Slashdot Mirror
Computer Games Make Players Less Violent
Stony Stevenson writes "A new study of computer gamers has found that a session in front of World of Warcraft can make players less stressed and more calm. The study questioned 292 male and female online gamers aged between 12 and 83 about anger and stress. They then played the game for two hours and were retested. "There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger, but this very much depended on personality type," said team leader Jane Barnett from Middlesex University."
"The thinking in the field is that there is a scale along which people, even those considered to be 'normal', can be placed on," said Dr Charlton.
Well, Dr Charlton is a bright spark isn't he.
liqbase
This just in...leisure reduces stress!
Just add spam and lag then watch the fireworks
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
And I can only agree with her findings. Since living in the same house as me, she's been playing WoW. In that time, she's not stabbed me once.
Proof positive there I think!
Seriously though, while there's plenty of comments already about this being obvious, it does contradict some of the findings of the much vaunted Byron Report in the UK. And as the UK Government seem to be planning an entire series of laws based on the Byron Report, we badly need research like this to avoid unnecessary regulations being placed on games.
YMMV. You'd be wrong, but it may vary.
Full Tilt
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Sure, this would be like arguing that murderers should be encouraged to commit small, regular slayings of unimportant people in order to avoid building up the urge to go on a real rampage.
(Not really, I just wanted to give Jack Thompson some easy quotes).
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Two hours in front of WOW = Three weeks in real time.
Yeah, my karma sucks....but so do the mods.
You've got to entertain yourself some how watching soccer. (ducks)