Fighting Gamer Rage With an Arduino Based Biometrics Headset 59
An anonymous reader writes "Gamer rage is a common phenomenon among people who play online, a product of the intense frustration created by stressful in-game situations and an inability to cope. It can have significant impact on the gamer's ability to play well, and to get along with others. To combat this rage and train gamers to deal with the stress, visual designer Samuel Matson of Seattle has created the Immersion project, integrating a pulse sensor tied to a Tiny Arduino with Bluetooth into a headset to monitor the gamer's heart rate. The heart rate data is sent in real time to the gaming PC, where it is displayed in the game. Matson even created a simple FPS using the Unity game engine that varies the AI and gaming difficulty based on the user's heart rate. Using this system, the gamer is able to train themselves to recognize the stress and learn to control it, in order to make them a much more agreeable and competitive player."
Re:Why you play? (Score:3, Interesting)
A person's response to the gaming experience is not determined on a rational basis.
If a game is stimulating enough, a person will experience physiological responses that some describe as reactions to stressors - this includes a central and peripheral nervous response mediated by catecholamines (dopamine, adrenaline/norepinephrine, noradrenaline/norepinephrine) (sympathetic nervous system-adrenal-medullary arousal), and possibly pituitary-adrenal-cortical arousal, which results in a release of ACTH, and thus, cortisol. Such responses may be associated with a number of physiological effects, and influence the body's use of energy. Maladaptive psychological states, such as that of increased hostility, are sometimes associated with these changes. Here is an article [unl.edu] which offers a pretty good introduction on the topic.
If you're prone to maladaptive responses to stressful situations, to some extent, this can be mitigated by training (hence, the biofeedback article). However, I'd be willing to guess that a lot of hardcore gamers (not all) who suffer the most severe stress effects may notice some hitches with the idea of trying to manage their stress response while gaming. Some will not be able to mitigate their stress response to a meaningful extent. Some will be able to mitigate their stress response, but it will hit eventually as they keep gaming (possibly manifesting itself pretty quickly and powerfully). Some will find that mitigating their stress response compromises or interferes with their gaming experience or their level of play, and will drop the idea altogether. Still, it's a worthwhile effort, because it has the potential to help some people.