The Historian

People who play violent games online actually feel more relaxed and less angry after they have played.

Embargo: 00.01hrs Wednesday 2 April 2008

This is the finding of Miss Jane Barnett and her colleagues at Middlesex University. Their results will be presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in Dublin today, Wednesday 2 April 2008.

The psychologists recruited 292 male and female online gamers, playing the game World of Warcraft. The players, aged between 12 and 83 years, were asked to complete a questionnaire on anger, aggression and personality and then played the game for two hours. After this time they were they were asked to complete the test again.

I have always thought that any perceived link between violence and video games was subjective at best. If it were true I’d be spending a lot of my time jumping on turtles and collecting mushrooms.

Gaming/violence research – Press Releases – www.developmag.com