32 | New Scientist | 28 March 2020
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PLAYING Doom Eternal induces a
physiological response in me – a
fantastic adrenaline rush that is a
welcome distraction in these dark
times. The game is the second in
a modern-day refresh of the long-
running Doom series, which sees
players blast away demons with
an arsenal of absurd weaponry.
The immediate predecessor to
Eternal, simply called Doom, came
out in 2016, shortly before my first
daughter was born. In her first few
weeks, she refused to sleep in a
crib and would only settle when
lying on my wife or I. As a result,
I became nocturnal, staying up
most of the night with a tiny,
precious bundle lying on my chest.
In between swigs of coffee and
episodes of Line of Duty, I turned
to Doom to keep me awake.
What makes the 2016 game so
engaging is a system designed to
encourage forward momentum at
all times: shoot a demon enough
and it will flash orange, signalling
you can move in for a “glory kill”
that will send limbs flying and
finish the job, restoring your
on-screen health in the process.
The plot is irrelevant – demonshave invaded Mars/Earth/
whatever and only you can stop
them... blah blah blah. All you
need to know are two simple
rules: keep moving and keep
killing. Eternal expands on this
with a flamethrower that makes
enemies drop armour and adds
a quick-dash move, meaning the
whole game becomes a whirlingballet of balancing resources,
such as health and ammo, and
death-dealing. It requires extreme
attentiveness and gets the heart
racing satisfyingly.
I realise that non-gamers
reading this are probably horrified
at my glorification of death and
destruction, and some may
already be reaching for their
keyboard to complain. They
wouldn’t be the first – the Doom
series has long been criticised
for being too violent. However,A welcome, adrenaline-inducing distraction Doom Eternal involves killing
demons, but the evidence suggests violence in video games has no real effect
on behaviour in the real world, says Jacob Aron“ The plot is irrelevant –
demons have invaded
Mars/Earth/whatever
and only you can stop
them... blah blah blah”Games
Doom Eternal
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox OneJacob also
recommends...Games
Superhot
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One,
Nintendo Switch
An abstract sci-fi shooter
with a unique twist – time
only moves when you do.
As a result, you can dodge
bullets and line up seemingly
impossible shots, before
watching a real-time replay
at the end of each level.looking back, it seems absurd to
suggest the pixelated graphics of
the 1993 original could ever warp
young minds.
Video game violence isn’t real-
world violence, any more than
chess is an accurate simulation
of war, but many people feel the
link is there. Concern over Doom
probably reached its peak after
the 1999 Columbine massacre in
Colorado, in which two teenagers
killed 12 students and a teacher at
their school. Investigators found
references to Doom in a journal
belonging to one of the killers, and
although there were rumours that
he had recreated the layout of the
school in the game, there is no
evidence this is actually true.
So, do violent video games
cause violent behaviour? Probably
not. For a start, much of the
research in this area relies on
abstract measures of aggression –
the length of time a participant
exposes someone to a loud noise
is often deployed, for example.
What’s more, although a 2018
meta-analysis that looked at 24
studies, which together involved
more than 17,000 people, found a
slight association between video
game violence and aggression in
the real world, the effect size was
tiny – accounting for less than 1
per cent of the variance in
aggressive behaviour in US teens.
With little to show for years of
study, researchers and the media
seem to have switched to fretting
about the negative effects of social
media and smartphones. Again,
the effects seem tiny if they exist
at all – one paper found that
eating potatoes has as much of an
association with teen well-being as
screen use. With that in mind, I’m
happy to keep blasting demons. ❚BE
THES
DASlaying Doom's
demons keeps the
game moving forwardThe games column
Jacob Aron is New Scientist’s
deputy news editor. He has
been playing video games
for 25 years, but still isn’t
very good at them. Follow
him on Twitter @jjaron