Anti-Gaming Study #28463

[The Kraig]

Yes, it's been about 6 months since the last time someone wasted money on a study on 'proving' that video games make us evil, stinking sinkholes of society.

RACING GAMES MAKE YOU CRASH YOUR VEHICLE (more often).

They say: "Frequent virtual race playing was associated with more aggressive and competitive driving behaviour, and a higher number of reported accidents".

Common sense says: "Frequently aggressive and competitive drivers and their higher number of accidents find games with infinite lives irresistable."

Seriously, if you like speeding around everywhere, you're going to enjoy racing games. I love racing games and I've amassed hundreds of repeatable tricks and stunts in games from GTA to Halo (so not just driving games), and I actually got queasy yesterday as a car passenger (and a GIRLY GIRL was driving).

I'm actually thinking about collecting these idiotic reports and publishing them on a website, and have random people pick apart the flawed analysis. Or we could just have a stickied thread for these spasticisms. :ohwell:

[NobBe Nobbs]

So, we've ascertained some things from these studies.

1) Driving games will make you a reckless driver.

2) FPSs will make you more likely to go on a killing spree rampage.

3) Sports games will make you better at sport.

4) Doom will make you defend the human race from a horde of demons.

I like 3 and 4, personally.

[Benji]

So, we've ascertained some things from these studies.

1) Driving games will make you a reckless driver.

2) FPSs will make you more likely to go on a killing spree rampage.

3) Sports games will make you better at sport.

4) Doom will make you defend the human race from a horde of demons.

I like 3 and 4, personally.

And Final Fantasy will allow you to perform magic spells when it's misty out.

ohmygodi'monfire

[NobBe Nobbs]

Late breaking news: Civilisation will make you more qualified to become a fascist dictator.

[Ruki]

Will Pac-Man lead to eating disorders?

[NobBe Nobbs]

No, Pac-Man only eats healthy healthy fruit.

[Rashid]

Pokemon leads to people taking hobos off the street and forcing them to fight each other.

And sometimes animals.

Edited March 19, 2007 by Rashid

[Benji]

Late breaking news: Civilisation will make you more qualified to become a fascist dictator.

My people love me

[estebanmon]

Don't these people realize that they take risks in a simulator because it's a SIMULATOR. If you know there's no risk, you can be a lot more relaxed. I can't seriously see how playing Gran Turismo can make you drive more aggresively.

And then they say that playing a 10 year old is pretty much forced to crash because they play racing games.

[Mick]

Does this mean that porno games will make you better at sex?

[Toe]

Driving at high speeds off of jumps and slamming into cars in a video game is fun.

Putting my life and the lives of other on the road in danger in real life is not.

I really don't see how driving agressively in a video game would make you more agressive in real life on the road.

[stokeriño]

Clearly the ultimate refute to such a theory is the dating sim game.

Do they make the sad, lonely geeks who play them more likely to go out and chat up girls?

Somehow I think not.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Does this mean that porno games will make you better at sex?

No but all those hentai games you play will make you better at pulling teachers and 13 year old girls.

[apsham]

So wait, where was this study setting out to prove that gamers made bad drivers, therefore making it anti-gamer? Seems just like any other experiment where you go in without knowing what's going to happen, access the results and then make a claim. They apparently had results that pointed to what the conclusion was... so that's what they released.

[Lint]

I agree with ApSham...it doesn't really seem like this is a "OMG VIDEOGAMES ARE EVIL!" study..it seems more like they were doing something and came to a viable, nonbiased result. It seems its more like gamers are the ones going "OMG BIASED RESEARCH"

Though they should do an experiement or whatever on who driving games has, in a way, helped. Back in '01 when I bought my car, it had a 5 speed manual transmission...up to that point, I'd only ever driven automatic. Well, since I already new basics of manual from game like NFS, GT etc...things like listening for the engine noise rather then the tach etc...I was driving my car fine in about 5 minutes

[Skummy]

I wouldn't say it's an intentionally anti-gaming study, per sé, but the stats really don't seem conclusive enough to say "racing games = bad driver". Basically it seems like they've noticed corellation, and come to an incorrect conclusion. As people have said, it's far more likely to be that people who drive aggressively are attracted to games that allow them to drive as recklessly as they like.

[apsham]

But that's not exactly why they were saying, no one there said "Racing games = bad drivers"

Car racing computer games could be contributing to real-life road accidents, a study suggests.Psychologists found fans of motor racing games were more likely to drive aggressively and crash when they got behind a real wheel.

The researchers wrote: "Practitioners in the field of road safety should bear in mind the possibility that racing games indeed make road traffic less safe, not least because game players are mostly young adults, acknowledged as the highest accident-rate group"

I mean, it's not like the they said anything conclusive... these people have probably never played a game in their life, they were probably contracted to do research, did it as outlined in the article and came to their own conclusions, with phrases like those bolded above.

[The Kraig]

So you skipped the headline saying 'Gamers 'Make Bad Drivers''? :blink:

It's just another piss-poor study, that makes gamers look like retards to the common reader.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Because the headline is all you need to read in an article.

[apsham]

So you skipped the headline saying 'Gamers 'Make Bad Drivers''? :blink:

It's just another piss-poor study, that makes gamers look like retards to the common reader.

You.. DO realize that was put on by whoever wrote the article, instead of having ANYTHING to do with research, correct?