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The Red Team Wins

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the every-last-leg-up dept.

Voltageaav writes "Recent studies indicate that in both First Person Shooters and even athletic competitions, wearing red gives you an advantage. It's speculated that this distracts the other team slightly due to the psychological aspect of people turning red when angry." Of course the Blue Team loses — as evidence I submit the history of the Detroit Lions.

27 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. I disagree. by TomRK1089 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Boston Red Sox.

    1. Re:I disagree. by menace3society · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, the only case I can think of where the guy wearing red always wins in bullfighting, and that's kind of rigged.

      As an aside, people also turn red when they are embarrassed or drunk, so wouldn't the psychological effect cancel itself out?

    2. Re:I disagree. by eumaeus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Latin nit-pick: quod = that which erat = was demonstrandum = a-to-be-demonstrated-thing The construction is the "passive periphrastic".

  2. TF2 Stats say... by LastToKnow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Especially if you're playing on Goldrush (last graph is wins per team per map

    1. Re:TF2 Stats say... by Das+Modell · · Score: 3, Informative

      Goldrush is an asymmetric map where the blue team attacks and the red team defends.

    2. Re:TF2 Stats say... by 777a · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The fine article is a little light on details, only mentioning Unreal Tournament, but in Team Fortress 2 there is a good reason red win more (bottom chart in parents link).

      In any of the Attack / Defend maps blue plays the attackers, and red plays the defenders.

      To keep things fair the attackers respawn a lot quicker than the defenders (since the attacker has to respawn and run halfway across the map, while the defender usually respawns only a short walk from the final defence point).

      Since waiting 10 to 20 seconds to respawn is pretty boring a lot of servers reduce the respawn rate, this gives a major advantage to the defenders (red).

      So why do red have a slight advantage in other TF2 maps? After someone has played TF2 many hours, they'll realise that they generally win more as red, they may not analyse why they win more, but the end result is players with a lot of TF2 experience tend to join the red team without really thinking about it.

      Personally I think Tribes 2 did it right, the enemy always is red.

    3. Re:TF2 Stats say... by LastToKnow · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is true, and of course the asmmetric maps are a bad place to look for color disparity, I just meant to be funny. However Well, Granary, and Badlands are symmetric maps, and all three of those have red winning slightly more often than blue.

  3. Red team, but not... by kryogen1x · · Score: 5, Funny

    Red shirts!

  4. Eve Online by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm in a corp in Eve Online, a heavy player v player orientated spaceship game.

    With Eve, a hostile ship that is attacking you is displayed on screen, and also on the overview as a flashing red bar - the flashing red showing that the enemy ship has you targeted and is activating modules upon you with hostile intent.

    One of the first things we do with newcomers to our corp/Eve is tell them to change the overview colour of a hostile ship from a flashing red to a solid green.

    The change has had noticable effect. Before people would see the red and get an adrenaline boost, often resulting in them freezing for long enough to lose the battle. When seeing a solid green stating a metaphorical 'go go go!' as opposed to a red screaming 'Danger!' the newcomers perform better and freeze less often.

  5. I thought wearing red gets you killed by Werrismys · · Score: 4, Funny

    Too much TOS.

    --
    'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
  6. Re:Wearing red? Really? by Daimanta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Blue is a better camoflage colour in UT. They have numbers on this I believe. Blue has a slight advantage over Red.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
  7. WAAGH! by vertinox · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Da red wunz go fasta!"

    --
    "I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
    -Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
  8. I'm black..... by Chineseyes · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's speculated that this distracts the other team slightly due to the psychological aspect of people turning red when angry."

    I'm black, I can't turn red you insensitive clod.

    --
    I think the invisible hand of the market has its middle finger extended

    --A wise old fart named SC0RN
    1. Re:I'm black..... by NoPantsJim · · Score: 4, Funny

      black guy with...as your username implies...chinese eyes?

      Weird.

      --
      Name...That...Autocomplete!
    2. Re:I'm black..... by tonycarboni · · Score: 5, Funny

      A guy making fun of the black guy with Chinese eyes.... has no pants?!

  9. Please wear red... by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...if you are my opponent in Day Of Defeat (I'll keep the camo) ;-)

    --
    C - the footgun of programming languages
  10. Selection bias by overshoot · · Score: 5, Funny

    The results would have been the other way around if they hadn't stacked the deck by removing Star Trek crewmen from consideration.

    --
    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
  11. Does Red Cost You More? by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Informative
    "Yeah, the only case I can think of where the guy wearing red always wins in bullfighting, and that's kind of rigged.

    As an aside, people also turn red when they are embarrassed or drunk, so wouldn't the psychological effect cancel itself out?"

    Funny...I remember when I bought a red Corvette...that everyone told me not to get red, because it would make your insurance higher. I'd heard that all my life.

    I called State Farm and asked them if color mattered as to my insurance rate. Nope.

    What matters is your driving record, your sex, the price of the car (repairs), and it seems these days strangely enough...your credit rating?!?!

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    1. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by strabes · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think the idea is that red cars get in more accidents or something. It's either the personality of people who buy red cars or that red distracts other drivers and subconsciously causes them to hit red cars. I tend to think it's the latter because I've owned a red car (that I bought used for a great deal - color wasn't important to me) for close to four years now and I don't regularly have to swerve to avoid getting hit by people who are distracted by my fire engine red car.

      --
      Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
    2. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by WhatAmIDoingHere · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Red is more of a 'HEY POLICE OFFICER, CHECK MY SPEED' color. And you'll end up getting more tickets. And since it's a flashy red car, the officer will be less likely to make it into a warning. So, yes, your insurance rate will be higher.

      --
      Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
    3. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by Tawnos · · Score: 4, Informative

      Grey is actually the car to get the most speeding tickets. Red isn't anything special. White gets fewer.

      Source: http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/redcars.asp

    4. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by DavidD_CA · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I have heard from more than one patrol officer that they will likely see a speeding red car more often than a speeding car of any other color.

      So while your insurance company won't fault you for getting red, your chances of getting a ticket increases. And, with more tickets, your insurance rate goes up.

      There might be statistics out there to back me up, or not.

      --
      -David
    5. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by cayenne8 · · Score: 3, Funny
      "Unless you don't speed."

      Yeah....like that is gonna happen in a red corvette.

      :-)

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    6. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by rrhal · · Score: 3, Informative

      ... But my insurance company doesn't even ask what color my car is. It's coded into your VIN.
      --
      All generalizations are false, including this one. Mark Twain
    7. Re:Does Red Cost You More? by darth+dickinson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Pisses you off? Then slow down.

  12. a test of the theory by Gearoid_Murphy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They should try switching the perceived colours of multiplayer teams and observe the result. For example, some games always show the enemy as red and friendlies as blue. Reversing this might have a noticeable effect on the game play and consequently lead the way to isolating the effect of team colour on our behaviour.

    --
    prepare the survey weasels.
  13. Colorblindness by mellow106 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Approximately 7% of males are red-green colorblind, and so have a slightly impaired ability to distiguish a red figure from a green or brown terrain. This might have something to do with it.