Honestly, the whole argument over video game violence seems pointless. There is a rating system in place that doesn't allow minors to buy video games if they aren't old enough. It literally works the same way for the movies, yet no one seems to blame the literal tons of other violent media. My parents growing up followed my gaming, and I wasn't allowed to play certain games until I got older. This seems like a parental issue in almost every regard.
Wholly agree with the need to compare to physical activity. I did boxing in high school and it was a huge stress reliever. I don't believe it made me more violent, if anything, the opposite. I got out all my aggression and felt pretty great. I'd also like more granularity into "violent" games. I had to stop playing League because it turned me into a horrible person. But graphic games like Battlefield have yet to affect my behavior. I've been a vegetarian my entire life, but I was the kinda kid who would shoot 1000 pounds of meat and only bring 80 back to the wagon in Oregon trail. So while this is an interesting study, I'd like to see more.
We don't even need to do that. Just compare the amount of rioting that occur when a team lost or won a championship versus the amount of rioting caused by videogames.But nobody seems to ask whether football leads to antisocial violence, even though you could see that in Steubenville; nor does anyone ask whether cheerleading is dangerous, even though it has a pretty astounding injury rate.
I still have similar hesitations and caveats as yours. Correlation does not equal causation, and things are rarely as simple as they seem. Chaos theory comes into play when complex dynamic systems such as humanity and society come into play. One thing I did do, however, for the sake of not being closed-minded, is do research on the American Psychological Association. They seem to be spot on and progressive about other hot button topics.
People who think gamers are violent because of playing GTA or Mortal Kombat know nothing about gaming. Videogames can absolutely incite gamers into committing acts of violence, but it's less "wow, GTA and Mortal Kombat are violent, so I'm going to be violent in real life too because reasons" and more "I broke my friend's nose because he kept on feeding with Teemo jungle" or "I got into a fight with a friend because he kept on peeking my side of the screen and unplugged my controller just as I was about to win in Mariokart."
To be honest, I find my self much more short tempered and easily frazzled when I'm sedentary for long periods of time while playin video games. Whether this resultant behavior is a product of the video games specifically or just the sedentary life is worth looking into. But the second I drop the habit and hit the gym I'm immediately more personable and happy.
I think it's pretty reasonable that violence in media leads some people to be violent, but I'm not sure what the take away is. Does reading the bible lead to violence? There's quite a bit of it in the bible, after all. Maybe reading the bible is just as dangerous for particular people. There may even be a much stronger case for that assumption. We could all eat tramadol and watch barney, but I'm not sure that that is better than going on as we are, violence and all.
I'm really not a fan of that title, especially when the article itself raises concerns about the accuracy of the report. But I don't want to completely dismiss the idea that there could be some kind of link between violent video games and aggressive behaviour.