This Middlesex University study is quite a variance to things that have previously come out. One study done all the way back in 1983 was a near copy of the Middlesex version and dealt with players after they had entertained themselves on arcade games. Called the "Gibb Study", this work claimed that aggressive behavior was related to playing the arcade games and that, as the violence in the games got more realistic, so did tendencies for violent thoughts.

Another study that came out in 2000 from the University of Central Lancashire echoed the Gibb Study and found that teenagers got more hostile after playing violent games.

Even the end results of a study presented at this year’s Dublin symposium didn't favor heavy video game play. It presented the similarities between game addiction and a form of high functioning autism, also know as Asperger's syndrome. Apsperger’s syndrome is a combination of anti-social behavior, being overly agreeable, and neuroticism.

A representative from the University of Bolton and Whitman College said, "Our research supports the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum disorders than people who have no interest in gaming." These accusations of avid video gamers having autism were of course false but researchers from Bolton and Whitman did conclude that these people will interact better with a machine better than they do with people.

However, as much negativity as these studies cast towards the act of playing video games, it is still nice to know that there is something on the other side of the fence with regards to the Middlesex Study. Because let's be honest: a sane human being isn't going to become a mass murderer just because they play a violent video game.