Slashdot Mirror
Video Games Can Improve Terror Attack Preparedness, Even If You Don't Play Them
vrml writes: A study just published by the Computers in Human Behavior journal explores the potential of video games as terror attack preparedness materials for the general public. In the video game that participants tried (screenshots can be seen in the paper), players started a normal day going to a train station and performing actions such as purchasing a ticket and finding a train. Then, they suddenly found themselves in a bombing scenario that they had to survive. In addition to showing that playing the game greatly increased players' knowledge about preparedness, the study also considered a second group of participants who did not play the game but watched instead a video of the game play. Results indicate that passively watching someone else play the game is as effective as actively playing the game in terms of learning preparedness knowledge. However, they also point out a significant difference concerning psychological effects on threat appraisal: general perception of personal vulnerability to terror attacks and their severity increased more in those who actively played the game rather than those who passively watched game play.
I wonder, is this effect as strong with other forms of video media?
Did watching golden girls as a child heighten AC's awareness of sex crazed octogenarians and lead to his obvious fetish?
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
The risk of dying in a terrorist attack is infinitesimal. So should we be expending resources to make people more prepared for something that is almost certainly not going to happen to them? Wouldn't it make more sense to use video games to condition people to eat better food, exercise, and look both ways before crossing a road?
Unless you have a cameraphone. Then stand straight up and film as much as you can because it's gonna make you internet famous!
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
The group who watched learned responses.
The group who played developed responses.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
During the study, gamers tended to attempt to strafe and run while jumping in a random pattern instead of seeking cover... When shot, they shout out, "HAXOR!" before dying. During the study, the fake "terrorists" were unhappy with their success claiming a high ping made them miss more targets.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Those people should be used as both a natural shield, and a reference point for whichever direction you need to keep moving -- away from the direction the cameras are facing, but in a quartering direction to keep you out of the direct line of threat.
Choose an exit path which keeps them between you and the danger, keep your head below theirs, and feel free to knock over those watching through their cell phone, because they'll never be able to identify you.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I say if they hold their phones vertically, we disable them so they can be removed from the population.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
ShanghaiBill,
Your home or the high-rise in which you work are unlikely to be consumed by fire. Are fire drills important?
Is it important to know where, for example, the nearest exit is on an airplane or in a theater, even though it is extremely unlikely that you will be confronted with a disabled airplane or a theater massacre-in-the-making?
Preparation for disasters - whether in terms of visualizing the scenario or actual drills to practice response - can be extremely effective in boosting survival.
If you are interested in some of the academic study on this and related topics, see this book, The Unthinkable - Who Survives When Disaster Strikes, and Why. The author did a tremendous amount of research, distilling academic papers and studies of recent and not-so-recent disasters to explore human behavior both culturally w/r/t preparedness and engineering, and in the context of the disaster events.
If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law;
My greatest victory in Counterstrike when I took down the top player at my job by running towards him with only one health point and a knife. He managed to miss me with his desert eagle at close range. I gutted him and won that round with 20 coworkers cheering.