I always feel bad when I sneak up on another player from behind and stick my knife between hes ribs :]

Had they tried this study with some REAL fps players on PC the results would have been totally different.

In the experiment, a group of students played James Bond 007: Nightfire

Well that explains the players' reactions then. They were relieved when they died because it meant they got to stop playing that awful game for at least a moment. And, when they killed an enemy they felt anger or anxiety because they had to keep playing it.

One thing which is very misleading about this study is that it didn't test players reactions versus playing against real people as opposed to the computer-controlled enemies. If they had, they would have found the players' reactions as a whole to be the opposite of their findings.

Another misleading thing about this study is that this game was played on a Gamecube which is hardly the typical platform for FPS games.

Sometimes in a slow stealthy match of CS dying is a bit of a relief because you can rest your nerves for a bit.

Always being on edge [being alive] is intense, especially if your team is counting on you.

If this is true, then I should have felt wonderful when I used to play Tribes 2.

Zero caps, zero kills, and 10203887875987 deaths - GO ME WOOT!!

Yeah, I guess we must all be psychotic, because I know everyone aroudn these parts would rather frag than be fragged.

Gosh, don't you just feel awful mowing down wave after wave of people as a heavy in TF2?

LOL!


"You know, the best part of the best drug in the world isn't the high. It's the moment just before you take it. The dice are dancing on the table. Between now and the time they stop, that's the greatest high in the world."
- Walter Abrams

Yeah right! I always feel "relief" when I am saying "God Dammit" due to my unability to spot my opponent before he spotted me. Relief may come it bit later if the respawn wait is more than a few seconds, or if I choose to to wait for whatever reason, but most of the time I am mashing the fire button to get back in the game as quickly as possible.

As for the reaction after a kill, well, that all depends on the type of kill. Some kills ate just kills, you move on to the next. Others, like a protacted 1 on 1 battle resulting in a kill is always satisfying, or finally getting a bead on that sniper who has been doing everybody for the last ten minutes is really satisfying. Anxiety and anger? Poppycock! Who are these people?

At first glance I thought this was BS, but after thinking about it for a minute I believe they have a point. If I'm just playing on a pub, unless something stupid happened and I feel I got an unfair deal, dying in fact does calm me down because it puts me on a respawn timer, which is now a standard part of FPS games. Sitting in limbo mode is a lot less exhilarating than being in the thick of the action.

On the other hand going on a killing spree seems to increase adrenaline ever so slightly with every subsequent kill, making for more anxiety. I don't see how it makes for more anger though. Maybe they are talking about "OHH IN YOUR FACE BITCH" type of anger that some people have after fragging.

Thus I see how killing is more stimulating to the brain than dying, but the very reason I play these games is for excitement, so other than their anger/joy assessment(which may have been subjective anyway), I believe their research rightfully proves that killing is more fun than dying in an fps.

Play CoD4 or TF2 for research? SURE!

well you see, there are these things called "universities"...

Let me take a step back and ask: Whats the point of this "study"? Who funds this "research", if it could really be termed as such? Do they really have that much time and money on their hands?

This is where peer review is important, so here is my review: They tested with a shitty game that the subjects probably never played before. The results could be tainted because they were playing a game they didn't even like and would not play otherwise.

These results are only a novelty until they or others go to a live CS or QUAKE or HALO tournament. Then they or others should do a limited test on regular players in their homes (rather than in an artificial environment with a game and system they aren't familiar with) to see where those results point.

Gamers playing a game by choice for fun COULD have a different reaction than gamers playing a game in the psych department for a $10 study.

What planet were these people from that they tested?!?!?!?
I feel lots better after getting the frag than getting owned.

All you have to do is join any pub server in any fps game to see the people getting fragged bitching angrily and the one doing the fragging laughing.