games debate," he said in an interesting chat with Industry Gamers. He went on to recall an E3 where reporters would bombard him with questions over the violence in games debate. "In the end it didn't matter, it didn't make any impact on things. I never felt threatened by it and it turned out not to matter," he said. "And I really think, if anything, there is more evidence to show that the violent games reduce aggression and violence," added Carmack. "There have actually been some studies about that, that it's cathartic. If you go to QuakeCon and you walk by and you see the people there [and compare that to] a random cross section of a college campus, you're probably going to find a more peaceful crowd of people at the gaming convention. I think it's at worst neutral and potentially positive."The Call of Duty series has recently once again come under fire after Oslo mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik called Modern Warfare 2 a "training simulator" for his distressing actions. But according to clinical psychologist Christopher Ferguson - an expert on video game violence and mass killings at Texas A&M International University - those who seek to make the connection between games and violent acts aren't just wrong. They might well be racist. Why? Read his explanation here.