Department of Defense Research: Gamers Are 20% Smarter

[SimuLord]

It seems like every time the military studies gamers, they come up with some sort of conclusion to the effect of "these are people we want in the Army."

And every time Michael Atkinson and Jack Thompson study gamers, they think "what a bunch of ultra-violent sociopaths. Games are just turning kids into killing machines."

Am I the only one who sees a connection here?

 

[Necrofudge]

Well that is fantastic news. I suppose the Escapist could have indirectly proven it a long time ago since I rarely see the combination of idiot + gamer here.

 

[SageRuffin]

Hey, I'm a gamer and I'm in the military!

Does that make me, like, a fucking genius?

 

[Brnin8]

Hang on a second......research.....accurate research......actually proved something GOOD regarding video games?

[small]...I think hell just froze over...[/small]

Don't go swimming in the purple water!
OT: FINALLY some accurate figures MUE HA HA HA!

 

[Kollega]

Well, of course fast-paced action games build up your rapid response skills. D'oh.

 

[Srkkl]

Eat that Frumpy Mom *****. haha.

 

[MortisLegio]

*Michael Atkinson commits suicide

that they only way this could get any better

 

[Killerbunny001]

Truth is somewhere between "only smart people play video-games" and the fact that yes while playing video games you exercise your brain and thus it works better with time.

But if this research is indeed accurate this also means that different games will exercise different parts of the brain, you can`t actually compare HOMM players to the counterstrike people since they use different functions in their brains.

All this talk of brains is making me hungry.

 

[Spacelord]

Huh. That explains a lot.
Still, I wish there were more detail on their research; they only talk about their findings on the site.

Me too. I'm having my doubts about the causality conclusion. Also if it's actually true it'd be awesome of course.

 

[Diablini]

Quick! Cue the "Boot Camp" scene, but photoshop everybody with a psp!

 

[Birras]

Does anyone else get that Zapp Brannigan feeling?

[small]Like we're gonna be the ones used to plug the enemies cannons with our bodies?[/small]

Alright men. The rebellious Predator drones have a kill limit in them. All we have to do is send wave after wave of ourselves at them until they reach it, at which point, they'll fall out of the sky. CHARGE! I'll go back to base and watch Scrubs. Good luck!

 

[Byph]

"We have discovered that video game players perform 10 to 20 percent higher in terms of perceptual and cognitive ability than normal people that are non-game players,"

OI!

I noticed that as well. It implies that gamers are not normal. The sentence would be better without the word "normal".

I'm guessing it's either researcher bias (probably pro-gamer bias given the outcome of the study), or societal preconception. In 2010, are gamers so statistically rare that we can be called not normal?

 

[TheMatt]

I apologize for the swearing but -

FUCKING A.... This is awesome...

shit, balls, whore....

sorry, but I noticed I hadn't cussed enough to warrant disclaimer, so there you go...

 

[Macgyvercas]

Bookmarked for future ammo to use against anti-gamers

Awesome sauce is right.

 

[Xanadu84]

Anyone read the actual study? Because theres a huge piece of information missing. Do we have reason to believe that Games, causally, make you smarter? Or are we looking at a correlational study that says that more intelligent people are more prone to play games? Either is awesome, but the causality would eb quite a bit more awesome.

::Edit:: Wow...that was quite the thread necro, and completely on accident... Damn my tendency to just click random links!

 

[Spy Killer]

Hang on a second......research.....accurate research......actually proved something GOOD regarding video games?

[small]...I think hell just froze over...[/small]

GOOD ABOUT GAEMS!? What is this I don't even.