Poll: Gamers are masochists

[H0ncho]

Dying in computer games makes gamers happy [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/02/27/scideath127.xml]

Scientists examining the effect of violent computer games on human responses were startled to discover that far from being excited or pleased when they killed enemies, gamers responded with anger and anxiety.

Violent computer games
Being killed in computer games appears to make gamers happier than killing does

Unexpectedly, however, getting shot and killed appeared to elicit a positive response.

The study, in the journal Emotion, tracked the responses of a group of Finnish students playing a violent game (James Bond 007: NightFire) and a non-violent game (Super Monkey Ball 2). They used electrodes in the skin and in facial muscles to track emotional arousal levels and specific emotions.

They admit to being unable to draw a conclusion from the apparent fact that death comes as a relief to gamers.

 

[Break]

Well of course you'd feel happy when you die in NightFire. That game is terrible.

 

[The Reverend]

Its always funny to die in games. Sure, you can get annoyed, but if you're not a 1337ist pillock you can usually take death in good humor. TF2 is a good example, sure, I get annoyed at dying due to crit rockets, but if I'm trying to stab their legs off at the same time it makes me laugh.

 

[Kogarian]

See, here's the problem with the research...its a magazine article being summarized by a newspaper with no link to that magazine, or to its actual research.

Many proffesors warn against this kind of thing...or maybe the Finnish test subjects in question are psychotic (j/king).

 

[John Galt]

Well, dying is either humorous, challenging, or annoying to the point where you just want to gnaw through the electrical wire. Normally, it falls into the first two catagories but when trying to beat HL2:Ep2 (the strider battle near the end) I almost got to the point of chewing through copper due to Gordon's inability to fire a Magnusson.

 

[PurpleRain]

Dying is annoying in a game. It means you have to restart from a checkpoint or a save and redo all your good work. Dead Rising was a prime example of this. When having to save waaaaaaaaay back on the toilet and trying to kill a bady with a sniper rifle on the other side of the map becomes fustrating evertime you die because it calls for another half hour trek arcoss the map just to get to him... then you die again!

 

[KaynSlamdyke]

It depends on the game.

That study used a first person shooter, which is a genre of game you expect to die on repeatatively as a matter of course. Indeed, it is a tension break. And when you're playing about with the sandbox in some games you don't mind momentary deaths because you weren't doing anything serious.

But any game where there's a serious investment of energy, it becomes the opposite. The tension builds to unbearable levels on a boss fight or in a raid or at the crucial part of a campaign mission, and to have it go pear shaped on you is NOT my idea of fun.

I bought two old games last weekend. Mercs and BG&E. One I've completed and love to tears, the other is infuriating me at my own ineptness. Both have had me die millions of times though

Mercenaries at the moment is making me want to drop kick the box into the cieling. I'm not especially good at the game, and I'm finding the Ace of Clubs mission a pain in my ear, despite honing part of it down to a fine art, there are still too many places where its...

Spoiler

tank shell - death - restart mission - cut scene - deal with rocket launcher troops - steal tank - allow allies to land - destroy radar jammers - blow up tower - see ace of clubs - tank shell - death...

... and it's been like that for half a week now. Instead I went and completed BG&E today, which is so smooth a game it knows instinctively where to put checkpoints so that even when I set off the alarm and was gutted by a one shot kill laser cannon, it still felt fun because I was only two minutes from where I started.

And now I feel the need to restart that game and go for a complete set of pearls...

 

[werepossum]

Dying is annoying in a game. It means you have to restart from a checkpoint or a save and redo all your good work. Dead Rising was a prime example of this. When having to save waaaaaaaaay back on the toilet and trying to kill a bady with a sniper rifle on the other side of the map becomes fustrating evertime you die because it calls for another half hour trek arcoss the map just to get to him... then you die again!

Any developer who does not allow save-at-will when it's possible (understand it might not be possible with consoles) should be *****-slapped with a live herring. I bought the damn thing, if I want to save every ten feet I feel entitled. I feel the same way about cheat codes. Replaying the same two minutes for two hours does NOT equal two hours of content.

 

[werepossum]

It depends on the game.

That study used a first person shooter, which is a genre of game you expect to die on repeatatively as a matter of course. Indeed, it is a tension break. And when you're playing about with the sandbox in some games you don't mind momentary deaths because you weren't doing anything serious.

