Psychologists Claim Games Alter Personal Reality
- Thread starter Earnest Cavalli
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I think this holds true for anything that impacts you emotionally. You'll be carrying it around in your head for awhile, and it might even permanently change things about you. It's what art strives to do, be it books, music, movies, paintings... or video games.
I've been gaming since I was 8, and I've never experienced this phenomenon. Not once. Too bad, too, because it might be really entertaining. I don't even dream about playing games (that I remember--I very rarely remember my dreams any more, and they're always REALLY weird when I do).
On the other hand, I HAVE experienced this phenomenon when doing things like driving a car (assuming "intrusive reflexes" means what I think it does). If I don't pay attention while I'm driving home, I'll always automatically drive directly home. This can be really annoying if I need to stop at the store or get dinner on my way and for some reason I'm mentally preoccupied. I will pretty much always drive right home anyway. It's even funnier if I get home and then go OUT and I'm STILL PREOCCUPIED, because then I usually just drive straight back to work. Derp.
If I were to make a hypothesis about this, I would note several things:
1. With the kind of gaming I do, I'm always consciously active and engaged. I don't ever turn on mental autopilot the way I do in a car. I can't--I'd die if I tried. Most of the games I play are way too *complicated* for this kind of thing.
2. I don't think much about the game after I've quit. I might think about mechanical parts of the game, like, hmm, maybe I want X piece of gear after all, or I should probably re-think my build if I'm having trouble in raids, but I'm not reviewing events and images from the game. There's a clean break between "I'm gaming" and "Not gaming any more".
So, with those things, I would hypothesize that any activity which involves a high degree of automatization (what people call "muscle memory", which is dumb because all the action takes place in the cerebellum) will have this kind of effect.
If you actually have a PROBLEM with this phenomenon (which I doubt, but it could happen) I'd suggest setting up a context trigger for yourself, such as ALWAYS wearing your headphones when you're gaming and NEVER wearing them at any other time. Or something similar. Context clues like these will help you to shut off your over-trained habits. This always worked great when I worked in a sterile environment--when you were scrubbed in, you automatically did certain things. You didn't touch anything until you'd checked it was sterile. You held your hands right in front of your chest. You didn't lean forward or back. When you broke out of gown and gloves, you instantly assumed an entirely different set of habits.
On the other hand, I HAVE experienced this phenomenon when doing things like driving a car (assuming "intrusive reflexes" means what I think it does). If I don't pay attention while I'm driving home, I'll always automatically drive directly home. This can be really annoying if I need to stop at the store or get dinner on my way and for some reason I'm mentally preoccupied. I will pretty much always drive right home anyway. It's even funnier if I get home and then go OUT and I'm STILL PREOCCUPIED, because then I usually just drive straight back to work. Derp.
If I were to make a hypothesis about this, I would note several things:
1. With the kind of gaming I do, I'm always consciously active and engaged. I don't ever turn on mental autopilot the way I do in a car. I can't--I'd die if I tried. Most of the games I play are way too *complicated* for this kind of thing.
2. I don't think much about the game after I've quit. I might think about mechanical parts of the game, like, hmm, maybe I want X piece of gear after all, or I should probably re-think my build if I'm having trouble in raids, but I'm not reviewing events and images from the game. There's a clean break between "I'm gaming" and "Not gaming any more".
So, with those things, I would hypothesize that any activity which involves a high degree of automatization (what people call "muscle memory", which is dumb because all the action takes place in the cerebellum) will have this kind of effect.
If you actually have a PROBLEM with this phenomenon (which I doubt, but it could happen) I'd suggest setting up a context trigger for yourself, such as ALWAYS wearing your headphones when you're gaming and NEVER wearing them at any other time. Or something similar. Context clues like these will help you to shut off your over-trained habits. This always worked great when I worked in a sterile environment--when you were scrubbed in, you automatically did certain things. You didn't touch anything until you'd checked it was sterile. You held your hands right in front of your chest. You didn't lean forward or back. When you broke out of gown and gloves, you instantly assumed an entirely different set of habits.
One time I woke up to my alarm, looked at the clock which read 6:20, and proceeded to think "62 war score isn't nearly enough to conquest Russia" and rolled back over asleep.
I had been playing Victoria 2 the night before.
I don't know about other games, but this is definitely true of that game.
I had been playing Victoria 2 the night before.
I don't know about other games, but this is definitely true of that game.
I have experienced this, plenty of times. I think the only time it ever came close to actually affecting my actions though was when I considered being incredibly rude to one of my customers in the belief that I could just go back to the last save point and it wouldn't matter. I was fairly badly sleep deprived at that point though, which has caused me to hallucinate in the past anyway, and I remembered almost immediately that it wouldn't work.
