The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 27, 2012

Official News page 5


REAL LIFE NEWS: SEE, I TOLD YOU SHOOT-EM-UPS WERE GOOD FOR YOU!

by Hazed

A new study shows that gamers who play shooting games are more accurate when they fire a real life weapon.

A group of 151 college students took part in the study conducted by researchers from Ohio State University. They answered a series of questions related to guns and their gaming habits, and then were asked to play one of three games: a violent shoot-em-up, Resident Evil 4, a non-violent shooting game, Wii Play, and a non-violent game with no guns at all, Super Mario Galaxy.

The first two of the games - the shoot-em-ups - were played either with a standard controller or with a pistol-shaped motion controller.

After they’d played for 20 minutes, they were taken to a shooting range and given real guns with real bullets to fire at mannequins. The only instruction was that they should try to hit the target.

The result: those that played Resident Evil 4 (which rewards players who go for headshots) continued to aim for the head of the mannequins. This group were the most accurate when it came to body shots, too.

The Mario players were the least accurate, and the Wii Play group were somewhere in the middle. Those that used the control pad, regardless of which game they played, were also in the middle.

Further delving into the gaming habits of each individual participant in the study found that those who regularly played violent videogames scored a higher number of hits on the mannequins than the less experienced.

“The more frequently one plays violent shooting games, the more accurately one fires a realistic gun and aims for the head, although we can’t tell from this study which factor is the cause,” said Professor Brad Bushman, co-author of the study, which will be published in the Communication Research journal.

Good news for army recruiters, I am sure! Although we’d better hope whatever enemy we have to fight doesn’t play video games as well.

Source: http://www.reghardware.com/2012/05/01/violent_fps_games_breed_
generation_of_accurate_shooters/


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