In a surprising twist to the long-debated topic of video game violence, a recent study suggests that playing violent video games might actually decrease stress hormones in some players. Contrary to popular belief, the study found no increase in aggressive tendencies, indicating a more complex relationship between video game content and player responses than previously thought. The findings have been published in the scientific journal Physiology & Behavior.
For years, the impact of violent video games on behavior has been a contentious subject. Past research has often pointed towards a potential increase in aggression and stress among players of these games. This belief has fueled ongoing debates among parents, educators, and policymakers regarding the suitability of such games for young audiences. Motivated by these discussions and inconsistencies in previous findings, researchers embarked on a new study to explore the physiological and psychological effects of violent video games more comprehensively.
“In the non-violent condition, however, participants with higher scores in Machiavellianism had a higher increase in cortisol” - linked study
So people trying to be manipulative bastards in ‘nice’ games increase thier stress? Interesting.
Unfortunately the source study appears to be paywall and not yet on sci-hub, so don’t know what specific games they used. As to how they define Machiavellianism, I assume something toke this:
“In the field of personality psychology, Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation, indifference to morality, lack of empathy, and a strategic focus on self-interest.” - Wikipedia
“In the field of personality psychology, Machiavellianism is a personality trait characterized by interpersonal manipulation, indifference to morality, lack of empathy, and a strategic focus on self-interest.” - Wikipedia
That’s basically how I play every RPG… I don’t care about the NPCs because they’re not real, so everything I do is for the benefit of my character because that makes a tangible difference in the world (namely by giving me more money or power to better manipulate said world).
I kinda feel like it only works if you’re getting the stress out, and not being stressed out.
Blasting demons in a mindless Doom-like game? Stress free.
Getting your ass handed to you in a Souls game? Stress inducing.
Even since the beginning of that BS with GTA4 and this old cat lawyer, it raised my eyebrows. There are mods and games created by all kinds of terrorists, but the thing is – you won’t play them unless you are an especially masochistic youtuber. They are shit. And what makes them even more shit? Our upbringing, that would make even an engaging arcade of killing people stir us the wrong way. Compare Hatred and Hotline: Miami, the first one only good to laugh at it’s intro sequence, and the second is the whole nugget of style, art. The same people who can create such a piece are usually those who can tell right from wrong and communicate it to their audience. Even the cringiest artists from SDBM scene know what’s wrong and bathe in it, while NSBM idiots don’t.
The whole notion of a game as a training camp for another masshooter is a useful horror story for parents to not leave their kids to tablets and phones (like if they have time for parenting these days, yup), but it’s somehow inverted to attack the medium of games, and there’s ESRB and other rating and regulating bodies sitting on their ass and casually playing vidya, not like paid testers, to see how many boxes it hits. What a sad joke.
I feel like game as a medium can be a useful environment to heal people. In my previous post, I asked people if there was a piece of media that overwhelmed them emotionally, and I’ve heard dozens of stories from you, Lemmings, about how some turns of a story can make you relieve a trauma you had, or cause an anxiety about something – like a newfound role of you as a parent and being worried for your kid. It has a potential in that field, as it’s interactive and there are tools, although complicated for now, to create a custom scenario for a patient to untangle their thoughts. I guess, the first we have a good instrument for an easy creation, some educated psychotherapists would use it to treat PTSD and other problems related to the past experiences. That’d be the end argument in this stupid debate.
Catharsis.
I recommend Left 4 Dead 2 for a minimum of two hours after work
Not surprising at all. Animal’s stress hormones don’t go up after a battle you walk away from unharmed.
This is some Marquise de Sade shit right here
Not if you’re really bad at them.
The key is adjusting difficulty so that it’s not too boring but not too frustrating. I am really bad at Elden Ring but I just made myself over leveled and it’s quite fun. Occasionally I just get help for a boss if it’s too frustrating.
I am too old to care about the pride of being good at it though.
This.
I used to be great at shooters; I’d pull off some ridiculous lucky shot and get accused of botting.
Now I play other games when I have a gap between projects. It’s fun, it’s mindless, and the cacophony of images swirling past my attention settles down in a respite that meditation can’t give me.
I can’t tell you whether or not the violent imagery has or will break my brain faster or slower than karate or the army did. Why don’t we work on the big picture now and work the fine edges later.
Tilted!
I kinda feel pity for all the online cheaters. They must be under enormous constant stress to be unable to play without cheating.
I don’t doubt that it does that, for some.
Boxing does it for some, whereas for most, it’d destroy our equilibrium.
Why would it be different for that particular kind of immersion?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gDvaBpfsl1A
and then
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gxJUPfKtg_Q
( notice that some people want lots of social-process, but not to help, rather to butcher other’s stuff, or process: social-addiciton combined with destructiveness, not helpfulness.
When one sees the dimensions of psychology themselves … one sees without rose-glasses )
https://www.amazon.com/Assassination-Generation-Aggression-Psychology-Killing/dp/0316265934/
is for those who perhaps want to understand game-induced desensitization, and its place in our world.
You will notice that mass-shootings topped 600 in the US, in 2023, and … during WW1, it was damn-near-impossible to get normal troops to shoot the enemy.
The change produced in us was produced by a cause.
Desensitization is much of that cause.
Sociopathy ( psychologically-induced-psychopathy ) is a result … and it is a result we’re demonstrably embodying, planetwide.
( the sociopathy of the Victorian Empire’s people, against non-“whites” was absolutely real, and socially-produced, too.
We just keep changing the details/appearances of it, while keeping the ideology-addiction/prejudice-addiction undercurrent the same:
ideoogical or cultural narcissism.
Notice that sociopathy is “alpha” so the male-culture addiction to “alpha” also, again & again & again, chooses sociopathy as its “validity”.
The hazing-producing-suicides in concentrated male-culture is one such crystalization of it.
Now ask yourself: is butchering other’s worth & lives calming, to people whose identity is based on their sociopathy??
I bet EEG & psychological-testing would show it is… )
_ /\ _
Awesome, let me Install Postal 2 quickly.
I read that as Portal 2, I really am obsessed with valve games ain’t I
Don’t forget about Manhunt and Manhunt 2.
