In the paper, which was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, they wrote that their research “indicated that competence-impeding play led to higher levels of aggressive feelings, easier access to aggressive thoughts, and a greater likelihood of enacting aggressive behavior.”
The authors explained their findings were “independent of the presence or absence of violent game contents,” which explains why ostensibly innocent like Flappy Bird can be so infuriating.
In one study, they switched up the buttons on a controller to make it harder to use (like making you click left to move right) and found that, unsurprisingly, this made players feel less competent and more aggressive, even though they were only stacking blocks. ... ...“The structure of video games is something you need to look at if you want to build a great game and avoid aggravating your players,” he said. It’s not always just a player’s fault if they get angry because they’re bad at the game; the designer has to strike that fine balance of creating a challenging experience that isn’t too frustratingly difficult.
It’s not just relevant to video games; the link between feeling incompetent and feeling aggressive harkens back to broader psychological research, where competence is one of the key psychological needs in a theory of motivation known as self-determination theory. So the takeaways from gaming could be applied to other activities like physical sports, or even day-to-day situations in the workplace.
Przybylski said that video games, however, made a useful test subject as they’re “particularly good at either supporting or thwarting your need for competence, because that’s what they’re made for.”
In one study, they switched up the buttons on a controller to make it harder to use (like making you click left to move right) and found that, unsurprisingly, this made players feel less competent and more aggressive,
Dumbest shit I ever read please. if your results don't meet your expectation for X reason, of course you are not gonna be happy about it.
On April 16 2014 20:53 iFU.pauline wrote: In one study, they switched up the buttons on a controller to make it harder to use (like making you click left to move right) and found that, unsurprisingly, this made players feel less competent and more aggressive,
Dumbest shit I ever read please. if your results don't meet your expectation for X reason, of course you are not gonna be happy about it.
Ahah yea. This could be applicable to everything in life really. If your car was going left when you steered right you would be pissed too.
Reminds me of the time I read about a study that showed people got aggressive when you took the gamecontroller away or turned the TV off while they were gaming.
They should make a study about me opening different type of food cans. They just ned to watch what will irrevocably happen when i get a can i can´t open. The result will be that all food cans will be forever abolished for eternity because they will make humans murderer and destroyer of "things".
On April 16 2014 20:34 MarlieChurphy wrote: So does this mean that 'bad manner' players feel more incompetent or threatened? or like they have more to prove or something?
Does this mean that 'good manner' players have some sort of special talent to not be angered?
I would hesistate to draw any broad conclusions based on this study alone. However, I think it's safe to conclude that most "nerd rage" is a combination of a lack of self-confidence and a lack of maturity. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but with age comes development of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain thought to be most responsible for impulse control. The amygdala, by contrast, is the "emotional" center of the brain that develops far earlier. It's no surprise, then, that if you put a bunch of 13-17 year olds in a highly competetive enviroment, they will quickly react on their emotions without the impulse control of an adult.
On April 16 2014 20:34 MarlieChurphy wrote: So does this mean that 'bad manner' players feel more incompetent or threatened? or like they have more to prove or something?
Does this mean that 'good manner' players have some sort of special talent to not be angered?
I would hesistate to draw any broad conclusions based on this study alone. However, I think it's safe to conclude that most "nerd rage" is a combination of a lack of self-confidence and a lack of maturity. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but with age comes development of the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain thought to be most responsible for impulse control. The amygdala, by contrast, is the "emotional" center of the brain that develops far earlier. It's no surprise, then, that if you put a bunch of 13-17 year olds in a highly competetive enviroment, they will quickly react on their emotions without the impulse control of an adult.
There is something to be said about the frequency and intensity of 'nerd rage' consistent 'competitive' (not just professional or multi-player) gaming can induce. I would be interested to see more long term studies on gaming and brain development (like impulse control). Unfortunately like most studies of such a nature controlling for variables is near impossible so claims would likely be inconclusive, but interesting none the less.
I think this reminds us of a very old part of humanity. The part that when all mental attempts fail to resolve a situation violence or brute force is always an option. You can see it exemplified from before The Egyptians all the way to the nerd slamming his keyboard.
Weren't Boxer and Yell0w in a Korean SnL skit where they made fun of that Korean Reporter turning out the power at a PCBang and reporting about how it made people angry?
So biased. People generally become "aggressive" when frustrated. Video games can cause that. Just like anything else in the world. I've read articles like these before. Always the same. One study gave games rate 'M' to 7-10 year olds. Well, it leads to biases.
Okay, maybe I'm crazy but I took this as more of an attack on studies that link VIOLENT video games to violent behaviour than a real serious attempt to teach us anything.
Like... I'm pretty sure the authors of the paper were aware that you get pissed off when things don't work. They even refer to other psychological studies on the same issue in their paper. The point of the paper seems to have been more this: 'Overall, this pattern of effects was found to be independent of the presence or absence of violent game contents' (from the abstract) - how can anyone on THIS forum possibly condemn a study that focuses in THAT direction?
On April 17 2014 12:45 Cyx. wrote: Okay, maybe I'm crazy but I took this as more of an attack on studies that link VIOLENT video games to violent behaviour than a real serious attempt to teach us anything.
Like... I'm pretty sure the authors of the paper were aware that you get pissed off when things don't work. They even refer to other psychological studies on the same issue in their paper. The point of the paper seems to have been more this: 'Overall, this pattern of effects was found to be independent of the presence or absence of violent game contents' (from the abstract) - how can anyone on THIS forum possibly condemn a study that focuses in THAT direction?
I doubt it's an attack on anything. It really is just a case of 'incompetence leads to frustration which leads to agression' , but video games just happen to be a good way of testing that. Honestly, replace video games with any other complex task and you get the same results. Games are just much easier to deal with logistically. This story is literally only news because the words aggression and video games appear in the same sentence.
The true part of that article is mundane. The false part, where they're really reaching to arrive at something substantial, is tenuous. In the background I really see the fitting of data to a theory, not theories to the data.
Everybody gets frustrated as long as the act is tedious and less-forgiving in mistakes. In short anything stressful does that. Gaming is stressful but that doesn't mean gaming only does it.