Online gaming = increased violence? Wrong!

In correspondence with my last entry on how people are blaming video games for some of the nastier things in life such as violence, a recent study have been carried out to prove or disprove this at Middlesex University by a Jane Barnett.

"The psychologists recruited 292 male and female online gamers, playing the game World of Warcraft. The players, aged between 12 and 83 years, were asked to complete a questionnaire on anger, aggression and personality and then played the game for two hours. After this time they were they were asked to complete the test again.

The psychologists found overall the gamers were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing – but there were differences depending on sex, age and personality.

Miss Barnett said: “There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type.

“This will help us to develop a emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life"

'World of Warcraft' is well known around the globe as the worlds biggest MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) in which gamers adopt an avatar usually a complete mash up of what they long to look like whether its vikings or elves, and then they basically run around a massive online world interacting with other people(social networking!) killing things and doing quests. The game is also referenced in popular culture from cartoons such as 'South park'.

One of the main stories that comes to me in terms of violence and games causing this is the story from the UK from a few years ago about a boy who murdered another boy his ages (17 i believe) and the media narrowed down the suspects motives to that of following the basic premise of a video game 'Manhunt'. A game which is an 18 certificate and always has been in which the 'protagonist' completes a series of missions in order to get to the person making him go through the missions... well the game isn't praised for its story telling mainly for its sense less violence. as violent as the game is (cos it is, can't deny that, to be honest it wasn't THAT good a game) it was found out that the murderer did not actually have a copy of the game and in a bizarre and morbid twist of fates, it was actually the victim who owned the game. Never the less the game was banned for a while. This severely damaged 'Rockstar Games' chances of making a sequel but often the boundary pushers they did. But the game had to go through a series of hoops before finally being passed by the BBFC.

Lets take a lot at some of the benefits of gaming;

1. "Video games damage your eyesight" Well I'm sorry but they actually improve your eyesight! Playing video games and watching the screen; trying to find the guy who's trying to snipe you improves your eyesight. This is because your eyes react to the fact they are being worked hard and become more efficient so that next time they won't have to work as hard to perform the same task!
2. Video games can improve your logic and ability to solve problems. This is because most games involve some sort of strategy that you need to find out and improve as the game progresses; this is effectively training your brain's logic and strategic abilities thus making it more efficient and effective.
   
3. Your hand eye coordination is greatly improved playing video games. Nearly all video games require continual fast, accurate and precise hand, finger and thumb movements. This strengthens the muscles in your hands and greatly improves your hand eye co-ordination.
   
4. Reaction speeds increase hugely from playing video games! In nearly all video games you often need to react fast. Obviously if you do something a lot then you are going to get better at it and it is for this reason that video games improve your reflexes and reaction speeds.
   
5. Last but not least video games improve your concentration span. Because in most games you need to concentrate for extended periods of time; the slightest lapse in concentration will be punished in nearly all games. If you concentrate lots then your concentration span will increase!

Damn straight. All in moderation of course.

In other news, with the soon release of 'Dualshock 3' PS3 controllers with SixAxis motion sensing technology and rumble, it will see the discontinuation of the original 'SixAxis' controllers which lack rumble. This is all down to fan response really.
Also! The worlds fastest home internet connection has been unveiled and it belongs to a 75 year old woman in Sweden whose internet is currently running at 40 gigabytes per second... FORTY!
She can download full HD films in 2 seconds, and what does she use it for, to dry her laundry because the modem gets awfully warm. Selfish... It is all part of a new internet experiment thing to demonstrate how a low price, high capacity fibre line could be built over long distances and channel the internet from one place to another directly with out any interference or traffic.

Read in envy as she may be getting 60 more gigabytes of speed...