Research Finds Violent Games Relieve Stress and Depression

[Susan Arendt]

In another, equally insightful study, fire was found to be hot and water was wet for 92% of participants.

 

[Irridium]

While more research is needed, and the number of people tested was very small, this still is a nice little piece of fact for the Supreme Court Case.

 

[Supernova2000]

Finally, some pro-violant game research for once. Well done scientists, you've proven what we've been trying to tell you for ages. Now go and do some useful research, like stable nuclear fusion for use in power stations so that the gigawatt-guzzling government can stop telling us to always switch off the standby buttons on our TV's like it's all our fault. Or Replicators to solve all our recycling problems.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

New: Research Shows that X Games make people Y.

Gamers ask why the Scientists aren't doing something useful.

I mean, let's just say that it's PROVEN that playing Game X for Y hours a day gives you +10 to Life Experience, -10 to Lung Capacity and +5 to Nosepicking....

So what? The only use for this is that we can say this research says it's good. And then someone else says "Ah well, THIS research says the opposite".

Please Mr. Scientists. Do something useful. Even Thatcher helped to make Soft Scoop Icecream.

I would have thought you'd be able to see the use in gathering hard data that says games aren't harmful to young people, especially considering that's one of the most pervasive misconceptions that non-gamers have about the medium.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

It's already a well known fact that playing violent video games releases stress.

Usually when I play a game which stresses me,usually Adventure(puzzle)games or some other games which I get stuck into a certain place,I always change to a shooter i.e MW2 or L4D and I can say it really relieves alot of stress when your shooting zombies or anything for that matter.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Y'know, I'm not really sure what to say...other than "This was obvious from the beginning." ANY form of escapism can relieve stress.

 

[JordanMillward_1]

I could just join the group of people going "no shit", but as the good doctor indicated, this is actually the first study of it's kind. Hopefully his research will continue, and those idiots on US news will be proven incorrect.

 

[daftalchemist]

L4D is my stress relief. What could possibly relieve stress better than shooting zombies in the face?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I would have thought you'd be able to see the use in gathering hard data that says games aren't harmful to young people, especially considering that's one of the most pervasive misconceptions that non-gamers have about the medium.

If I thought for a second that anyone other than gameplayers would accept it, certainly.

Unfortunately, there's a whole slurry of false reports that say the opposite. And that's what people will go with.

 

[veloper]

Violent spectacle is good for people.
The Romans already knew this in 200 BCE.

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Well, if this isn't the most obvious thing I've heard all day, I don't know what is!

 

[Snotnarok]

I didn't need a scientist to hear that, GTA3 saved me in high school. I'd play it every day I came home from school to take out stress from a lot of bullshit in the day. I wound up killing (without cheats) over a million people. I always felt better just after an hour of shooting/running over people.

 

[Lawyer105]

This is just silly. There's so much 'research' that proves almost anything that the related vested interest wants it to prove. So here's some new research.

"Latest research shows that research can be used to justify any opinion. Particularly if you use statistics." - Me. After reading numerous, contradictory "Latest research shows" articles.

 

[JoshGod]

i remember explaining this when asked why i have such good emotional control.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

The study took a group of 103 young adults and gave them a frustrating task to perform. Each participant then played either a non-violent game, a violent game with a good versus evil theme, a violent game where you play as a villain, or no game at all. The results of the tests showed that those who had played the violent games were much better at managing stress than those who had not.

Choosing one game per category still doesn't say much. Other factors, like difficulty, sound or even something like the colour scheme of a game could possibly affect the results of this study.

If you want to compare the effects of violent with each other you'll have to try to eliminate these variables by either letting subjects play a huge amount of varying games in both genres or specifically develop one game where, for example, in one version you kill people with guns while in the other you shoot each other with water pistols. The gameplay should remain identical, though.

 

[shadow741]

Finally, something that says something GOOD about violent games.

 

[Divine Miss Bee]

i've been saying this for years! sweet, sweet vindication...

 

[TheSkaAssassin]

wow, they're reporting something that every gamer without mental illness has known from the first time he picked up a controller.