Sports Games Stir More Aggression Than Shooters

[beema]

nerds 1 jocks 0
hooray!

Maybe I'm not seeing it in this article, but is this research referring to the physical sports games (soccer), or the simulated sports games one consoles and personal computers? If the latter, then that is a very surprising find.

Might have to read the original article. This one on the Escapist seems to blend the two together very vaguely, mentioning real life sports at the beginning, and then video games at the end.

I think they imply that it's true for both (that the real-life sports rage carries over to sports video games).

To follow up from that, here's that classic clip from Yes, Prime Minister (may not work outside of the UK).

I like how that clip had an ad to go watch BP's youtube channel. Lol

 

[Bobic]

Nah, I think it's just that people who play sport games are more aggressive in general.

Apart from the fact that the study was conducted on random volunteers. And if the researchers had even a basic understanding of making a fair experiment they wouldn't have let the subjects pick which game they were playing.

 

[flamingjimmy]

Definitely true for me, Fifa makes me much more angry than Cod Halo and Battlefield combined.

god damned cheating AI!

 

[Distorted Stu]

Anyone who watched me and my mate play FIFA or NBA will know this research to be true lol

[HEADING=2]BULLSHIT REF! CHEATING AI! THE PLAYER GLITCHED THAT SHOULDNT COUNT! AMIRITE?! [/HEADING]

 

[Tulks]

ANOTHER reason not to buy Madden NFL!

How many we up to now?

I've lost count

2011 at least count, but there seem to be more every year.

 

[ozmasis]

In years of playing with friends the only games that started actual fights were sports games and....mario party...

 

[Matthew Wilson]

I have to agree here since I've faced something similar myself. I could play a violent game like C.O.D. or GTA or Fallout for hours and have fun whereas after a few minutes on the later levels of LittleBifPlanet and I go a little crazy, and of course which one gets the blame when I kill the neighbours dog.

My two pence (I'm British) is that violent games provide an escapism, the ridiculous violence takes away from the reality of the game and we know it's not real. Sports games on the other hand are much more real and therefore the mind forgets it's playing a game.

Also LBP is fucking difficult, that wheel level and trying not to die is near impossible.

 

[lonelyrockrabbi]

They should try this study again with the "family friendly" Mario Kart. I've known that to cause considerable frustration, aggression and extremely inventive swearing!

 

[lovestomooch]

I would just like to say WOOO Hudders Uni woop woop!!!

*clears throat*... continue

 

[frans909]

So I should already be a serial killer because I played a shitload of Speedball 2.

 

[CSULB Zach]

While I?m glad to see they?re taking strides to find the links between video games and psychological effects, they never seem to have any solid proof to blame their claims off of, as there?s no real way of being sure what affects people subconsciously and seeps in. The human brain is a complex thing, so I?m sure those who act out ?because of a video game? are bound to have acted out over anything else. A lot of it has more to do with emotional investment. Shooting games are much more temporary, and the rounds are in quick bursts; you die, you come back, you see your score. With a sports game or a Real Time Strategy, your brain tells itself that it has something built up, and you put it at risk of falling. So what I?m trying to say here in all this rambling is: If someone?s personality is going to over-react over something they?ve invested in, it?s bound to happen anyways.

 

[gunner1905]

There's a crack on my xbox 360 controller because of fifa 11 multiplayer

 

[Cowabungaa]

Ah, Daily Mail, how can people still be fooled by your casual racism and ignorance?

I can't see how this wasn't tested earlier though. In most sports games, there's a very ultimate "goal" to be achieved, while violent video games "goal" is usually exploratory, returning or elimination. Sports games are competitive in the extreme, so adrenaline/aggression are bound to peak.

Hah, I reckon CoD or something can be just as competitive. Most shooters actually, after playing tons of them online. CS:S especially, good gods some I played with were fantatical.

But I recognise it though. A few days ago my TF2 night went complete shit, and while I was frustrated I didn't rage. However, when Need for Speed: Shift went just as shit I wrecked a PS3 controlled (and fixed it afterwards). Blood Bowl can be just as rage inducing, but then again that's very dependant on dice rolls.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Hah, I reckon CoD or something can be just as competitive. Most shooters actually, after playing tons of them online. CS:S especially, good gods some I played with were fantatical.

Think about how you play CoD though. Skitter, skitter, headshot, backstab, skitter, skitter, grenade.

Then a sports game. Skitter, Skitter, SKITTER, SKITTER, SKITTER, YES! TAKE THAT YOU FLIPPING FLIPPER!

Which is more likely to have you peaking?

 

[Cowabungaa]

Hah, I reckon CoD or something can be just as competitive. Most shooters actually, after playing tons of them online. CS:S especially, good gods some I played with were fantatical.

Think about how you play CoD though. Skitter, skitter, headshot, backstab, skitter, skitter, grenade.

Then a sports game. Skitter, Skitter, SKITTER, SKITTER, SKITTER, YES! TAKE THAT YOU FLIPPING FLIPPER!

Which is more likely to have you peaking?

Erm, skitter? You now made me imagine a group of crabs playing CoD and football. That looks...weird.

Regardless, I'd say CoD. Easily, actually, thanks to it's damn killstreaks. you're so close to 5 kills in a row so you can unlock...whatever, and then you get shot by some Akimbo 1887 retard or something.

Can't remember a sports game doing that, though in the case of NFS it's just repeated failure making me rage. When I fail the first corner of a race I already restart it. After wrecking that controler I won't be touching that for a while.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Erm, skitter? You now made me imagine a group of crabs playing CoD and football. That looks...weird.

Ah, that will be Rooney then. #badumtsch

I always thought skitter was a good term for a crouching run though.

 

[matrix guardian]

I think there is much more to be looked into for variables before making any conclusions. What I want to know is if there was any correlation between the aggression produced by playing the sports game and how much the player is "into" sports. Was the reaction similar for people who are big athletes/sports fans as for people who don't really give a crap about sports in real life? They claimed in their theories that the sports games evoked more aggression because it is a stimulus that they have experienced before in real life and have actual experience with, rather than being pure fantasy. So the brain acts on it as being more "real" than the simulated killing, which they have no prior real life experience of. So to really test that, get some people who never play sports and compare their reactions. And to even take it a step further, get some people who have actual combat experience and have even killed people in the line of duty, and see if their aggression levels during violent games are any different than the other people in the study playing the violent games.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

I think this might just be a U.K. phenomena. After all, it's common knowledge that the Brits really like their soccer. I cannot [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_European_Cup_Winners%27_Cup_Final_riots] possibly [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8a5zn_english-football-hooligans-riot-cen_sport] emphasize [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtOXiQToz64] "Really" [http://articles.latimes.com/1992-06-16/sports/sp-604_1_soccer-officials] any [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1119549/index.htm] more [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,543160,00.html].

Still, we all know the REAL genre of games that drive players over the [http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100212/BREAKING/100219929/0/NEWS?tc=ar] edge [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1334618.htm].

 

[Adam Galli]

I can attest to that fact. I have raged playing NHL 10 and 11 more often and much harder than any otrher game I've played including being spawn killed in Black Ops.