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What Gamers Have In Common With Top Athletes
nk497 writes "It's no surprise that professional gamers aren't quite as fit as elite athletes, but they do have something in common. According to a British academic, top-level players show similar psychological attributes as top athletes, such as the ability to manage anxiety, and have reaction times on par with fighter pilots. Dr. Micklewright said, 'When I first got asked to do [the study], my initial reaction was "don't be ridiculous, gaming is nothing like sport." But the more I thought about it, the more similarities [became clear], and I became more and more convinced that it was close in many ways to sport.' While sitting in front of a screen might not have the same physical demands as running a marathon, neither do playing snooker or darts. Still, while gamers show good reflexes, their health was worse than expected, with one 20-something professional player showing the same aerobic health as a 60-year-old smoker." This story is based on a BBC radio report which you can currently hear, although that link seems to say that it won't last.
I may be a gamer, but my right hand has the stamina of an 18 year old!
Bah, who needs em. I'm going to have better sports. With blackjack,alcohol and hookers. Infact forget the sports.
They both get overpaid to play a game.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Since it's been shown that aerobic exercise can improve reaction time, I can't help but wonder how much better of gamers they would be if they also exercised a bit as well. They wouldn't need to go to a gym. Just some running, or crunches, or something on a regular basis would help, I would bet.
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Clicked the wrong topic, eh? Don't worry, BP bashing is always relevant on the internet!
Sports typically have one or two major common injuries associated with them, like knee damage for cross country skiing. I wonder if this will show on gamers in 20 or 30 years.
I'm specifically interested if mental problems occur later in life from over-use of the brain. Some gamers typically work a mental job, then come home and engage in 5-6 hours of very mentally intensive activity. Your brain gets hammered pretty heavily over the course of a day.
Another possibility is eye damage. During intense gaming sessions I notice that I dry my eyes out repeatedly focusing by not blinking during specific events. I wonder if this will effect me in 20 years. On another note, most gamers I've met have the same vision as me and we can wear each other's glasses without issue.
Might not? Might not?? Hell, making a sandwich has more physical demands than playing the vijimagames.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Is the 20 year old "Professional gamer" with the "aerobic health as a 60-year-old smoker" in that condition due to gaming, or is he gaming because that's all he can do, because of some pre-existing limitation?
I ask, because it takes longer for a sedentary life style to put you in THAT bad shape than your typical 20 year old would have in the interval between highschool and their 20th birthday.
Where does one get a job being a "professional gamer" other than working for a game developer?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
If you're going to plug yourself, at least set up a webcam.
*pause for laughter*
Seriously though, I think there are a lot of physical activities that gamers would enjoy if they just put forth the effort to go and try them. For example, I own just about every Star Wars game there is, and I'm pretty big on medieval settings.
There was a thing this past weekend at the local military museum, which had preformers of warriors from all era's, ancient Roman Gladiators, Vikings, Crusaders, Imperialistic, civil war, WW2, you name it. For me, it was interesting to watch the Gladiators face off and to watch the knights have duels. As a fun activity, they were giving beginner sword fighting lessons to people willing, in a full suit of chainmail. Complete with all the fixings, leather gloves, a tabard, iron helmet, greaves, pauldrons...
It was a very intense workout, just running around swinging a sword. I think I may try it again, should I get more time. I think its things like that (not necessarily the only case), that there are physical activities gamers might enjoy but they... well... don't...
That said, I think football and soccer would be funnier if the scoring team tea-bagged their rivals every time they made a point.
Turnabout is fair play, you really want the halo team to dance, hug each other, and rub each others butts after a kill and then take a shower together after the game, while the elderly newspaper writers watch, er, I mean interview them? I could do without that creepy stuff.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
"Whoa man, there's ProGamer69"
"Yeh, he's uber leet, look at the size of him"
"He must put in some serious sessions to get a bod like that, just look as them rolls of flab"
"Yeah, I just wanna grab them and roll about in them"
"You're working on a pretty nice gut yourself, how do you manage it with this pro-fitness thing everyone is forcing on us?"
"Oh that" *scoffs* "CoD7 + Mountain Dew all the way bud"
This might sound crazy, but I've found that my gaming skills have improved over the years, thank in part to my study of tai chi chuan.
I used to notice that I'd get all cramped up with painful hands and feet after a half-hour of playing a game (or just sitting at my computer, for that matter). I'm older than the average gamer, and I found that no matter which online game I tried, I'd be one of the worst players in the game.
My ability to sustain relaxed attentiveness, along with the improved mental processes that come from the study and practice of tai chi have helped me to improve across a wide variety of gaming types. Now I find that I learn the game more quickly and am more able to be competitive. With some games, like Modern Warfare 2 or Borderlands, my ability to focus better and react faster have made me surprisingly good, not just for my age, but for any age. In games like Eve Online, I am more patient and seem to be able to process more information.
Outside of gaming, the improvements in function and enjoyment have been even greater. If any of you would like to become more fit as well as more relaxed, healthy and balanced, I would highly recommend taking the time to find a good tai chi teacher and give it a chance. It's not very hard at the beginning and the benefits come very quickly. I see all types of athletes in the school in which I study and they all say that tai chi has improved their respective game. There have been some recent studies that show tai chi increases the body's production of HGH and improves cardio-respiratory function. They used to believe that you had to raise your heart rate to improve your cardio fitness and stamina, but it turns out that's not the case.
You are welcome on my lawn.
I play video games and I'm quite good. I always rank high in reaction time games like racing and also RTS games too. I was actually the #7 ranked platinum player in the Starcraft II Beta before it reset :) and I guess I break the stereotype because I'm extremely fit and in shape. One reason is I have a gym membership that I actually use and secondly, I play Dance Dance revoltion! The estimates of calories burned per song are between 10 and 35 and they're all under 2 minutes long. I have freakishly strong legs now because of that and pretty good aerobic abilities. I never actually run anywhere but if I suddenly decided to do so, I bet I could get a couple miles. Last time I played someone's Wii I was sweating too so if I had one of those, I'd be so healthy it would be crazy :-P Then there's that glorified eye toy thing that's coming out soon that will force people to move around so I think this all these things will get gamers in shape pretty quickly. But as for right now, some of us are already quite fit FROM gaming.
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
Wrong quin, I'm not even an American, look a little further north. More on topic, gamers can increase their skill significantly by dressing up as in-game characters.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some idea balls to remove from a manatee tank.