Racing Games Cause More Aggression Than Shooters

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Racing Games Cause More Aggression Than Shooters


A new study of gamers has found that racing games, not shooters, provokes the highest level of aggression in players.

Simon Goodson and Sarah Pearson of the Project Gotham Racing [http://www.hud.ac.uk/index.php], an unnamed FPS and a "3-D table tennis game," monitoring physiological changes such as breathing and heart rate as well as other factors related to aggression before and after each game. The researchers were surprised to find the greatest changes in heart rate and brain activity were actually brought about by Project Gotham Racing, while the shooter had the least effect on players.

"Previous researchers have made sweeping generalizations about the nature of videogames. This study is one of the first to use one of the latest games consoles that have a much higher level of realism," the pair said in a statement. "Surprisingly the results showed that the driving game made participants more agitated and aggressive than the game with graphic violence. Given the high levels of realism in modern games a re-evaluation of the relationship between videogames and violence is needed."

But is it really much of a shock? Or is it actually entirely unsurprising that driving games, with their strong connections to real-world activities that don't necessarily bring out the best in people, would trigger stronger autonomic responses than games completely rooted in the realm of fantasy? I for one have never battled marauding alien armies or hordes of the undead anywhere but in the comfort of my own home but when I'm behind the wheel on the highways of Toronto I turn into a screaming, bird-flipping, hate-spewing rage machine who'd as soon kill you as double-check his blind spot, and that's very much reflected in my game playing.

Goodson and Pearson plan to present their findings at the British Psychological Society [http://www.bps.org.uk/index.cfm] Annual Conference, which begins today.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/racing-games-cause-most-aggression]


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oliveira8

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Feb 2, 2009
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Duh! Obvious..just get stuck in trafic one day and everything involving driving will generate hate!
 

Rodger

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Jan 27, 2009
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Two words, one abbreviation: Rubber band A.I. The very second you slip up in a racing game, BAM! Last place.

It hardly comes as a surprise to me. And I imagine the results would have been even more interesting if the game in question was Mario Kart Wii. Naturally, of course, this research either won't get any major media attention or it'll be spun to say "Look! Look! Even racing games are bad for you! GAMES ARE EVIL!"
 

3rd rung

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Feb 20, 2009
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I think the activity and physical effects are just due to concentration not agression. I have to pay more attention to the game in order to win a race rather then in an FPS were i can half-as play and still do rather good
 

GRoXERs

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So, since ping-pong and racing elicited more brain activity, is it possible that FPSs truly are "mindless violence," as so many parents and legislators have accused it of being?

Or rather, was the term "mindless violence" unintentionally rather accurate?
Something to ponder...
 

Abedeus

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Sep 14, 2008
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YOU CUT ME OFF?! YOU SON OF A BEACHBALL!!! WAAAGH!!! *rams 70 miles an hour into an 80 year old granny*

But of course, this study is going to show only one thing - GAEMS R IVUL!!
 

Odjin

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Doesn't astonish me that FPS are mindless shooters... just look at the horde of mindless Zombies buying and playing them ;) . But to be fair MMOs are even more mindless than FPS games as with FPS you have to at least do something ( physical skills like reaction time, dexterity ) and not just click on a fucking monster and wait until it's fucking dead! That's what I call mindless.

Maybe though it's less the racing game itself. I don't know that game in particular but racing games ( what goes with my experience ) tend to have music with specific BPM ( beats per minute ) choice which due to the right frequency has a very stimulating effect similar to drugs.
 

Jim-a-Lim

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i wonder if thats because the people tested were regular players of fps or not, or had no previous experience whatso ever, in which case wouldn't they have developed a capacity for controlling thier mental state better over fps in comparison to racing games, which may in fact cause more frustration that they wouldn't then used to be handling within the racing game genre context?
 

theSovietConnection

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Rodger said:
Two words, one abbreviation: Rubber band A.I. The very second you slip up in a racing game, BAM! Last place.

It hardly comes as a surprise to me. And I imagine the results would have been even more interesting if the game in question was Mario Kart Wii. Naturally, of course, this research either won't get any major media attention or it'll be spun to say "Look! Look! Even racing games are bad for you! GAMES ARE EVIL!"
Well, I was going to mention racing games tendencies to slingshot the racers you've passed, but this sums it up well enough. However, I also think it's because you can completely eliminate the cause of any frustrations on shooters, whereas not every racing game will damage out opponents.
 

Odjin

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That's another point. In FPS I can go and sneak around or try to reduce the pacing by moving slower or snooping around places getting some exploration done and finding a good spot to take down the next enemy group. In racing games you have no time to relax. One reason every moron can become a mindless soldier ( don't try to piss me off over this one I did military service so I'm eligible to such a statement ) but racing pros are few.

EDIT: I quoted 9... but this shit software did AGAIN miss the quote. Please tech guys go fix this shit it's annoying U.=.U
 

Headwuend

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Oct 27, 2008
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Yup, racing games drive me up the wall. Hurhurrrr.

But I ragequit a lot of games anyways, be it online FPS, racing or even sport. :>
 

man-man

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Jan 21, 2008
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If you're getting angry, it'll impair your ability to play most FPSs, it helps more to be a little detached, more mechanistic... be calm, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet, all that jazz. Racing games are more suited to driving up the emotions because of the high speeds, the attendant high (and sustained) concentration, and the occasional infuriating bit of blatant cheating by AI players.

Not saying you don't need to focus in an FPS, but it's a different kind of focus - driving you can go by gut more, get really worked into it. Getting deeply focused into an FPS is more of a strategic, brain function thing.

Or any of the things other people said... they all sounded plausible too.
 

dthree

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Jun 13, 2008
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Gotta agree with the general sentiment of the thread. I love driving games, but they can be frustrating at times, which really does get the blood boiling. I feel the same way when i have to repeat a FPS or action game section over and over until I get past a particular section. But it does seem that cheating AI, bizarre physics that overly punish mistakes, and sketchy control schemes make it worse!
 

luckshot

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seems a little odd till you think about it, in a shooter if you get frustrated you can shoot the enemy or the garbage friendly AI, where as in a racing game...you can try to crash into your competitors which will probably slow you down and cause you to lose
 

jthm

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Project Gotham and it's clunky, bullshit controls make me more aggressive trying to play it too. That said, I get more aggressive with Burnout than Halo or COD.
 

AceDiamond

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Seeing as how I almost wanted to brutally murder someone in real life over making me break a traffic law to shave a few minutes of travel time off of their "busy" schedule, I wholeheartedly agree that racing/driving games cause more stress.

Road Rage is a hell of a drug. heck I even got ticked off playing Burnout games, which usually have a way of relieving the stress of losing by putting your competitors into a wall and watching them end-over-end.