But any game where there's a serious investment of energy, it becomes the opposite. The tension builds to unbearable levels on a boss fight or in a raid or at the crucial part of a campaign mission, and to have it go pear shaped on you is NOT my idea of fun.

What he said.

For what it's worth, I HATE boss fights. The first few (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom) were cool. But then after awhile it gets monotonous, running around shooting the same thing for ten minutes. The worst was 13; one of the bosses is this decrepid old scientist. The first time I dropped in I ignored him, and he killed me. That pissed me off, so the next time I gave him a shotgun blast to the face at point-blank range. WTF? Didn't phase him. I had to run around like a butt monkey shooting this ninety-pound ninety year-old repeatedly for ten minutes. How stupid! If he's going to be a boss, at least give him a Dyneema nightie and a fencing mask or something.

Incidently, anyone who likes shooters should pick that up for $5 or less. The actual enemy are the Klan, and besides the fact that it's piss-your-pants funny when they first jump out in robes and pointy hats it's a fun change to shoot them for awhile. Don't pay much over $5 though, unless you really like cell-shaded games.

 

[Tarmanydyn]

What a horribly titled, and worded, article.

Koga basically already said this but: No direct references to the article? No credibility.

Typical tabloidist journalism.

 

[MrCrun]

I liked XIII but Mulder's bored droning killed it for me. Almost the only time I don't mind dieing is in Team Fortess 2 or in a sandbox game when I'm doing something incredibly stupid off my own back. If it's a mission and death happens I'm generally not happy. BG&E though is an exception I didn't cheat through almost all of that.
Kind of on the subject - why can't I get an Action Replay for the Xboxs or the Wii? Or why does noone put in a godmode any more? With cheats I'd have finished Dead Rising, Eternal Sonata, Assassins Creed, Far Cry 360 and a bunch of others. OK so I'm not very good, I've got good reasons so why prevent me finishing the game? Sign me out of Xbox Live, deny me gamer points, I don't care but don't punish me for not having the patience of a fanboy or the reflexes of a 18 year old on speed. Let me finish your games.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

So a masochist walks up to a sadist and says, "Hurt me!" and the sadist says, "No."

- J

 

[propertyofcobra]

...What? Seriously? That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Ask anyone who plays online.
"That sniping little crap got you again, do you feel happier than you would have if you were the one to blow his brains out, instead of what happened?"
No? Seriously? Wow. This study is beyond wrong. I've never met or even imagined that anyone becomes happier when they die as opposed to when they kill unless it's a game like Tomb Raider where the ragdolling on jagged rocks can be pretty funny.

 

[Kogarian]

So a masochist walks up to a sadist and says, "Hurt me!" and the sadist says, "No."

- J

That was pretty good. Where did you hear that one?

 

[propertyofcobra]

So a masochist walks up to a sadist and says, "Hurt me!" and the sadist says, "No."

- J

That was pretty good. Where did you hear that one?

It's about as new as the one about the duck crossing the road. I'm stunned you HAVEN'T heard it.

 

[xMacx]

There's also a blurb on this a couple of years ago when some of this research was new in gamasutra: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060330/duffy_01.shtml

Jacked from Bogost et al. (2006).
http://www.avantgame.com/mcgonigal_GDC2006_gamestudiesdownload.pdf

The study argues that:

? More pleasure and excitement in active failure than in success

? However: passive experience of failure makes players disengage.

? Attaining a goal DECREASES player arousal and interest.

Here's the actual article from Emotion in 2008:
http://mutex.gmu.edu:3618/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=105&sid=3bc05a4f-5e5f-4425-8e08-e56a36cac313%40sessionmgr103

I'm reading the article now, just to see if the results have any different interpretations that the telegraph didn't report.

 

[Mr. Bubbles]

I hate dying in a game, unless I do it myself for comedic affect. To me, dying in a game means that I was worse than the guy who killed me, even if for only a moment, and I don't like that. Killing things, on the otherhand, I do enjoy. As a matter of fact, my main thought when I start up a game is "I'm going to go find something and kill it," unless it's a MP game, in which case it's "Let's go find something and kill it." Just like basically any other gamer.