Violent video games make people more relaxed

April 3, 2008 —

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.

GamePro