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Transportation Games

Video Games Linked To Reckless Driving 337

Posted by CmdrTaco from the causation-tag-here-we-come dept.
An anonymous reader writes "'A new study suggests video games that involve reckless driving may play out in real life. Researchers say their data should not be taken lightly since car accidents are the number one cause of death for teenagers.' Just a case of video games being used as a convenient scapegoat, or could there be some truth to this?"
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Video Games Linked To Reckless Driving More

Video Games Linked To Reckless Driving

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  • Kudos (Score:5, Informative)

    by Lord Grey ( 463613 ) * on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:39AM (#32579116)
    From the last paragraph of TFA:

    The findings do not directly link playing video games to reckless driving. They only show an association. Researchers say the impact of playing games like "Grand Theft Auto" is minimal.

    Bingo. Driving games could cause reckless driving in real life. Or people who drive recklessly enjoy driving games. Reckless go-kart racing could also be associated with both games and automobile driving, but that wasn't the focus of the study.

    I'm glad TFA admitted that one isn't necessarily the cause of the other, thereby bypassing the whole causation != correlation argument. Kudos for that.

    • I gotta admit that I imagine throwing some red shells while driving after playing mario kart, but I can't find the button on the steering wheel so it's "back to reality" and no multi-car pileups for me.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by commodore64_love ( 1445365 )

      When I got involved in airplane modeling, I wrecked my first machine. So then I went out and bought an R/C simulator to practice at home, and about two months later I tried again.

      Video gaming taught me how to fly
      .

      • Re:Kudos (Score:4, Interesting)

        by smitty777 ( 1612557 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:19AM (#32579676) Journal

        I've done a little bit of research on the transfer of training from video simulations to real life. Research has shown that not everything transfers to real life, but what does transfer is procedural knowledge. If you're practicing on a flight simulator, you will learn the correct order to pull out the carb heat, drop the RPMs, lower flaps and gear. But it's a pretty rich environment up there, and there is no substitute for feeling the bumps of turbulence and engine vibration.

        I've also done some practicing on an RC simulator, and it's a great way to learn without wrecking your kite. Different mental model, as you don't have the "first person" perspective of being in the plane, though.

      • Games with an element of driving differ hugely in how realistic they are. I don't think games like Microsoft CART, Grand Prix Legends, Gran Turismo, and Forza have hurt my driving any. But when I play Burnout with my son, I like to remind him that we both die at least 10 times during every race.

    • Re:Kudos (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NewWorldDan ( 899800 ) <dan@gen-tracker.com> on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:53AM (#32579318) Homepage Journal

      I, for one, remain skeptical. My wife doesn't play driving games of any sort and she's an awful driver. I don't play driving games either, and I'm about as boring of a driver as you'll find outside of rural Iowa. (I've been to rural Iowa, everyone drives exactly 3 miles under the posted speed limit.)

      Can we do a controlled study on this? Subject some non-gamers to a large dose of GTA for 6 months and see how their driving changes with respect to a control group? Can we do actual science instead of bullshit stuides? Also, get off my lawn.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )

        You can't do a controlled study on this because video gamers are a self-selecting group. If you were to have two groups, one of new gamers and one of not-new, you'd not be gathering anything useful: the people who play games are, quite possibly, the same types who would have drag raced for pink slips in the 1950s.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          But you can do a controlled study. You get 2 (or more) groups. One is instructed to play no driving games at all. The others are instructed to play GTA, or Forza, or whatever (or mix of whatevers). Perhaps one no driving game, one Mario Kart (for the idea of non-realistic, non-law breaking racing), one GTA (or other "realistic" game involving breaking laws), and one Forza (or other on-track racing game where no actual laws would be broken to drive like that on a closed track). You then have them do thi

    • The findings do not directly link playing video games to reckless driving. They only show an association. Researchers say the impact of playing games like "Grand Theft Auto" is minimal.

      I'm glad TFA admitted that one isn't necessarily the cause of the other, thereby bypassing the whole causation != correlation argument. Kudos for that.

