Does Gaming Affect Behaviour... Will we eat each other because we play pacman?

[delivi 0]

yes gaming definitely affects the behaviour of the person, but it depends on how much you get involved in games.I read in a recent survey that people who play Racing games tend to drive more rashly and also break road rules.I am an avid player of NFS series where speed matters. I play an average of 4 hours each day. So as I get on teh road I get the same feeling as I'm in the game, and I tend to go faster zipping across the vehicles. But this happens only when I'm driving alone, when I've some one acompanying with me I'll be normal.But the best part of playing such games is it helps me to keep alert on the roads and aslo gives me quick reflex to counter any unexpected blocks in the road. So gaming does its benefits as well as ill effects.

[Chesso 0]

Indeed as you said, it depends on the person.I skateboarded for 9 years on and off, and perhaps in later stages with enough to be a professional.However I have watched 100's skateboard video's, played every single tony hawk game ever made, the first skate games made (like in california games), sk8, sk8 2, andy mcdonals game, thrasher skate and destroy, grind session etc etc.But I'll tell you what, it has no effect on my skateboarding what so ever, the only effect is my attitude towards the newbies, as alot of them turned out to be "omg tony hawks mannnn" kind of people.I highly doubt GT of NFS will affect any future driving for me either, nothing I watch that's over top does, I'm far too sensible and I suppose if your the opposite, you might say "scared" of the effects.Skateboarding for example (where things can be alot more controlled and less deadly than car mostly), I tried the *all out* approach of trying something stupid I knew I could not do (like alot of people do on a daily basis) and found out from the first attempt that it sucked.So I no longer consider that option, that's for sure, but I decided that before tony hawks came along lol.

[Jewbacca 0]

Whenever you watch the news and see a mentally unstable kid go on a killing spree, the parents always ultimately blame video games. Personally, I think it's just an excuse for poor parenting. . . although it doesn't work as they expect since they must be poor parents if they allow their children to play violent video games if they think it's turning them into a psychopath. . . I dunno, it's a complicated subject, and I'm going to steer clear of it when I go to do my psychology coursework this year <_<Also, when you see people trying to explain why people drive / talk / whatever more aggressively, they usually go for video games, despite the fact that our behaviour is governed by our genetics and chemical imbalances, and fine tuned by learning from our superiors and our peers. Video games are none of those, unless you really do have a mental disorder, in which case the parents should be more vigilant towards their children playing video games if the signs of them becoming more aggressive after a game of Gears of War are obvious.

Edited June 16, 2007 by Jewbacca (see edit history)

[pyost 0]

Exactly. According to psychology, there are two factors which effect aggressive behaviour (either with young children, adolescents or older persons), and both of them are rather independent of video games.The first one is his/hers social situation - this includes both wealth and the relationship with the family. Also, this happens to be the most common cause of violence in the world. You can see buying games as a way of losing money, but I doubt this influence can be big enough. And the second factor is the psychological status of the person itself, usually referring to the existence of certain neurosis/psychosis. Again, violent (and other) video games may cause one of these "illnesses" to occur, but other causes are overwhelming.What can we conclude from this? Games do have a small part in driving a person crazy/mad/destructive, but their influence is small enough when compared to other issues an individual may encounter.