Cheaper Car Insurance For Gamers

I know your first reaction is that this story is gonna be an ad, but SpuriousLogic's story is actually about insurers considering giving a discount to elderly gamers. The question is: does gaming improve mental agility and make you a safer driver? And if so, I'll have to add gaming to mowing the lawn for my weekly chores.

It make sense to me

...as elderly gamers probably spend very little time in their cars.

Re:

Funny, since grampy started playing GTA4 he's spent more time in [stolen] cars!

Re:It make sense to me

Maybe for elderly gamers, but when I read the title I was wondering if the story would go to young gamers and I believe for them there is no correlation between gaming skill and beginning driving ability.

Back when my 17 year old son was driving for the first time we were at a left turn stop light and it was green, but not a green turn arrow. He slowly started pulling out to make the turn. He had plenty of time to make it through the intersection before the car in the on-coming lane got to the intersection, but my son was moving uncharacteristically slowly through the intersection. I told him to go faster. I had to say this several times till the point where the on-coming car was well within my personal "danger zone". He finally started going, no incident at all and I asked him about it once we were in the clear. He said that he did not see that on coming car at all. He was paying "hyper" attention to his turn radius.

Anyway, the up shot is that I would have thunk that a kid who can kick my butt at FPSs would have the ability to scan a "real life" scene and similarly be aware of all the action out there.

Apparently not.

Re:It make sense to me

Different games require different mental "modes" to perform well in them. For example, both FPS's and driving games promote fast reflexes. But for FPS's, your view is forward, and hence intense concentration of "forward" gets promoted, a tunnel vision of sorts. For racing games, and especially something like Mario Kart, you need a greater awareness of the situation around you. The same concepts apply to turn-based and realtime strategy games.

So I'll bet if someone runs out onto the road in front of your son while he's driving, he'll respond very quickly. Now, whether that's hitting the brake hard or hitting the gas hard is a separate matter...

Re:It make sense to me

The on-coming car was not shooting at him.

Yes!

All my years of FreeCell and Minesweeper will not have been in vain.

Wrong question

The question is, does gaming improve mental agility and make you a safer driver.

That's the wrong question. A more correct question would be "Is there a correlation between gaming and driving ability?"

It could very well be the there is no causal relationship between the two, but rather they share a common cause. Perhaps those without sufficient mental acuity/coordination to drive also lack the "mad skillz" needed for gaming, and thus they don't find games to be enjoyable and therefore don't play.

Re:

The question is, does gaming improve mental agility and make you a safer driver.

That's the wrong question. A more correct question would be "Is there a correlation between gaming and driving ability?"

It could very well be the there is no causal relationship between the two, but rather they share a common cause. Perhaps those without sufficient mental acuity/coordination to drive also lack the "mad skillz" needed for gaming, and thus they don't find games to be enjoyable and therefore don't play.

It may be the wrong question, but it's probably the one they're basing their ideas on. Or this is a games-company sponsored stunt to try to reinforce the popular but scientifically groundless notion that playing games in old age is somehow good for you.

I suppose though there could be a hundred other confounding factors like playing games being a marker of biological age, being around younger family, being the kind of person that is generall aware of the world around them, etc.

Dude no joke....

My brother was in an accident maybe 5 years ago or so. He was in his jeep on a 2 way road. A car was coming towards him and the driver was drunk. Right at the last moment the car swerved into my brothers lane. My brother was able to react and turn hard enough to allow the car to hit the back side of his jeep instead of the drivers side.

He said his reaction time from playing video games was what helped him, and he really does believe that. I don't blame him nor do I doubt him. I always thought I had a higher reaction time as a result of video games, and I'm sure a study on this has been done to prove it.

Re:

I always thought I had a higher reaction time as a result of video games [...]

So what you're saying is: you suck at gaming?

Summary not wrong, but somewhat misleading

I know it goes against the norm, but I actually read the article. It clearly states that the drivers in this program must play a very specific game designed to improve visual alertness. So if you thought that Allstate (the "insurers" in this article) was going to give discounts to WOW players, think again.

More time playing games = less time driving

You probably don't have a life, so you can drive less? World or Warcraft should give you an 80% discount on your car insurance, heck it could cover the monthly fee. I see synergy.

Re:More time playing games = less time driving

"State Farm how can I help you"?
"I just finished leveling my Destro lock"
"That's great sir. That qualifies you for a 5% discount on your annual rate, if your 6/8 T6 or higher we can adjust it to 10%, but you have to show a decent DPS AND join the State Farm guild".
"Do I have to be in the guild for the 5% discount"?
"No sir that's our standard no life, 'No life, No drive' discount"
"Yeah your right, send the guild invite and mark me down for 10%".

Not for everyone.

While I agree that gaming may help reflexes I disagree that it has an inherent benefit on driving. Driving demands good decision-making and experience. What does it help to have quick reactions if you make poor decisions or over-react?

I've known guys who played games extensively and were crap drivers. All that gaming didn't keep them from getting into accidents anyway. I doubt statistics would support the notion that the rise of gaming has had an positive impact on reducing accidents.

Then there's the video online where some dumb kid and his friends play Initial D in the arcade and then decide to go out for a spin in their car. It doesn't take to long before this kid wrecks his car. Young people are already delusional enough about their driving abilities they don't need anyone making it worse.

Older drivers, on the other hand, will ideally have commonsense and experience on their side. So for them, gaming may have a positive impact because they'll actually be able to put improved reflexes to good use.

Re:

Older drivers, on the other hand, will ideally have commonsense and experience on their side. So for them, gaming may have a positive impact because they'll actually be able to put improved reflexes to good use.

