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Aggression from video games 'linked to incompetence'

Rubius

Member

sakipon

Member
I've gotten frustrated/angry when Halo sometimes pairs me up with players way above my skill level and I get shot like every 10 seconds. I'm alright with losing in games but not getting to play (and practice) isn't fun at all.
 

Espada

Member
To be fair, it's those testers' jobs. I don't think they're going to rage and swear and risk losing their jobs.

As for the article, FINALLY. I almost kicked (another) hole in my wall just playing Super Mario 64 the other day. Those freakin' controls and that damn camera at times. I also get really angered when I have to do the same thing over again in video games. For an example of a game that does difficulty right, take a look at Bit.Trip.Runner. Frustrating at times, but never gets me too bothered because death brings you back to the beginning right away.

Oh man, you hit on something that is often overlooked. It's one thing to reach a difficult point in a game. It's quite another to force the player to repeat a bunch of stuff just to reach that difficult section over and over. It's one reason why I loved Rayman Legends so much. While the game was pretty easy, there were some nasty levels that demanded perfection. When you died, you were sent back to the beginning quickly. Failure, as a result, didn't sting as much.
 
I think the angriest I've ever been at a game was with MAG, and I was pretty fucking terrible at that so I would definitely agree with this study based on personal experience.
 

Eusis

Member
I can't remember one single time I lost control or became aggressive because of video games and I'm very competitive. It doesn't sound normal to me.

In any game I will be having a much better time if I'm being challenged instead of playing against someone who can't put up a challenge.
That's probably exactly it: you're talking about competitive play. And I rarely get angry about that unless it's Dark Souls (usually getting invaded, so it's more like someone coming in while I'm playing, ripping the controller out from my hands, making my character jump off a cliff, then mocking me before throwing the controller back) because in the end it is with another human being and not really an obstacle to greater progress, whereas losing to AI in games can be progress being blocked and no one winning as I lose, just the game stonewalling me.
 
This almost strikes me as an axiom. Dynasty Warriors isn't the most violent game I've ever played, but if I get cut down by Lu Bu after 20 minutes of gameplay, there's an "Oh, fuck off!!" from me.

Actually, DDR isn't violent at all, and when I failed heavy Max 300 on the last step, I kicked a hole in the wall of the arcade. I was lucky they only asked me to fix it and didn't trespass me. :/
 

Zaptruder

Banned
Yes! Ah shit, this is the link that we've needed.

It's basically a fairness thing.

We don't get pissed at virtual violence.

We get pissed and aggressive at perception of unfairness.

That's what makes us take our hands out and flail them around in most instances.

You design your game poorly, and make it feel unfair - people are gonna get pissed.

Controls responsive, and things are telegraphed, rules explained... then you're not as pissed when you lose!

And then when you stack things on top to make the loss even more annoying, it pisses them off even more.

We play games to get control - and the loss of control from the game been unfair and poorly designed is naturally a frustrating element - a frustration that naturally links with increase in aggression.
 

Pathos

Banned
I gotta agree with them. I get much more annoyed/angry with frustrating gameplay or things not going the way I want them too in a game than seeing "violent" gameplay.
 

Aesius

Member
I get pissed as hell at games. It's sad because my patience level for games has dropped to zero.

Games have become so easy that dying at all seems like a huge inconvenience and makes me really angry. I think I died less than 5 times in Infamous: SS, and most of those were from fucking around during boss fights. But each death made me really, really mad. I'm just not used to dying or even being significantly challenged in games now. :/
 
I get pissed as hell at games. It's sad because my patience level for games has dropped to zero.

Games have become so easy that dying at all seems like a huge inconvenience and makes me really angry. I think I died less than 5 times in Infamous: SS, and most of those were from fucking around during boss fights. But each death made me really, really mad. I'm just not used to dying or even being significantly challenged in games now. :/

then stop playing easy games
 
It's another video games study, but the outcome is unusual. Essentially, they found that aggression is not linked to the amount of violent content in the game, but rather how good the people felt they are at the game. Essentially, people get mad when they suck at video games. Bonus anger happens if the controls are duff or the difficulty is too high for said person to handle.

As ever with this sort of thing, this is one study, don't take it as gospel. But hey, the funny soundbites write themselves (Mad at video games? Git gud!).

Bolded for emphasis. People need to understand what science is and is not.
 
quote from hesido (2nd closed thread)

I'd like to say that I'm not in the camp who claim gaming can have no ill-effects at all on human behaviour just because it's my favourite pastime. That'd be over-simplifying the situation and belittling gaming's potential to change things (for better or worse). That's not to say that I blindly subscribe to every study, a study has to be well-designed. A well designed study needs to have better control groups in order to identify differences that lead to those different results.

Here's this Oxford study that seems to be well designed.

Six separate studies were part of the research. One of them used a modified version of Half-Life 2, Valve’s popular first-person shooter. Violent ways of eliminating enemies were replaced by a system where the play would mark enemies, causing them to disappear. The researchers didn’t notice a significant difference in aggression between those who played the unmodified Half-Life 2 and those who played the violence-free version.

However, researchers did notice that players who were went through a tutorial before playing were less likely to show aggression than those who dove in without one. When struggling to control the game got in the way of the players’ efforts, they were more likely to show aggressive behavior. “Players have a psychological need to come out on top when playing,” Dr. Andrew Przybylski from the Oxford Internet Institute told BBC News, “… If players feel thwarted by the controls or the design of the game, they can wind up feeling aggressive. This need to master the game was far more significant than whether the game contained violent material.”

damaged my G500, a xbox360 controller, destroyed a PS2 controller -> all when games lagged the shit out or controller didn't react and I died, or windows crashed.

