Today’s Metro reports that ‘Playing driving games on consoles makes people more dangerous in real life’, citing research carried out by Continental Tyres. Strangely, I can’t find any mention of this ‘news’ on the Metro web site or the Continental Tyres press site but it is in the print edition of Metro, page seven, top left corner.
According to Metro, ‘Fans of titles such as Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto are more likely to crash when they get behind the wheel. They also have a higher tendency to try risky overtaking moves, run red lights and suffer road rage.’
Oddly, Continental Tyres do not make any inference that playing Grand Theft Auto makes you want to beat prostitutes to death, surely if their research shows that driving in GTA influences you in real life then it is logical that every aspect of the game will determine how you behave?
“Gamers take more risks than non gamers, possibly due to the lack of real consequences in the game,” said Continental safety expert, Tim Bailey.
In other news, Continental Tyres seem to have forgotten the award picked up Chris Rado of WORLD Racing when his Scion tC was named Best Asian Import in the seventh annual Gran Turismo Awards ceremony. The Scion has Continental tyres, as proudly boasted by this press release.
Continental Tyres seem blissfully unaware that over half the UK population are regular gamers and that Grand Theft Auto IV is one of the best selling games of all time. So they, and/or Metro have just labeled an awful lot of their customers as bad drivers.
Source: Metro (Print Edition)
Phil_E
gamers also try to drive the car while standing behind it and by sticking their head through the front bumper depending their preference.
BG123
What a load of crap. I don’t even think of games when I’m driving.
cam the man
Me neither. I been playing racing games since the days of the SNES and the only accident I’ve had was when another car went into the back of me while I was stationary.
Aquastyle
I laughed out loud in the middle of class when I read that headline. Funny stuff.
BIGAL-1992
I didn’t know today was april fools day.
icuyesido
How can a sim of any sort (Flight Simulator X, Fifa, GT5 .etc) not improve your knowledge on how to do those things in the real world, it’s a sim, it’s meant to be realistic. I learnt how to balance the brake and accelerator perfectly to drift in GT5, I now know exactly how to do it but that doesn’t mean I will be able to do it in real life, I’ll just be a lot better at it than I would have been without the game. Where this topic is being misconstrued is that GT5 is a ‘race’ sim, if people are taking the knowledge for race driving onto the road, that’s when it becomes dangerous, is that the games fault, no, it’s the idiots that think the road is the track and let’s face it, they’re already out there, games aren’t changing much.
jimmy-google
I remember after a group of mates went go karting they couldn’t help but race all the way, even those that are sensible drivers. I think it maybe natural after an hour playing GT5 wanting to race immediately after playing but labelling all “gamers” as dangerous divers is an incredibly sweeping statement.
It’s a bit like Top Gear last night saying murderers drive Renault Espaces. The problem is that one is meant to be jouralism and the other a group of lads having a joke.
BIGAL-1992
Jouralism? What’s that? :P
jimmy-google
Woops. My spelling is awful – I just read what I think I’ve written rather than than what I actually have.
KeRaSh
I also drive my Peugeot 206 with a PS3 controller since I’m not that into racing and can’t afford a mounted steering wheele. Doesn’t stop me loading up my boost meter by driving on the wrong side of the road.
RocketSOL
I’ve played GTA4, GT5 and NFS Hot Pursuit and I havn’t crashed or come close to crashing. If I speed i’m probably going about 5mph over the limit on that particular road and drop it down when I realise.
I don’t think you can relate real life driving to simulated driving…If you drive like an idiot in real life then it’s because you’re an idiot. Simple.
Lordfloyd
Next time i drive past Metro head office hopefully my power meter will be full, will press circle and the building will collapse
4lf13
Let’s give them some credit. If you put me in a car and asked me to drive around, say, London. I wouldn’t make it very far.
Let’s ignore the fact that I’m too young to drive.
Joking aside, it’s complete rubbish because I’m a careful GT5 drive and I assume I will be in real life in a couple of years. I even shouted at an AI driver once for scratching my Alfa.