OSU Professor of Communication and co-author of the report, David Ewoldsen, has found that gamers who play as part of a co-op team during a violent game, in this case Halo 2, are more likely to act co-operatively after gaming rather than being aggressive.
Four tests were run, in the first the students played as part of a co-op team, then they played against each other. The third test involved them playing the game alone and for the fourth test they filled out the test questionnaire first and then played the game.
After playing the games, each student was given a dime and was told they could keep the cash or pass it on to another player, in which case the value doubled.
“The idea is that you can be selfish and keep your dimes or you can give them away, and if each person gives their dimes away they get more money so that’s the measure of cooperation,” Ewoldsen said. The study found that when people played co-operatively they also helped each other out in the ensuing task.
The idea for the study came from when Ewoldsen was watching his sons play video games.
“What the idea came down to was which had a bigger effect, cooperating with a real human or killing a virtual creature?” he said, “And I always thought that cooperative behavior with a real human is going to override that killing of the digital creature.”
Students at the university have agreed with the results.
“I’d say the effects depend largely on one’s mentality and on the household in which the child was raised,” said David Carr, a second year geography student. “I’ve played shooting games, and I don’t think that they had any effect in my mind and it certainly wouldn’t lead to negative results.”
So there we go, research proving that gaming has a positive effect backed up by testimony from students who say what we’ve all known for ages.
Chances of the tabloids paying any attention? None.
Source: The Lantern
McProley
I can relate to that. I much prefer co-op now to versus multiplayer. I get get angry after firing up something like CoD etc. Co-op is much more fun IMO. And also, if you fail a mission, you can always blame your team mate (Looking at you Youles with you gung-ho approach) :P
Youles
Lol, if I recall it was you who ran blindly towards the suicide bombers whilst I covered yo ass! Aw, good times!
I concur fully, I’m finding MP more frustrating these days. Most games like BF3 and CoD have players who play the game religiously, therefore it’s sometimes hard to jump in and enjoy a game with people of the same level of ability. There is also the annoyance of some MP games being unbalanced and/or laggy. As such I much prefer co-op these days. I think about some of the amazing co-op games like Sniper Elite, Dead Nation, CoD (Spec Ops missions & Nazi Zombies) Portal 2, LBP, Peace Walker, Rage (missions) and Dead Island, and it’s far more satisfying completing objectives or a boss and being successful with a friend or two. And at least when you fail it’s down to you, and not some lag-switching, cheating twat online. Can’t wait for Dead Space 3 co-op!
bunimomike
I love co-op. Torchlight 2 co-op (with Hannypoppie) has been superb so far. Then again, it was awesome in Left 4 Dead 2 as well. How people bonded and worked together was wonderful. Sure, Duffybox would leap off, Yogdog would be in the safe-room faster than light itself, NemesisWonderdog would cry out “I did it!” with little regard for his team mates, Hanny would kill you with a frying pan the moment you needed saving and the likes of Crawfail would remove you from Facebook for even thinking of playing the game but it was all… um… so very… ah, crap.
*plays Chuckie Egg and cries quietly*
element666
I love co-op, playing borderlands 2 with friends currently.Cant beat it!
Crazy_Del
Really….Well you haven’t met me then!
=P
hazelam
afterwards maybe.
it’d be a different story during.
and a dime?
that’s like five or ten cents right?
make it a couple of hundred and see how giving they are.
i’d wonder if there’s any scientific validity to this experiment.
what was the control?
how many people?
still, the it seems to support the theory that gaming is good, which i agree with generally. ^_^
KeRaSh
Not sure how much the dime experiment is actualy saying but I can relate to the outcome of this study.
I love coop.
I hate playing competitive multiplayer.
I’m a calm person who avoids confrontation whenever possible.
I don’t like small change in my wallet. :D
The Lone Steven
I prefer co-op multiplayer then compitive as i tend to get my arse kicked. Dark Souls is a prime example of co-op done well. Get summoned to help someone beat a boss and you get humanity and i’ve heard that some invaders have invaded, dropped a generous gift then left. :O I actually can’t remeber any other game apart from DS that has co-op that i’ve played.(the co-op that is). I can think of a few RPGs that would be even more interesting with co-op.
wolf-OF-chaos
Something similar happened to me, i was invaded, we bowed. The other dude dropped a weapon. He sent me a message saying to dual using just this weapon. So we fought just using it OHHH i love the DS community.