The Real Danger of Violent Video Games

Not that I disagree with their point, but there's no way I'm giving up Fallout 3 for an extra hour of sleep. Not even a chance. Also, I'm sure watching movies (especially horror) and playing sports does the very same thing. It's called adrenaline.

With only a study group of 19 children and teens no less, in the very prime of hormonal imbalance, Im afraid I cannot take this study seriously. The group is much too small to make any concrete claims about video games. Furthermore the fact that they are testing teens who are in a pretty well constant state of stress due to hormonal changes and social pressures. The theoretical-pee-your-pants that was thrown in there lessens my opinion of this study even further. If this was truly about protecting children they should have taken it more seriously.

Oh for those that want to read the actual abstract.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121504559/abstract
Oh and by the way they did this for a total of three times per kid. Two nights playing violent video games and one not playing. Now this sounds more like a stunted study to prove a point rather than real science.

I agree with the preceding posters: the study lacks credibility. I suspect the maker of the study is a mild Jack Thompson.

A fun article bringing up a newly "tested" theory if you will. Hopefully more research will be done to show if any long term damage can actually happen. And to the first post... I'd so hand up Fallout 3 for another hour of sleep. It was fun, but not worth knocking off an hour of sleep. Once again, would like to see more testing, of a lot more kids, and a larger age spread.

Doing something exiting makes your heart rate go up and it has negative effects on your sleep? Gee, who would have thought! Good to have research done, but even my grand-parents knew that. Anybody with kids knows that. Anybody knows that.

I wonder what effects doing something soothing may have. I am probably going out on a limb here, but I hypothesize that it will lower the heart rate and result in more, and better sleep (although the participants of this fictional study group may not report this).

Karsten

to those who are saying that physical activity will also result in the same symptoms that they monitored in this study, sorry but no. being physically active will raise your heart rate, but will actually lower stress levels and it won't make a drastic change in your heart rate variability; and, it will also result in deeper more relaxing sleep, on a more consistent basis (why do you think people who are in shape generally sleep better than couch potatoes). also, they aren't talking about your average heart rate, but the amount that your average heart rate fluctuates; having on average a higher or lower heart rate is not anywhere near as bad as having your heart rate fluctuate between 70 bpm and 140 bpm on a consistent basis. granted this is a small and very short-lived study, but I would bet that a long-term study with a larger study group would show the same results.

Ummm, doctors have been saying that a cordial workout is great for you. That means boys should be encouraged to play violent video games. It will cut down on heart disease, the leader cause of death in men.

Could a parent not be in the same category as a these gamers? Frequent but random increases to stress and heart rate induces by the parenting of hellions that we all were.

How long did this study take place for?
What games did they play?
What other similarly provocative activities were included in the study for comparison?
or
What else triggers similar if not identical symptoms?

Isolating kids from violent content won't make them less prone to violence or IMO any of this junk they spit at parents. The only success you will get from isolation is to further the child's inability to cope with dangerous situations or thoughts. Go ahead, raise yourself a cute little cubicle-ready child of your own. -- white picket fences and a solid future not included.

Not sure if World of Warcraft applies for a "vilonet videogame". But if it does, too bad, Im not giving it up for some extra sleep

Basing video games on any kind of human behavior is completely unreliable and especialy if its only based on a small study.To say that videogames give kids "male PMS" is completely obsurd, as obsurd as saying doom killed all those kids in the school shootings. The application of videogames to how people precieve thier environment is just plain dumb...i play video games and I DONT HAVE NO DAMN PMS!@!@!@!@ DAMN IT!#@!

So, what loser would waste over 4 hours on a videogame???
im in that age group, and i dont do that stuff.
play some sports, make friends,and do something with your life.(halo is still fun 2 play{not for hours on end})

Oh, and videogames are for kids. if you are over 16 and still playing warcraft world or what ever---you need to fix your life

ok violent video games raise your heart rate, no duh and so what if it lessend your sleep? this study was dumb and extremely un necessary. violent videogames dont do anything to me and playing videogames actually helps relieve stress in some people. i could listen to lamb of god or job for a cowboy (both death metal bands) and get the same heart rate spike as playing video games. videogames and for fun and entertainment end of story.

halo sucks anyways, way too over played

Be interesting to know the actual games used rather than just "violent" vs. "non-violent."

I doubt that the results of this experiment actually relate violence to sleeping issues, but rather they relate the adrenaline, excitement, stress and captivity of FPS and other "hardcore" videogames. When gaming, the gore such as in Fallout3 provides more of a comic relief than preventing me from sleeping.

I believe that the distinction that the "testers" were making was casual, vs hardcore, where hardcore means more immersion, focus, and probably more playing time (CS:S, WoW, or any other triple A title), whereas the nonviolent game was probably Peggle, or Mindsweeper.

any activity that makes your mind race, is going to make your heart race. doesn't matter violent or non violent. play golf, it wont race, hit a hole in one and its racing. its how the mind works and this study is nothing but bs if you ask me. Im a gamer proud to be one too. love strategy games, if you want a study, study if games make you smarter. i feel i am better at management because i play games i manage units, income, resources, ext. I enjoy it. thats why its entertainment. cheap entertainment at that. But this forum seems to be havening a better study of the subject than the study it self. And no there isn't an age limit. anyone can enjoy a video game, board game, tv, movie, going fishing or camping, playing some football or what ever. as long as your doing something your brain should be evolving to a better form. unless you do drugs and rot it all away. than its devolving.

Open your mind, or you might as well be a wild animal.

I don't agree with this one... If you're heard of Korean pro gamers, who play games all day every day and gets paid, and they haven't had any problems, I doubt any common players who lose an hour of sleep will ever have a problem. These people play over 10 hours every day, and are in more stressful situations than we are in when we play video games in our room.

I'm not sure if the study is trying to say that they don't get sleep, or that the sleep isn't as restful.

I've known this as true for a long time. If I get home and watch an hour of TV (usually comedy or something light), I can fall right to sleep. Play an hour of World of Warcraft or a twitch-based FPS, and my mind is in overdrive for much longer. Considering that most violent games go to great lengths to appear lifelike, it's no wonder the heart experiences an adrenaline dump throughout the gaming experience.

Whether or not you give up your Halo 3, Gears of War 2, or Fallout 3, you have to ask yourself it it's wise to be in a fight for your life right before bed. Your heart obviously doesn't appreciate it.

I'd be interested in seeing more on this. What would be the effect on athletes who play a twitch FPS 30-60 minutes before working out. Greater one-rep max? Longer endurance?

When you play games your mind is trying to out smart the computer or solve a puzzle violent or not your heart is pushing blood but its way better for you than just watching tv and I agree with braverthought they should study if games make you smarter or not. I may not havent played but I have seen people play violent games i am 14 any way my mom wont let me play some all tho some games are rated m and some movies would be rated pg-13 with the same amount of violence.

I can’t say I play 4 hrs of video games a day…but World of Warcraft is really fun and empowers people who might be outcasts or rejects at school. The game gives you a chance to be whoever you want—which I think is generally pretty healthy for a teenager. I saw an awesome WoW movie—Ben X—a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Ben_X/70098503?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=1648124476_0_0. Check it out!

the only reason those soft gamers had [better] rest is because they fell asleep out of bordom. the hardcore gamers spent an extra hour gameing, BIG DEAL one more hour of gameing aday wont kill ya, Gameing is too popular, if you are ttrying to erradicate gameing you can coount on failing it aint gonna happen.

-Your Friend Zunigadragon