A study performed by the University of Rochester has reached the conclusion that people who play videogames of the first-person shooting ilk have faster reaction times than those who do not. Researchers on the project tested two groups of people, having one group play 50 hours of Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament while the other played fifty hours of The Sims 2. Following this, both groups performed simple tasks to test how quickly and accurately they could respond to visual and auditory information.
On average, the players of the first-person shooters were 25% faster while remaining just as accurate as the players of The Sims 2.
My initial reaction to this was, "duh, why did we spend money on this?" But while it's something that players of videogames are probably well aware of, the general public who likes to demonize games may not yet have received the memo. Anytime someone gets to publicly say something positive about videogames which might show some of the benefits is okay by me.
The study will be published in an upcoming edition of the journal Current Biology.
Study: Shooter Fans Have Faster, More Accurate Reaction Times [GamePolitics]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
Likes
Mega Man 2, Arcade Games, Books about games, Board games, Having cultural interests that aren't games
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
39 comments | showing # 1 to 39
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
2:00 AM on 09.14.2010
| 
Well screw college then... I don't want my money spent like that. I could be spending it on video games for myself.
...OH! Hand-eye. Well, durr.
Shooter players - Who his more likely amoung them to actually shoot someone? Which of them is going to engage in teabagging during Halo: Reach?
Sims players - How many are likely to create Sims that "double down" or create love triangles? How long can most of them keep swimming if you delete the ladder from thier swimming pools?
But yeah, I believe this. I hope to do studies like this for a living some day.
Also, it's helped me be more stable, maybe from learning to control my adrenaline rushes a little better?
No man you're far from Doomed.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if all that "twitch a little towards the target and get a headshot" autoaim is hurting hand eye co-ordination, like tricking it into thinking it's right when it's not.
I know i had real trouble going from auto-aim central CoD to No auto aim MAG. It's all good now, but at first it was like "WHOOA what's wrong with me?"
After all, if my reactions are faster it will only be a matter of time before I can steal old ladies money faster than the speed of light.
I agree, especially the RTS one. I doubt someone playing Call of Duty would react nearly as fast as someone who plays StarCraft II.
Maybe not CoD, but Unreal tournament probably requires a similar level of speed, although I would like to see SSBM players pitted against other genres.
Although another study happens to find FPS gamers are more prone to forgetting their wife's birthday. Breaking news..In a new study Pokemon players are linked to autism.
Although another study happens to find FPS gamers are more prone to forgetting their wife's birthday. Breaking news..In a new study Pokemon players are linked to autism. Also, Survival horror gamers have an awareness unlike normal people.
It shouldn't be too hard for games journalists (and the fault here doesn't rest only with Destructoid) to fact-check, rather than dumbing-down the scientific information in a way that's misleading.
I always nab the last piece and people stare and how fast I am "dude plays FPS games" get whispered around as I nom on fatty cheese melt on dough.
I entered a clay pigeon shooting contest a few months ago and won! I had never shot a gun in my life (other than in video games) and I beat all the veteran contestants in the competition. My reactions were crazy fast; in the final round I shot my 1st pigeon and completely forgot that the operator had flung a 2nd pigeon with a hand-held device! I had dropped my sights and almost starting celebrating when I saw the 2nd pigeon flying low and away, so I pulled the sights back up and nailed it right before it dropped behind a hill! My K/D ratio was 5.0!
One guy was pretty pissed that he let me use his shotgun to enter and showed me how to load it and such.
Needless to say, I have a handsome looking medal on my wall.
You don't get science, do you?
Dexter-> "There are a lot of things that we as gamers can say "duh" about, but until scientific studies are done, we can't say for sure whether they are definitively true or just anecdotally plausible."
Well said.
Acetate-> "No captain obvious for the header?"
If Captain Obvious was ruling Earth, he'd still be ruling a flat earth. "The church concludes that the earth is flat, and earth is the center of the universe." "-Duh!"
I came here to tell people to read the ars writeup, good to see someone else looks into things as well! Meanwhile... Conrad: be careful you present research in an accurate light.