      Funny, the very last thing I did before bringing up this story was skim a newsletter from my alma mater, which included a story "Study shows teens wired to engage in risky behavior".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Uttles ( 324447 )

      It's much more likely that younger drivers like playing video games, and younger drivers are shown to be more reckless. But then again maybe not. Either way, correlation is all we have here.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Suki I ( 1546431 )

      Bingo. Driving games could cause reckless driving in real life. Or people who drive recklessly enjoy driving games. Reckless go-kart racing could also be associated with both games and automobile driving, but that wasn't the focus of the study.

      I'm glad TFA admitted that one isn't necessarily the cause of the other, thereby bypassing the whole causation != correlation argument. Kudos for that.

      My thoughts exactly. [shakes fist] you got to it before me!

    • Normally I would also be one to throw up the correlation != causation flag, but in this case, I'm leaning towards actually believing that there is a causal effect. I know that when I play video online games, the swearing rubs off on me and I curse like crazy for the next day or two (or, when I still played WoW, the next year and a half). I know that after I played Burnout or Need for Speed, I was harder on the accelerator and more likely to change lanes instead of slow down when approaching a car in front o

      • I had the same experience once. Spent a couple of hours with a friend at an arcade (back when we still had those) playing a racing game. Driving home afterward, I suddenly realized I was driving way too fast and aggressively. Since then, I just try to be aware of effects like that, and have not had it happen again.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Danse ( 1026 )

        Normally I would also be one to throw up the correlation != causation flag, but in this case, I'm leaning towards actually believing that there is a causal effect. I know that when I play video online games, the swearing rubs off on me and I curse like crazy for the next day or two (or, when I still played WoW, the next year and a half). I know that after I played Burnout or Need for Speed, I was harder on the accelerator and more likely to change lanes instead of slow down when approaching a car in front of me.

        Of course, this is one person's anecdotal evidence, but when it corroborates the findings of a study, I find it hard to dismiss. This would be relatively easy to actually experiment on, though. Just take a random sample of teenagers who can drive, give them a random task to perform for an hour, including, but not limited to, playing racing games, then put them in the driver's seat on a controlled course. If the ones that played racing games complete the course faster or more recklessly than the ones who played other types of games, then you can demonstrate causation, if not, then you can't.

        Actually that wouldn't show causation at all, because you've put them on a controlled course where pretty much anyone with an interest in driving would want to experiment. After all, that's what a controlled course is best for!

      • I have noticed the same thing after an extended session of GTA, I found myself driving much more aggressively, and at least once I thought "I could pull that guy out of his nice car and be out of here in less than 10 seconds."

  • Ridiculous (Score:5, Funny)

    by MeanMF ( 631837 ) * on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:42AM (#32579140) Homepage
    That's just nonsense.. Without all those extended training sessions playing Forza, I'd never be able to drive safely on the highway at 90+ mph.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Amouth ( 879122 )

      Test Drive - taught me how to drive a manual - and the importance of gear ratios :)

    • I really wonder how your evading-arrest, hooker-abuse and car-jacking skills have improved since you started playing GTA.

      • evading-arrest * * * *
        hooker-abuse * * * * *
        car-jacking * * *

        I know, I know. I need to practice car-jacking, but I find hooker-abuse is just so much fun.
      • That's what I was wondering. What if all these teenage boys are really just trying to practice their gaming skills by driving like lunatics? By the way, if you practice your hooker-abuse skills IRL, you'd better be prepared to practice your run-like-hell-cause-that-crazy-bitch-has-a-gun skills, too.

    • Considering I can't finish a single GRID race, even in last place, without wiping out half a dozen times, maybe I should stay away from cars IRL?

    • As for myself, without all those extended training sessions playing Carmageddon I'd never be able to jump from rooftop to rooftop safely.

  • I for one welcome this (Score:5, Funny)

    by AlastairLynn ( 1366585 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:42AM (#32579142)
    Frankly, there are too many of these damn kids around anyway.

