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Posted on 06/22/2005 1:53:33 PM PDT by Callahan
LONDON (Reuters) - The brains of players of violent video games react as if the violence were real, a study has suggested. ADVERTISEMENT
Klaus Mathiak at the University of Aachen in Germany studied the brain patterns of 13 men aged 18 to 26 who, on average, played video games for two hours a day.
Wired up to a scanner, they were asked to play a game involving navigating through a complicated bunker, killing attackers and rescuing hostages.
Mathiak found that as violence became imminent, the cognitive parts of the brain became active and that during a fight, emotional parts of the brain were shut down.
The pattern was the same as that seen in subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.
It suggests that video games are a "training for the brain to react with this pattern," Mathiak says.
The research was presented at a meeting in Canada and reported by New Scientist magazine.
Whether violent videos make people more aggressive though is hard to prove, the magazine noted. Studies have suggested players of violent games are in fact more aggressive but have left open the question of whether the games made them that way.
I half worry about my driving skills after playing Grand Theft Auto. I sometimes worry that I will run over a pedestrian or side swipe a car just because I'm in a hurry and not paying attention. Don't seriously think it will happen, but sometimes it worries me.
GTA is thte type of video game I love to play....you aren't constrained to doing certain choices....you have virtually the ability to do anything you want within the city.
It is free range, not like the old strategy/action games in which you had to make a choice on what to do and you only had 2 options.
Well, I play alot of games and if I could only by one this year I'd take GTA:SA. It's like three games in one because the cities are so huge. Same basic GTA gameplay, but more refined with a TON of stuff to do beyond the main story. I will say that I liked the "Miami Vice" theme of last game better than than SA's "gangsta rap" vibe. It's just a little more ripe for homage/satire. But it's technically superior and an overall awesome experience.
"Grand Theft Auto"
Didn't happen to watch "60 Minutes" last Sunday did you? The short story is some teenaged thug gets arrested for stealing a car. At the police station he manages to grab an officer's gun and shoot him dead. Head shot. He rounds the corner and another head shot. Dead officer number two. He enters a room and third head shot. Dead dispatcher. He grabs the keys to a squad car and escapes only to be arrested a short time later.
Well, guess what violent video game the family of the kid and the dead officers are blaming this on? If you said "GTA" then we have a winner! Of course the kid doesn't have a dime to his name. He's from the hood. So the families are suing Sony, BestBuy, Walmart and Rockstar Games for "training" this poor future rapper how to kill cops.
You know my brother and his friend?!??
"Give them more funding!!!"
Or just simulate funding them, since simulation and reality are pretty much the same thing.
The pattern was the same as that seen in subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.
In other words, it sounds like all they've proven is that the brain reacts to simulated violent situations the same way it reacts to simulated violent situations. No kidding.
I always found it funny that the charachter in the game is not necessarily a bad guy. He's only going out trying to take out criminals, corrupt cops, etc, and trying to protect his family.
It's only what the human player does with the charachter that makes him bad; i.e. random drive bys, screwing hookers and killing them to get your money back...
Yeah, but nothin' gets the old endorphin's going like real lead and metal flyin' around the old noggin.
If the headline read "Brain sees life as violent video game," then we'd have some news here.
But I must admit, as a gamer I suck. That is why the GTA games are so fun for me. I can go on the missions when I feel like advancing my progress, but more often than not I just run around the city stealing cars and looking for cool jumps.
I am sure I will be condemned by many for admitting this, but I even let my kid play Vice City, as long as I am around. I restrict him to driving and crashing cars, no killing with chainsaws or picking up hookers. He loves it! Not because of the violence, but because of the FREEDOM. Same reason I love it. I didn't want to cause trouble for myself with his teachers or grandparents, so he thinks the game is called Mario Brothers.
LOL...It's an epidemic.
I'm getting Battlefield 2, it's suppose to be pretty good.
Video game ping (just started)!
If you want on or off this list, Freepmail me.
Well, as I intimated in a previous post, one can't drive anywhere on the freeways in California anymore without seeing some frickin' low-life 19-year old in a chopped-down Honda Civic-class car weaving in and out of traffic lanes, nearly clipping the bumpers of other cars, never signalling...and there's usually two of them. I don't know if these idiots are influenced by playing "Grand Theft Auto" 18 hours a day, but if they want to kill themselves, they are welcome to do so by rolling their car off some deserted road, endangering no one but themselves.
When I was young and impressionable, I used to play a lot of Team Fortress and then Team Fortress Classic. It's easy enough to rocket jump in the game, but darn tricky in real life.
"The pattern was the same as that seen in subjects who have had brain scans during other simulated violent situations.
Once again, a misleading title. All they've proved is that videos games simulate violence, which we already knew.
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