Research Finds Violent Games Relieve Stress and Depression

[Danpascooch]

You know what does a better job of that all around? Exercise.

Go post that on the Gold Gym forum, this is the Escapist, it's about gaming.


It's about time someone did this study, I'm sick of games being blamed for all the worlds woes.

Oh the big dick around here has spoken up. Congrats.

Ooo, does this mean I'm finally building a reputation around here? Sweet!

Everyone knows exercise is good, but going around a gaming fan site posting things like "you shouldn't be playing games, you should be exercising" or the sort is incredibly judgmental. In my opinion it's akin to posting "go back to your mom's basement" in a thread. It's just rude, it's trying to act as though you are superior, and the people around you need to change, even though you know nothing about them.

That, or, I totally misunderstood the entire intent of your post, and all you meant to say was that gaming isn't the best way to release stress, and I'm overreacting like a PMSing asshole, in which case, my bad.

 

[DTWolfwood]

stop giving these ppl money to conduct these pointless 'studies'!

This is also OLD ASS NEWS btw.

Everyone feels better after breaking something deliberately, no difference when breaking something digitally. Projecting your jackass boss on a goon you're about to blow the head off of keeps you from actually doing it in real life seems like common sense to any sensible ADULT.

Games are an escape. Ppl do it to get away, and y do ppl want to get away?! to FUCKING RELAX! by definition to release stress.

 

[Meggiepants]

You know what does a better job of that all around? Exercise.

Go post that on the Gold Gym forum, this is the Escapist, it's about gaming.


It's about time someone did this study, I'm sick of games being blamed for all the worlds woes.

Oh the big dick around here has spoken up. Congrats.

Dude, chill. No need to resort to name calling now. He has a point. Your post was borderline trolling.

OT: Well, this may be true in some instances, aside from those when you are raging at bad game design. In which case, we should be able to blame the game company for our bad behavior, right?

 

[RangerSERE]

You know what does a better job of that all around? Exercise.

Go post that on the Gold Gym forum, this is the Escapist, it's about gaming.


It's about time someone did this study, I'm sick of games being blamed for all the worlds woes.

Oh the big dick around here has spoken up. Congrats.

Ooo, does this mean I'm finally building a reputation around here? Sweet!

Everyone knows exercise is good, but going around a gaming fan site posting things like "you shouldn't be playing games, you should be exercising" or the sort is incredibly judgmental. In my opinion it's akin to posting "go back to your mom's basement" in a thread. It's just rude, it's trying to act as though you are superior, and the people around you need to change, even though you know nothing about them.

That, or, I totally misunderstood the entire intent of your post, and all you meant to say was that gaming isn't the best way to release stress, and I'm overreacting like a PMSing asshole, in which case, my bad.

Haha, great reaction. I'm glad someone here has a sense of humour. I respect that, well lets leave it as is. Some of your boyfriends are starting to get jealous with all the attention we are paying to each other. They'll say were in love, then where will we be?

 

[Jack and Calumon]

It makes me happy whenever I tear apart an angel in Bayonetta. At least science is slowly getting the idea with gaming.

Calumon: So why aren't I depressed? Jack doesn't let me play violent games.

 

[Natdaprat]

I always thought this was common knowledge. When you're angry at someone and feel like kicking them in the teeth, break something or punch a pillow, I don't know. It helps. The same can apply to gaming.

Like Japan's sex crimes are so low because they are allowed to view fake "rape porn", with suppresses certain peoples urges to rape.

 

[Danpascooch]

You know what does a better job of that all around? Exercise.

Go post that on the Gold Gym forum, this is the Escapist, it's about gaming.


It's about time someone did this study, I'm sick of games being blamed for all the worlds woes.

Oh the big dick around here has spoken up. Congrats.

Ooo, does this mean I'm finally building a reputation around here? Sweet!

Everyone knows exercise is good, but going around a gaming fan site posting things like "you shouldn't be playing games, you should be exercising" or the sort is incredibly judgmental. In my opinion it's akin to posting "go back to your mom's basement" in a thread. It's just rude, it's trying to act as though you are superior, and the people around you need to change, even though you know nothing about them.

That, or, I totally misunderstood the entire intent of your post, and all you meant to say was that gaming isn't the best way to release stress, and I'm overreacting like a PMSing asshole, in which case, my bad.

Haha, great reaction. I'm glad someone here has a sense of humour. I respect that, well lets leave it as is. Some of your boyfriends are starting to get jealous with all the attention we are paying to each other. They'll say were in love, then where will we be?

Meeting in your mom's basement, trying to figure out how to solve the predicament

 

[Xanadu84]

*sarcastic clap*
Well done, you found out what I've known scince I was 4.

If we relied on things we, "Know" based on folk wisdom or, "Common sense", without putting it to the test of science, we would still be burning Witches when the crops go bad. You didn't know. You thought, and suspected, behind a incalculably thick sheet of youthful ignorance and personal bias. Now these researchers suspect what you suspected, and have a much more solid reasoning behind it. That's how science works.

I agree with it, but the problem with these studies is that the games are not the only variable. The people themselves are variables as well. How do you know some of them weren't just better at managing stress beforehand? Maybe if the pool of people was larger.

To be completely honest, none of these video game studies have actually been very good from a scientific standpoint.

Random assignment would have taken care of the individuals stress management ability. And that they reached statistical significance shows that the sample size was large enough to get some good data. Certainly it's still only one study, but it looks like a pretty solid one. Which is good because yes, most studies on both sides of the spectrum are extremely unscientific, with deeply flawed methodology. But this one, not so much. More needs to be done, but it's pretty good.

As a student of Psychology, I am interested in this beyond even the repercussions for video games. It is a demonstration of catharsis, a phenomena that has long been mostly dismissed as not supported by evidence. Apperently it exists, it just also functions as a double sided sword.

 

[Lullabye]

Well, the violent parts of games anyway. I remember the puzzles in God of War 1&2. Holy hell were they annoying.
I've always found violent games to be more relaxing, mostly because you can kill whatever happens to be pissing you off at the time. In my opinion, Flower was much more stressful than Ninja Gaiden 2. though, I find fighting games like Tekken and Streetfighter to be very very stresssing at times.

 

[Ravek]

Huh, weird, games always make me stressed.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

Well, I don't play games to de-stress, I play them to have fun.
If I'm stressed, I sit down, think, then forget the fuck about it.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

Any gamer could have told you this...

It's how I de-stress after having spent a whole day around idiots.

When I was stuck working at Burger King for a year, GTA San Andreas was why I didn't go crazy. I'd go berserk on fast food places, turn off the game, and get some sleep. The next day I could smile at the customers and managers again.

 

[squid5580]

They should have then thrown the players against some uber cheap boss after putting in a few hours and then see how that affected the results lol. Not so destressed now are you?

My shrink said the same thing. She encourages me to play.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

And, how, exactly, did the researchers monitor stress? It would be more beneficial to actually see the method of their research, rather than the outcome. If they measured hormone levels, then we have a good indication, but a sample group of 103 isn't large enough to give a definitive answer. If, however, it was done via survey, then this experiment could very well be a load of bollocks.

EDIT: Also, cue every single person on this site claiming to be an expert on psychology because they, *gasp*, play video games, too; and as we all know, the plural of "anecdote" is "data."

 

[ProtoChimp]

Ahh so true. I can't tell you the amount of times playing Prototype has stopped me from nearly murdering someone.

 

[PurpleSky]

F*ck yeah shooting people in the face in Counter-Strike relieves stress.