  • Naw ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by WrongSizeGlass ( 838941 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:43AM (#32579156)
    The only time my poor driving skills from video games crosses over into my real driving is when I'm playing a driving game while driving my car.
  • Video games! HAH! I learned to drive recklessly from Han Solo on the big screen. I didn't need no stinkin' video game! Kiss my asteroids!
  • Perhaps we need a new genre of driving games. Anyone remember Driver, where the cops would leave you alone so long as you stopped at traffic lights and whatnot ? We need that, only if you do get in a high speed chase you almost always lose, and your xbox/playstation/etc is deactivated for the length of your would-be prison sentence. Maybe that'll get through to the kids ;p

  • I found the opposite (Score:5, Interesting)

    by localman57 ( 1340533 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:46AM (#32579222)
    About 10 years ago I got really into the game "Midtown Madness" which features races where you race free-form through downtown Chicago picking your own route to hit a number of checkpoints. The game requires you to read traffic patterns, lights, etc far in advance. After playing the game, I found that I was doing the same thing in real traffic. My brain had been trained to observe and anticipate as if I were driving through city traffic at 80MPH rather than 35. I became much more aware of what was happening on cross streets, and in lanes other than mine. It faded back to normal, though, as I moved on to other games.

    I do wonder, however, if being able to crash a car repeatedly with no real consequences has an impact on your subconcious risk-assesment of various manuvers.

    • Re:I found the opposite (Score:5, Funny)

      by hoggoth ( 414195 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:07AM (#32579492) Journal

      I was really into Marble Madness. After playing the game, I found myself bouncing off walls and dropping into manhole covers.

    • Midtown Madness was really fun. :)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by amiga3D ( 567632 )
      I drove like hell long before I bought my commdore 64. I've been playing driving games for almost 30 years now and my driving has greatly improved. I generally go at or near the speed limit and seldom run red lights anymore. I even come to a FULL stop at stop signs. It could be due to the video games or the steady fucking my insurance company gave me for all those tickets I got when I was younger. They made me pay for several accidents in advance which I never had....no refund though, they kept the mon

    • About 10 years ago I got really into the game "Midtown Madness" which features races where you race free-form through downtown Chicago picking your own route to hit a number of checkpoints. The game requires you to read traffic patterns, lights, etc far in advance. After playing the game, I found that I was doing the same thing in real traffic. My brain had been trained to observe and anticipate as if I were driving through city traffic at 80MPH rather than 35. I became much more aware of what was happening on cross streets, and in lanes other than mine. It faded back to normal, though, as I moved on to other games.

      I find any heavily repeated experience will likely bleed over into other parts of your life. The question is whether you are weak-minded enough to let it overcome you. That's why I think it's silly to say "World of Warcraft made these kids flunk out of college" or "these professionals lost their jobs!" They have addictive personalities. The game hit on those pleasure centers and addictive behaviors went wild. They could have gotten hooked on gambling at the casino or any other number of things. It's the add

  • Perhaps the simplest solution is true? People who enjoy driving fast are naturally attracted to games featuring fast driving?

    • Perhaps the simplest solution is true? People who enjoy driving fast are naturally attracted to games featuring fast driving?

      I think people who enjoy driving (not "cruising") also enjoy driving games. Reckless driving, however, is not defined as only "driving fast." Maneuvers that other drivers are not expecting, or maneuvers that are overly dangerous to yourself, are "reckless."

      I love driving games, with Gran Turismo being my favorite. Speed is (obviously) an essential part of the game, but that part of it doesn't translate a desire for me to shoot down the road at 140mph (often). However, the handling aspects of the game

  • Since the dawn of humans, kids were always reckless.

    When I was a young driver the only way I could drive was flat out, no compromises, just pure speed. Now 20 years later I'm calm and polite. I still enjoy a random race on the track, but on the road I have full respect for other drivers.