I'm not sure how much gaming has affected my personality, but I do remember several instances where I've had "Tetris Effect" experiances. The day after Starcraft 2 came out, I was working at A&W, and my brain set a rally point for the pop machine. For a split second my brain thought that once the drinks had finished pouring, they'd float by themselves to the drive-through window. After I had finished playing Fable 1 the first time, whenever I went outside, I kept seeing green and purple outlines around people who were near me.
Note the word "claim" not "prove".
Internet asshole claims that Psychology severely hamstrings mental capabilities. The only difference is I didn't waste my life to get a superficial degree.
You just know that this group is trying to stir up trouble, trying to give 'those' people something to rally on. "Because of video games, that's the reason he shot all those people!" Ridiculous.
Internet asshole claims that Psychology severely hamstrings mental capabilities. The only difference is I didn't waste my life to get a superficial degree.
You just know that this group is trying to stir up trouble, trying to give 'those' people something to rally on. "Because of video games, that's the reason he shot all those people!" Ridiculous.
Back in the day I spent nearly 3 days straight playing Sub Rebellion. No sleep.
When school was back in session on Tuesday I was getting sonar pings and torpedo locks on just about everything and everyone.
Then again, this is probably more a testament to sleep deprivation than it is to.... whatever the article calls the urge to hide in orange crates.
When school was back in session on Tuesday I was getting sonar pings and torpedo locks on just about everything and everyone.
Then again, this is probably more a testament to sleep deprivation than it is to.... whatever the article calls the urge to hide in orange crates.
For instance, one of the 15-year-old respondents described once seeing health bars above the heads of real people.
Hmm, that reminded me of something I read in a book about Nicola Tesla so I did a little digging and found this reference here about Synesthesia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia]. Both the child and Tesla may have been 'projectors', which are rare (or they were doing drugs).
Hmm, that reminded me of something I read in a book about Nicola Tesla so I did a little digging and found this reference here about Synesthesia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia]. Both the child and Tesla may have been 'projectors', which are rare (or they were doing drugs).
That's not what it's saying at all, dissociative experiences have nothing to do with that type of behaviour. It's actually very plausible, people play games for escapism and this is that taken to an extreme. It doesn't just happen with games but one would think games have the most potential to cause them because being interactive you're more drawn into the world of the game.Tombaugh said:
I do kind of get the same feeling that this subject was chosen because it's relatively unexplored and a student wanted an easier doctorate but that doesn't make it less valid, that's just how research works.
Shit, no wonder I only see Social Links everywhere. That, and I always see a broom as a viable spear. I think that's more High School Of The Dead, but then again, the guy named Simon that was there was more Shaun of The Dead.
I mean, what the fuck!
But yeah, Tetris Effect, and due to me playing so many games, I have an imaginary HUD composed of elements of various games. My room feels like Travis Touchdown's house. My Social Experiences are Social Link ranks.
My criticism of things is like the speech options in Heavy Rain, and my time playing Mirror's Edge makes me see climbable things in red.
I even have a health bar to represent hunger, and it changes form depending on what I eat. If I eat a weird combo of food, like sushi, a burger, tea, and an ice cream cone, my health switches to a Dead Rising style bar. If I eat something like a ration, it goes MGS style. If I eat ramen and then something lemony, then coffee, it goes Yakuza style. If I eat pizza, it goes all No More Heroes style. And if I pay for it with small change, it goes all Scott Pilgrim. Yeah, I play a shit load of videogames. And I love it.
I mean, what the fuck!
But yeah, Tetris Effect, and due to me playing so many games, I have an imaginary HUD composed of elements of various games. My room feels like Travis Touchdown's house. My Social Experiences are Social Link ranks.
My criticism of things is like the speech options in Heavy Rain, and my time playing Mirror's Edge makes me see climbable things in red.
I even have a health bar to represent hunger, and it changes form depending on what I eat. If I eat a weird combo of food, like sushi, a burger, tea, and an ice cream cone, my health switches to a Dead Rising style bar. If I eat something like a ration, it goes MGS style. If I eat ramen and then something lemony, then coffee, it goes Yakuza style. If I eat pizza, it goes all No More Heroes style. And if I pay for it with small change, it goes all Scott Pilgrim. Yeah, I play a shit load of videogames. And I love it.
That sums up my own thoughts on the subject. Of course, the real significance I believe lies in social application. There are games which militaries use to teach their soldiers how to kill...and then there are games like Portal which teach its users to think critically about, well, I'm not too sure.thaluikhain said:
I understand it well enough but the whole thing easily comes across as wrong which is why I dismissed it as such. Off the top of my head they could have tested against other similar mediums of entertainment such as movies or reading.Sapient Pearwood said:
It just seems like the writer is just attempting to single out or prosecute, but to be fair I'm not sure if that was the researchers intentions or just the writer of the article.