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."

Comments

Finally.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been saying this for ages. With most people video games are a way to vent their anger instead of taking it out on others. If you're crazy enough to go kill 20+ people you really don't need a video game to encourage you.

Re:Finally.

[Xelios]

I liken it to visiting a shooting range or taking martial arts lessons. Neither make a person more violent, and both can be great outlets for stress or aggression. I don't see what makes video games any different, aside from the fact that you don't use up much physical energy playing them.

The parents who are campaigning against video game violence are likely the same parents who threaten to sue their school when their kid comes home with a few bruises after a fun game of football in gym class. Not that I was ever any good at sports (this is /. after all), but no-contact football is their handywork.

Flawed Logic

[kwik3mart]

hmmm... Let's think for a second: If you are a violent person with lots of bad stuff in your life that you are pissed at then WOW will allow a cathartic release of those emotions. So the test results are valid. BUT... If there's lots of stuff in your life that you are angry at, playing video games gives you the sense of accomplishment without actually solving any of your real problems. So you have experienced release, but not actually changed anything. So... the study is deeply flawed in that the timeline for the research was too short. Of course people feel better after having a cathartic release of violence. But, what about the long term effects of this cathartic release without actually helping life get better. That's where real violence comes from: a fake world that feels good and a real life that keeps getting worse because you don't deal with it. Not a helpful study.

Re:Middlesex University

[gfxguy]

While that may be the case, it's been my anecdotal experience that kids who are allowed to play violent video games, and play with toy guns and other toy weapons, are much more relaxed and better behaved than kids who parents won't let them.

I've even been scolded by people for play-fighting with my son.

But then, I've had people come up to my wife and I out of the blue and tell us what nice, well behaved kids we have - at restaurants, on delayed flights that turned into multiple day ordeals...

Sure, it's not just the games and playing, but if you let the kids let "it" out, it seems obvious to me that they can relieve their own built up tension. Stress isn't limited to adults, kids have a lot of pressures to deal with, too. Maybe not as much as adults, maybe their problems even seem trivial to us, but to a 10 year old they're not.

I'd say it's a great life lesson in constructively dealing with stress.