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Cheaper Car Insurance For Gamers
I know your first reaction is that this story is gonna be an ad, but
SpuriousLogic's story is actually about insurers considering giving a discount to elderly gamers. The question is: does gaming improve mental agility and make you a safer driver? And if so, I'll have to add gaming to mowing the lawn for my weekly chores.
...as elderly gamers probably spend very little time in their cars.
All my years of FreeCell and Minesweeper will not have been in vain.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
The question is, does gaming improve mental agility and make you a safer driver.
That's the wrong question. A more correct question would be "Is there a correlation between gaming and driving ability?"
It could very well be the there is no causal relationship between the two, but rather they share a common cause. Perhaps those without sufficient mental acuity/coordination to drive also lack the "mad skillz" needed for gaming, and thus they don't find games to be enjoyable and therefore don't play.
I know it goes against the norm, but I actually read the article. It clearly states that the drivers in this program must play a very specific game designed to improve visual alertness. So if you thought that Allstate (the "insurers" in this article) was going to give discounts to WOW players, think again.
You probably don't have a life, so you can drive less? World or Warcraft should give you an 80% discount on your car insurance, heck it could cover the monthly fee. I see synergy.
With apologies to Ron White:
"Real life driving is not like a racing game, and I'm quoting a judge on this one"
I'm driving along a 40 limit road, at a cautious 30 when someone cluelessly drives into my path from a blind junction where they have no right of way. *I REACT* to this by slowing down and avoiding said stupid driver, thus making a non-situation of it. As I reacted, according to you, I had done something wrong or I wouldn't have had to. What bad decisions had I made previously? Except driving on the public roads in the first place, that is.
Likewise, I react to someone cutting into my lane too close by backing off a bit. What did I do wrong in this instance?
Just hypothetical questions :)
Tom...
While I agree that gaming may help reflexes I disagree that it has an inherent benefit on driving. Driving demands good decision-making and experience. What does it help to have quick reactions if you make poor decisions or over-react?
I've known guys who played games extensively and were crap drivers. All that gaming didn't keep them from getting into accidents anyway. I doubt statistics would support the notion that the rise of gaming has had an positive impact on reducing accidents.
Then there's the video online where some dumb kid and his friends play Initial D in the arcade and then decide to go out for a spin in their car. It doesn't take to long before this kid wrecks his car. Young people are already delusional enough about their driving abilities they don't need anyone making it worse.
Older drivers, on the other hand, will ideally have commonsense and experience on their side. So for them, gaming may have a positive impact because they'll actually be able to put improved reflexes to good use.
I'm driving along a 40 limit road, at a cautious 30 when someone cluelessly drives into my path from a blind junction where they have no right of way. *I REACT* to this by slowing down and avoiding said stupid driver, thus making a non-situation of it. As I reacted, according to you, I had done something wrong or I wouldn't have had to. What bad decisions had I made previously?
Well, for starters, unless there's reason to be driving under the speed limit (snow? rain?), I find it is generally dangerous in the U.S. to drive slower than the posted speed limit. Of course, this will vary by state (some states, few speed... others, you have to "keep up with traffic").
But generally, I've found that driving under the posted speed limit is more dangerous because people will come up on you from behind not expecting you to be a rolling roadblock.
Of course, as your reaction time slows (as one gets older) those drivers tend to slow down to allow themselves more time to react (as in the scenario you've described). But I think on the whole, driving this way creates more opportunities for accidents then it prevents. Right or wrong, driving more slowly is going to piss people off, and they'll tend to want to get around you. The more maneuvers going on around YOUR car (ie, people cutting you off because they are impatient with your speed), the more you'll likely get into accidents.
Ask yourself this: which happens more frequently? A driver pulls out into your lane and you t-bone him because you can't stop in time OR someone cuts you off because they're in a hurry (whether you're driving slowly or not).
I believe the latter happens more frequently and leads to more accidents... so any behavior that "encourages" it will naturally lead to more accidents.
Diplomacy is the art of saying, "Nice doggie!" until you can find a rock.
There is a correlation between performance in visual tasks and the amount of time people have been playing action video games. The initial study has shown that action-video-game (AVG, e.g. Unreal Tournament, other ego-shooters) players perform significantly better in a range of visual attention tasks than non-AVG players. In later studies it has been shown that this increased performance is not observed for people who do play games that are not of the AVG-genre (e.g. The Sims), and also that 50h of game playing of AVG games is sufficient to observe a significant performance increase in visual tasks. Currently, the same lab is investigating whether this effect is also observed in the elderly, with positive initial results. For more information, just have a look at the lab's list of publications (disclaimer: I'm in the same department as that lab, though not member of that lab).
In relation to the article, they seem to recommend the people to play games of the non-AVG type. For this reason I have my doubts that these games will significantly improve performance in visual tasks. On the other hand, it might support other tasks that are required while driving, but that remains to be shown.
I really don't understand all this crap from US posters about how you should drive at the speed limit, or even faster(!).
Take your reason, someone might be driving the speed limit and not notice "a rolling roadblock". What are they? Blind? When driving, you should always be aware of what cars are near by. And if you are driving along, and you are approaching a car, it is pretty damn obvious that you are going faster then them...
You therefore, take your foot of the accelerator and access the situation, and then decide whether it is safe to pass, or whatever.
Where I'm from learners have to have a big L displayed, and must drive a maximum of 80 kilometres per hour (or the speed limit, whichever is lower). But of course, because they are learners, they often drive slower then the speed limit, even if they don't have to.
It would be very rare for people to get upset at these learners, whether they are on a highway or a city street.
OK, that's one reason why someone might be driving slower, what if they don't know the area? What if they are looking for a house number? What if there are children around? Maybe their breaks don't work so well and they are going to the mechanic? Maybe they just think, "well it's a nice day, no rush to go to work/home, I'll take my time"?
And if some idiot is driving along and cuts that slower driver off, who is at fault? The idiot driving fast and cutting off the slower driver.
Actually, while on the topic of cars, I've often see idiots talking about how they tailgate other drivers because the other drivers drive too slow. Yeah, and you know who is rightfully to blame in the event of a rear ending? The idiot doing the tailgating.
You should always leave enough space between yourself and the car in front to stop safely. If you can't, you aren't driving safely.
Basically, you should be driving safely, and if that means slowing down, then yeah, there isn't a problem with that. (The only case where you can complain legitimately about someone driving too slow is if they are more then about 20 km/h below the speed limit on a highway.)
I wank in the shower.
"Right or wrong, driving more slowly is going to piss people off".
Ahh, this line betrays your true sentiment. If people can't avoid hitting you from behind when you are going 10 mph less than the speed limit, they don't belong on the road. It's not inherently dangerous to drive 30 in a 40 zone. The main danger is stupid folk getting pissed off and wanting to take it out on you.
I'm 65, and have spinal arthritis. There are mornings when I get up, and everything is normal, and mornings when I'm not functional. The problem sometimes is making sure how functional I am before I try to do anything, especially operating machinery or driving. I've found that playing a computer game before I do much else is a really good indicator of how well I am functioning. I also get the impression that playing the game for a while seems to improve my functionality. I don't consider this hard proof of anything. I do think it may be an indicator that there is something to this idea. It may merit serious research.