Wrong. People typically overestimate their abilities and "judge" (can't think of a better word) other people's abilities. It's human nature.

As for elderly being safer...let's see.

1. An elderly lady, who had crappy night vision, thought she would be okay enough to drive. She struck my grandfather and tossed him 25 feet through the air and killed him.

2. I live very close to a retirement community. Older drivers are a PITA. They constantly run stop signs, and if you have the gall (HORROR!) of using your h

There is a correlation...

There is a correlation between performance in visual tasks and the amount of time people have been playing action video games. The initial study [rochester.edu] has shown that action-video-game (AVG, e.g. Unreal Tournament, other ego-shooters) players perform significantly better in a range of visual attention tasks than non-AVG players. In later studies it has been shown that this increased performance is not observed for people who do play games that are not of the AVG-genre (e.g. The Sims), and also that 50h of game playing of AVG games is sufficient to observe a significant performance increase in visual tasks. Currently, the same lab is investigating whether this effect is also observed in the elderly, with positive initial results. For more information, just have a look at the lab's list of publications [rochester.edu] (disclaimer: I'm in the same department as that lab, though not member of that lab).

In relation to the article, they seem to recommend the people to play games of the non-AVG type. For this reason I have my doubts that these games will significantly improve performance in visual tasks. On the other hand, it might support other tasks that are required while driving, but that remains to be shown.

Possible indicator of coordination...

I'm 65, and have spinal arthritis. There are mornings when I get up, and everything is normal, and mornings when I'm not functional. The problem sometimes is making sure how functional I am before I try to do anything, especially operating machinery or driving. I've found that playing a computer game before I do much else is a really good indicator of how well I am functioning. I also get the impression that playing the game for a while seems to improve my functionality. I don't consider this hard proof of anything. I do think it may be an indicator that there is something to this idea. It may merit serious research.

Re:

I've been playing WipEout HD a lot this week - I'm in the top 40 in the global rankings for some of the events, surely that entitles me to some kind of insurance discount!?

And as for GTA, I don't aim for the pedestrians like some people do, so that has to count for something :)

Avoiding accidents is rarely about reaction time. If you have to react to something in front of you, then you've already been making some bad decisions in the previous moments. Real life driving is not like a racing game (says the guy

Re:not really

With apologies to Ron White:

"Real life driving is not like a racing game, and I'm quoting a judge on this one"

Re:not really

I'm driving along a 40 limit road, at a cautious 30 when someone cluelessly drives into my path from a blind junction where they have no right of way. *I REACT* to this by slowing down and avoiding said stupid driver, thus making a non-situation of it. As I reacted, according to you, I had done something wrong or I wouldn't have had to. What bad decisions had I made previously? Except driving on the public roads in the first place, that is.

Likewise, I react to someone cutting into my lane too close by backing off a bit. What did I do wrong in this instance?

Just hypothetical questions :)

Tom...

Re:

I'm driving along a 40 limit road, at a cautious 30 when someone cluelessly drives into my path from a blind junction where they have no right of way. *I REACT* to this by slowing down and avoiding said stupid driver, thus making a non-situation of it. As I reacted, according to you, I had done something wrong or I wouldn't have had to. What bad decisions had I made previously?

Well, for starters, unless there's reason to be driving under the speed limit (snow? rain?), I find it is generally dangerous in

Re:not really

I really don't understand all this crap from US posters about how you should drive at the speed limit, or even faster(!).

Take your reason, someone might be driving the speed limit and not notice "a rolling roadblock". What are they? Blind? When driving, you should always be aware of what cars are near by. And if you are driving along, and you are approaching a car, it is pretty damn obvious that you are going faster then them...

You therefore, take your foot of the accelerator and access the situation, and then decide whether it is safe to pass, or whatever.

Where I'm from learners have to have a big L displayed, and must drive a maximum of 80 kilometres per hour (or the speed limit, whichever is lower). But of course, because they are learners, they often drive slower then the speed limit, even if they don't have to.
It would be very rare for people to get upset at these learners, whether they are on a highway or a city street.

OK, that's one reason why someone might be driving slower, what if they don't know the area? What if they are looking for a house number? What if there are children around? Maybe their breaks don't work so well and they are going to the mechanic? Maybe they just think, "well it's a nice day, no rush to go to work/home, I'll take my time"?

And if some idiot is driving along and cuts that slower driver off, who is at fault? The idiot driving fast and cutting off the slower driver.

Actually, while on the topic of cars, I've often see idiots talking about how they tailgate other drivers because the other drivers drive too slow. Yeah, and you know who is rightfully to blame in the event of a rear ending? The idiot doing the tailgating.

You should always leave enough space between yourself and the car in front to stop safely. If you can't, you aren't driving safely.

Basically, you should be driving safely, and if that means slowing down, then yeah, there isn't a problem with that. (The only case where you can complain legitimately about someone driving too slow is if they are more then about 20 km/h below the speed limit on a highway.)

Re:not really

"Right or wrong, driving more slowly is going to piss people off".
Ahh, this line betrays your true sentiment. If people can't avoid hitting you from behind when you are going 10 mph less than the speed limit, they don't belong on the road. It's not inherently dangerous to drive 30 in a 40 zone. The main danger is stupid folk getting pissed off and wanting to take it out on you.

Re:

Considering the article talks about a game where fish hide stuff and you have to find the matching items, they are talking about memory and not reaction times.

So if get your older friends one of those mind/memory games for their next birthday.

Re:

I'm 25, and that's old in the gaming world

I recently read that the average age of a gamer is 35 years old [theesa.com]. You've got a ways to go yet!