This report has been circulating the internets lately. According to the abstract located here the report found, “Event-related changes in zygomaticus major, corrugator supercilii, and orbicularis oculi electromyographic (EMG) activity and skin conductance level (SCL) were recorded, and the participants rated their emotions and the trait psychoticism based on the Psychoticism dimension of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised, Short Form.”

Yeah.

To summarize there was a positive feeling felt after the player was killed in the game and a negative one when they killed their opponent! How interesting. From gamecritics.com
“From the article: “instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent elicited anxiety, anger, or both.” In addition, “death of the player’s own character…appear[s] to increase some aspects of positive emotion.” This latter finding the authors believe may result from the temporary “relief from engagement” brought about by character death. Whatever the underlying basis, however, the results seem highly counterintuitive.”

I think there’s more research to be done, but brings up an interesting discussion. Just what exactly are gamers feeling at different stages of gameplay? The emotional responsise a good video game can elect cover the total gamut of human feelings. Very cool stuff and I hope the researchers continue their work to delve into the gamer psyche even more!

CC image from CommandZed’s Flickr page! 

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So you would think that with all the hub-bub about mature video games that they would have to be the largest percentage or rated games. Or at least a high percentage. Cause it would be strange if all this noise was for a minority of rated games…

Yeah, well not exactly. Kotaku brings us a note about the games that were rated in 07. Guess what percentage OF ALL GAMES did mature titles encompass? 7%. Wow.

Kotaku puts it thusly:

“For as violent a reputation as has been bestowed upon the video game industry, ‘M’ rated games only make a small percentage of their total numbers and, according to the ESRB, this small percentage is actually down 50% since 2005. Back then, 12% of titles were rated M. And in 2006, that figure was already down to 8%. In 2007, a year in which the ESRB rated 1,563 games, ‘M’ rated games only accounted for 6% of the titles.”

So the number of mature games has decreased in the last 2 years. Yet the number of goobers who keep making a big deal of mature rated titles are neglecting to mention the content of the other 94% of ESRB rated games. This includes T rated games, which sometimes can contain rather mature content….Hmm…

Picture respectfully stolen from Drunken Moneky’s Flickr stream.

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A recent article from GamePolitics brings us news of this entry from the Southeast Psych Blog:

“Common sense tells you that you don’t let an elementary school kid or an older child with a history of aggressive behavior play Grand Theft Auto. But that same common sense tells you that if 90 percent of households have owned or rented a video game every year - while the juvenile crime rate has been going down for more than a decade - then a little Halo 3 never hurt anybody…”

If only more people had that common sense thing.  Take a read and let us know what you think!

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A quick one for this morning.

“A recent study of the video games market shows that heavier gamers and lighter gamers are equally inclined to enjoy playing video games as a family, group or as a party activity, and both groups value gaming as a way to bring their families closer together. The majority of gamers — especially teens and older gamers ages 15 to 65 and older — view playing video games as a way to alleviate stress and to help them unwind.”

Boo-ya!

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I saw a fascinating episode of Frontline on our local PBS affiliate last night. It was entitled, “Inside the Teenage Brain.” In typical PBS fashion, you can find a tremendous amount of related information at their site including a viewable version of the entire episode!

One insight that I learned from this broadcast was that the average teenager gets only 7.5 hours sleep and they need 9.25 hours. This “sleep debt” makes focusing and studying even more difficult. Another observation that came out of research referenced in this program was teenagers’ misinterpretation of facial expressions. It appears that the adolescent brain interprets visual displays of emotion in different areas than the adult brain. Because of this, it processes the visual stimuli differently and reaches conclusions which are inconsistent with what adult brains understand.

There is some wonderful information in this program and one of the final messages that they share with the viewer is that in spite of teenagers’ erratic emotions and potentially abrasive behavior, they really want contact with their parents. Sometimes they don’t know how to say this and their desire for independence makes it difficult for them to express it.

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From our friends at Kotaku comes news of a study out of the NPD Group that reports that video games are a great way to relieve stress and bond with family members. From the report:

“…while heavier gamers are much more inclined than lighter gaming groups to prefer playing games alone, both groups are equally inclined to enjoy playing games as a family, group or as a party activity, and both groups value gaming as a way to bring their families closer together. Notable also is that the majority of gamers, especially teens and older gamers ages 15 to 65 and older view playing video games as a way to alleviate stress and to help them unwind.”

Pretty cool news.

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