In a clear example of video games directly spurring real-life violence, a Nottinghamshire, England, goose wreaked havoc on an unsuspecting taxi driver and his now-ravaged car.

In the wake of the El Paso shooting on Aug. 3 that left 22 dead and dozens injured, a familiar trope has reemerged: Often, when a young man is the shooter, people try to blame the tragedy on violent video games and other forms of media.

In the wake of two mass shootings, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the nation to say that “gruesome and grisly video games,” among other things, were to blame for the tragedies.

A new study published this week in Nature journal Molecular Psychology provides a well-timed rebuttal to the weary trope - occasionally alluded to by President Trump and others in the wake of mass shootings - that violent video games are causing real-life mayhem.

It's mostly '80s nostalgia in the video for The Fjords' "All In" -- until the kid pulls out his NES Zapper and starts blowing people away.

The results are in from the world's first long-term study into the consumption of violent media and its effect on real-life acts of violence. (If you're a member of the Australian Christian Lobby, you may want to sit down for a minute.) Not only did the study find zero link between the consumption of violent games and real-life violent acts, but violent games could actually be responsible for a decrease in youth violence.

After this thing the other week, here's some actual science proving actual things. Specifically: "'immoral' virtual behaviours in a video game can lead to increased moral sensitivity".

Sometimes wisdom comes from unexpected places. In this case, from a puppet controlled by an introspective game developer.

IGN editor-in-chief Casey Lynch works on weekends and asked me last Saturday to chime in on the topic of violent video games. I present my replies here as well to highlight the two things I brought up which are my two main frustrations about the debate about video game violence.

Early last year, 70 French university students sat down in a room. A group of scientists told the students they would be participating in a study to measure the effects of video game brightness on visual perception, and that they would each be paid €10 ($13) a day for their efforts.

If you read a recent piece on video game violence, there's a good chance that somewhere in that article, included is a screenshot of a Dishonored neck stab. Last year was the year of the neck stab, after all. Rock, Paper, Shotgun spoke with the developer that coded that move in-game -- Joe Houston -- and he had Opinions On Game Violence.

The flurry of private citizens and professional pundits opining about what role video games might have played in the awful Sandy Hook Shootings probably isn't going to stop soon. And while commentary has been ranged from inflammatory to poignant, the central issue of whether games influence behaviour is far from being a fact.

In the aftermath of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school, the advertising freight train chugs along mostly unaffected. Video game and movie studios continue to hype violent entertainment, filling coveted advertising slots with gunfire and explosions. It creates a juxtaposition with grim reality and an unspoken commentary on the violence Americans see and sell every day.

It started out innocently enough, but these two "concerned" friends, worried about their video gamer buddy's tendency towards violence, takes a turn for the worst.

I can't say I was happy when my wife's friend brought over her seven-year-old terrorist of a child, Charlie, one summer afternoon in 2010, the same day I brought home a freshly cellophaned copy of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. All I'd wanted to do was pop it into my first edition PlayStation 3 (the one that looks like a Prometheus stage prop), sit on my arse, forget my name and blow some shit up.

It happens a lot but, each time it does, I take comfort in my boredom. I take comfort in the fact that it matters less -- that more people just shake their head and sigh. That we don't rush to our keyboard with a grimace, bashing out the same words we've been typing for the last 20 years.

Do violent video games cause aggressive behaviour? According to a recent report published in the journal Psychology of Violence, the competitive aspect of gaming is more likely to generate aggro than mere violence. All this from a bunch of university students, some video games, and some hot sauce. Science is an amazing thing.

John Carmack is currently working on RAGE, a game that, from what we've seen, will feature a fair amount of violence. His resume, which includes legendary games like Doom and Quake, hasn't exactly been short of violence either - so when he speaks up about the impact of said violence, it's probably worth listening. Especially in the wake of the Oslo shootings.

Despite the fact that video games have been invariably blamed for a multitude of violent criminal acts over the last decade, some researchers are actually making the claim that the increased proliferation of video games are among the factors helping reduce crime in the United States.