The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has published a report that breaks down details on the game playing public as never before, with some unusual and a lot of unsurprising findings.

Most expected was that that negative media coverage about a violent title encourages gamers to buy it, mirroring trends in music and film.

Rockstar's Manhunt saw increased sales following the murder of teenager Stefan Pakeerah in 2004 which was linked to the title.

"I looked at Manhunt because there was all the stuff in the news. There was a murder and they blamed that game. So straight away I thought I would have a look at it", commented an interviewee.

The report also rejects the concept of videogames being addictive while also finding that people play games to escape from normal life to a world of adventure without risk to the gamer, unlike the real world which is the appeal. It is also essential in order to complete the games which often require extreme violence.

Importantly, the report found that gamers regard the violence of television or films to be far more “real” than that in games. And importantly parents also don’t seem to mind the violence as they regard what their children are doing as “just games”.

Also appealing is the sense of achievement that games give, as they are interactive, unlike television and films which are passive – essentially gamers are less likely to forget they are playing games than film goers forget they are watching a film because they have to participate in the game for it to proceed. They are, however, unlikely to be emotionally involved.

"We were particularly interested to see that this research suggests that, far from having a potentially negative impact on the reaction of the player, the very fact that they have to interact with the game seems to keep them more firmly rooted in reality", commented David Cooke, director of the BBFC.

"People who do not play games raise concerns about their engrossing nature, assuming that players are also emotionally engrossed. This research suggests the opposite – a range of factors seem to make them less emotionally involving than film or television", he said.

For the full report visit the BBFC website - link below.

>> Link - Official Site/BBFC