Violent video games make people more relaxed
Gumbo
GamePro staff Fri Apr 4, 7:59 AM ET
Holy irony, Batman! People who play violent games online actually feel
relaxed after they have played a round of bloody fun.
This according to new research discovered by Develop Magazine, which found
that a sampling of 292 World of Warcraft players, ages 12-83 years, were
more likely to feel calm or tired after playing a round of the popular
online game.
"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," said Jane Barnett, who headed the Middlesex study.
Translation: If you're an aggressive jackass before you play a video game,
you'll still be one after; and video games don't magically turn peaceful
people into violent offenders.
Barnett added the research will help develop an emotion and gaming
questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to
transfer their online aggression into everyday life.
We at GamePro believe the questionnaire will also help weed out blatant
media-hungry opportunists who have used the relatively young video game
genre as a platform for blatant self-promotion.