A U.S. study found that players' "robust exposure" to a highly violent online game did not cause any substantial real-world aggression. Study leader Dmitri Williams of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says that after an average playtime of 56 hours over the course of a month with "Asheron's Call 2" -- a popular MMRPG, or "massively multi-layer online role-playing game" -- he found "no strong effects associated with aggression caused by this violent game." Players were not statistically different from the non-playing control group in their beliefs on aggression after playing the game than they were before playing, Williams said. Nor was playing the game a predictor of aggressive behaviors. "I'm not saying some games don't lead to aggression, but I am saying the data are not there yet," Williams said. "Until we have more long-term studies, I don't think we should make strong predictions about long-term effects, especially given this finding." The findings appear in the June issue of Communication Monographs. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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