Oh please, tell me more about this "aggression thingy"
 

spliced

Member
Isn't this the case with most things. Or is the guy trying to fix his car swearing his head off because it's going so well.
 

NewGame

Banned
300px-DKC2.jpg


Specifically I remember as a kid screaming at the TV, stomping the floor with my feet and generally throwing a tantrum. Parents took the game off me and forced me to play outside and read books for a week. I had the worst parents ever.
 

MormaPope

Banned
I have a friend who only plays mainstream games for the most part. Convinced him to get Dark Souls 2. He's been playing for more than a few days, still hasn't gotten to the first boss. Sends me messages about how pissed he is, how hes about to snap the disc. I knew all along that the game would be too challenging for him based on what he played in the past. Its like a nice practical joke, he said he thinks the game is pretty good.

1363402985_birdman-rubbing-hands.gif

Mission accomplished.
 

atr0cious

Member
So it's saying people who "rage" while playing video games generally suck at them? Sounds about right. All those CoD kids finally found something they're good at.

The best is playing online and your team is losing, then some loser who's been sniping the entire time starts screaming about how lame the team is. I like asking them general questions till they disconnect in a fit of screeches.
 

Toxi

Banned
This explains why I'm so chill during Dark Souls and so fucking angry after doing horribly in Monster Hunter.
 

Jintor

Member
Playing electronic games can make people feel aggressive, but new research finds that the reason has little to do with violent content.

Researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK and the University of Rochester in the US carried out lab tests in which volunteers played both violent and non-violent games. They found that the deciding factor was how the volunteers were able to master the electronic game after 20 minutes of play.

Games that were too difficult or where players had trouble mastering controls that were too complicated were the most likely to leave players feeling aggressive afterwards. There was little difference in the aggression levels of players on games with violent content as compared with those playing non-violent games, says the research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2014/140408.html

We have, of course, all known this for years.

IMG_1446--article_image.jpg


I'm astounded that nobody thought to actually research if games and aggression were linked using a research model based on the way games are actually consumed, as opposed to assuming it operated like tv or film or something
 

VE3TRO

Formerly Gizmowned
I can believe this. I've been playing Assassins Creed 4 this week and had no problems when fighting or killing but when it comes to certain mission designs it's when I start to get angry and feel like throwing the controller.
 

VegiHam

Member
See, I think maybe this research was suggested by someone who plays video games. We all know hard games make us angry. Kinda awesome to think that Oxford University researchers are gamers too, huh?
 

Fedele

Member
Finally, research is backing my behaviour every time a lucky bastard scores a goal in FIFA online.

I want to throw my PS4 through the window when this happens.
 

I'll never get gamer rage that manifests itself in a way that prohibits you from playing games. Maybe it's because I grew up poor so if I broke a controller, mommy wasn't running to the store to by me a new one, it was simply no more video games until Christmas or my birthday... which is in Feb so there's a massive window where I could be out of commission.

Anyways, study is obvious like someone wasting time to research if running a sprint makes you tired or sweaty.
 

Jintor

Member
I was looking for a picture of, say, a wii controller embedded in a monitor to really make the point, but I couldn't get the word salad down to search on google without ending up neck-deep in hardware patent illustrations instead
 

Harabec

Neo Member
But how long do people stay angry? Is it a short burst where they throw a controller or punch the wall or do people stay angry long enough to actually do harm later in the day?

I've smashed keyboards over losing in pvp in mmos, but it is a rather short emotional response. Do all people recover quickly though?
 

Techies

Member
Add perceived fairness.

My team sucks, enemy team better.

Also dis-functioning hardware at critical moments.

*Now that I think of it dis-functioning hardware and teammates are the same thing.
Lack of control.
 
Agreed that this is a reasonable conclusion, however to spin it like games violent content doesnt influence the display of violence is misguided. As changes in behaviour occur over time with more than one engagment with a game/situation/film etc in general needed to have any impact on behaviour.
 
.... Yeah I'll concede to this. Unfairly hard though. Stuff like Hotline Miami and Spelunky is fair game. When my bastard of a brother keeps using Meta-Knight in Brawl...
 

Matt_

World's #1 One Direction Fan: Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you~~~
Flappy Bird is proof
 

keit4

Banned
This is a fact. The other day i smashed the dualshock against the floor because the fucking Royal Rat Authority :/
 

spekkeh

Banned
Ha! Would be very interested to see what the games->aggression researchers have to say about this. A number of them were gloating pretty badly in their latest book on the subject. I always found it strange that they included games like Sonic the Hedgehog in their 'violent games' research inventory, and often gloss over the fact that aggressive affect and cognition are to be expected as a correlate of competitive activities, irrespective of content.

edit: crosspost it is.
 

Ferr986

Member
I'll never get gamer rage that manifests itself in a way that prohibits you from playing games. Maybe it's because I grew up poor so if I broke a controller, mommy wasn't running to the store to by me a new one, it was simply no more video games until Christmas or my birthday... which is in Feb so there's a massive window where I could be out of commission.

Anyways, study is obvious like someone wasting time to research if running a sprint makes you tired or sweaty.

Yeah, same. Never broke a controller, they're expensive enough!
 
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