This Is Your Heart; This Is Your Heart on Halo

[John Funk]

This Is Your Heart; This Is Your Heart on Halo

Did you ever wonder how your heartbeat rate changes during a match of an online game like Halo?

Playing competitively online - whether it's a shooter like Battlefield or a strategy game like StarCraft II - can be an intense affair as you try to frantically dispatch your enemies before they do the same to you. I know that personally, I've come out of a decisive battle in SC2 or TF2 with my heart racing, and I suspect many gamers would report similar experiences in pretty much any game they play.

One Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/] user decided to test that.

According to the post on Reddit [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/f8lev/my_heart_on_halo_i_decided_to_play_halo_while/], the user - who goes by "gortag" - hooked himself up to a heart monitor as he played a round of Halo: Reach. Afterwards, he looked at the replay and matched the spikes and valleys with significant moments in the game.

The resulting graph [http://i.imgur.com/bBOhJ.jpg] is actually pretty damn fascinating. Some parts of it are to be expected; it only makes sense that your heartbeat would pick up in a fire fight. Others, however, are surprising: Every time the player uses Armor Lock (which makes you completely invulnerable for a short period of time at the cost of mobility) his heart rate plummets. Presumably, you would only use AL when you were in combat and in need of it - do a few moments of invincibility really calm a player down that much?

Either way, it really is food for thought. Check out the full (large) image here [http://i.imgur.com/bBOhJ.jpg]!

(Reddit Gaming [http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/f8lev/my_heart_on_halo_i_decided_to_play_halo_while/])

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[Alpha Maeko]

That's fascinating... though it would seem obvious why it rose up or fell down, when you see what he was doing at the time.

 

[hittite]

Armor lock: It's like mid-combat yoga.

 

[josemlopes]

He almost died in Armour Lock, its not even good for your health

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

This is the shit we should be reasearching, not waether video games cause violence and crap.

Edit:

So kills reduce it, combat raises it, being out of combat lowers it. some of that is as expectected, some not.

I wonder how this works in the long run, like playing over years?

 

[Senaro]

The armor lock heart rate drops are pretty interesting, but I'm also curious about the parts where his rate went just as low in long bursts of non-armorlocked combat. Wondering if that was because of the types of combat he was involved in, like picking people off or getting in close-range.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

That's pretty interesting. I'm quite tempted to try and mimic this and see how the style of game affects the heartrate and changes thereof.

 

[manythings]

This is the shit we should be reasearching, not waether video games cause violence and crap.

Well we should be researching if they make people more or less violent because that's how science works, you have to investigate all possiblitites rather than just assume something works in a certain way. That's how you end up with people not getting bottled water is less healthy and more expensive.

OT: A chart is ok but the information could do with more context. If he had the chart synced with the first person combat feed, or even a spectator feed, it would make it more valuable. As it is you can only make guesses that aren't informed.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

That's really intriguing...

When you go into armor lock the sound muffles also... perhaps minor conditioning to slow everything down?

Either way I'm impressed

 

[Irridium]

Ugh, I hate armor lock...

Still interesting though. I may see how I feel after a rousing game of Civ.

 

[ranger19]

OT: A chart is ok but the information could do with more context. If he had the chart synced with the first person combat feed, or even a spectator feed, it would make it more valuable. As it is you can only make guesses that aren't informed.

I would really enjoy a feed of the match from his perspective with some indication of heart rate; a heartbeat sound that goes faster and slower according to the graph would be especially awesome.

Not too suprising about armour lock. You basically use it when you cant win, its a break from combat, where you just hope the other guy is dumb enough to get close or your team saves you.

While this is true sometimes (and maybe the majority of the time), that's definitely not always the case with me. In team slayer I usually run out first with a friend behind me, and when we run into an enemy, I'll shoot him as much as I can until my shields are low then go into armor lock. Then my friend with take him out, I get an assist, and it's perfect.

But OT, even if you have a chance at coming out of armor lock, a few seconds of invincibility really is that much of a break, unless you have to do a 180 spin and headshot before getting melee'd, as I've done before.

 

[Thaius]

Quite interesting. I like that.

 

[Danpascooch]

Huh, I wonder if this burns some calories...

 

[hecticpicnic]

I more curious what this would be like in an RTS.The combat is slower but there is more at risk and the combat sequences last longer.

 

[GeorgW]

Very interesting, would like to see it with some other games. But was I the only one who got hung up on how bad the player seemed?? It would have been nice to see how streaks affects you.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Ugh, I hate armor lock...

Still interesting though. I may see how I feel after a rousing game of Civ.

god dammit this. the bastards always do it RIGHT when im about to put that last bullet in them and their teammate comes bursting around the corner with a shotty/sword and i end up dying. fuckers.

OT: this is pretty cool actually, i'd be interested to see what mine did..depending on the game(killstreaks and whatnot) it'd stay high for a while then go into a cooldown for a few minutes im guessing.

 

[GeorgW]

I more curious what this would be like in an RTS.The combat is slower but there is more at risk and the combat sequences last longer.

The combat is not slower! With micro management it's a lot more hectic. And check out APM, it's a much better way to gauge your activity in an RTS. The biggest one I've seen is a pike at 800+, and that's just ridiculous.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Not too suprising about armour lock. You basically use it when you cant win, its a break from combat, where you just hope the other guy is dumb enough to get close or your team saves you.

While this is true sometimes (and maybe the majority of the time), that's definitely not always the case with me. In team slayer I usually run out first with a friend behind me, and when we run into an enemy, I'll shoot him as much as I can until my shields are low then go into armor lock. Then my friend with take him out, I get an assist, and it's perfect.

But OT, even if you have a chance at coming out of armor lock, a few seconds of invincibility really is that much of a break, unless you have to do a 180 spin and headshot before getting melee'd, as I've done before.

Well when using Al I always have a shotgun, it provides a great way to catch them off gaurd,
sometimes a person will throw a plasmagrenade, think your dead, then you block it, and kill them. What I hate is when people wait and change up a plasma pistol. God that thing needs a nerf to just mak it EMP veichles, I hate when peopel walk around corners or travel in groups, one with a needle rifle/dmr andother with a charged pistol one knocks shields out other instantnt kills. God I hate the plasma pistol, so damn cheap.

that does get bloody annoying, especially in elite slayer and the like. fuck that shit, you can hear your death coming too before you even round the corner "WOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH" *fuckk*