    And you can see the exact same patter in online racing. Most of the youngster drive like they play a single player game.
    • Just because *you* were reckless doesn't mean *all kids* are reckless. False generalization. It's not 'since the dawn of time' it's 'since modern American culture started in the 50s'.
      • Um, no, kids were still reckless. Its just before the '50s cars were prohibitively expensive for kids to get so kids generally weren't driving. They just generally were reckless in other ways like with farm machinery, going out and getting themselves killed in wars, etc.

        Not having a car is going to make it hard to be reckless with a car, but it sure didn't cut down on recklessness.
        • See? These cultural blinders we don't even know we're wearing. Only in America and related countries is it "traditional" for teenagers to be risk-takers. Decades of MTV have taken effect. I live inside another culture and here, teens are assumed to have other traits, none of which is a fondness for irresponsible behavior. In fact, the very idea of "teenager" doesn't really exist.

          • Re:Kids are kids (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Krneki ( 1192201 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:29AM (#32579834)

            See? These cultural blinders we don't even know we're wearing. Only in America and related countries is it "traditional" for teenagers to be risk-takers. Decades of MTV have taken effect. I live inside another culture and here, teens are assumed to have other traits, none of which is a fondness for irresponsible behavior. In fact, the very idea of "teenager" doesn't really exist.

            "The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. Plato

          • Re:Kids are kids (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:35AM (#32579918)
            Yeah, because it was in the west that life expectancies actually hit a point where you could be pretty sure you'd survive past 40 and be a grandparent and the idea of being a great grandparent wasn't out of the question. In other countries its commonplace to marry at 16 or earlier and start a family. In America and related countries (which I'm assuming you mean Europe and the westernized countries of Asia) waiting until your mid twenties or later to get married and start a family is pretty typical.

            Because in western culture its not typical to get married early, there is a time where teenagers have a time to really decide what they want to do with their life and yes, some of it may involve -gasp- risk taking, but the entire mentality is born out of the fact that life expectancies have increased dramatically.

            I'm sure in all of the other countries there are reckless kids but because they are poor they start families earlier, take more risky jobs, etc. and so its not considered to be "risky" when it really involves a high mortality rate.

            In many other countries in the present and in the past, it used to be that you could die from pretty typical stuff like an infection, common illnesses, etc. since we've conquered most of that in the west with the exception of things like cancer, of course car accidents are going to be the leading cause of death because what else would a western teenager die from? We've thankfully ended the tyrannical practice of having a non-volunteer army so kids aren't being killed in wars, cured the vast majority of sicknesses, need to use very little hard labor for the vast majority of things, etc. so the common causes of death in other countries don't exist in the west for teenagers.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Krneki ( 1192201 )
        Of course I'm generalizing. Just because I say kid a reckless doesn't imply every is. For crying out loud, do you really need to Troll?

  • Try driving an SUV while listening to the Halo soundtrack. THAT'S dangerous.

    • No, the Guitar Hero Soundtrack... I don't think I want to be near anyone who is listening to "Through the fire and the flames" and driving.

    • Cruise control is a necessity whenever random brings up "Truth and Reconciliation Suite". Doesn't matter what sort of vehicle.

  • Bunch of idiots (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JamesP ( 688957 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:49AM (#32579278)

    Why they don't go and study the effects of videogames in driving on the following subjects:

    - improved reflexes
    - risk control (you know what happens in the vg if you do this, so I'm not trying in real life)
    - steering control (see above)

    Instead they just want to go the "videogames are bad" route

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      There have been a number of studies on how video games can improve skills. For instance, surgeons [msn.com] who play video games are better at laparoscopic surgery than those that don't.

    • Re:Bunch of idiots (Score:5, Interesting)

      by 2obvious4u ( 871996 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @12:13PM (#32580548)
      Here is some information for you:

      Top Gear vs Gran Turismo [youtube.com] - Possibly the most awesome thing ever posted to /. if I do say so myself.

      wiki reference [wikipedia.org]

      I've seen this done by other gaming mags before with similar results. If someone has those links that would be awesome as well.

  • Spy Hunter (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Stargoat ( 658863 ) <stargoat@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:49AM (#32579280) Journal

    People have been claiming this since Spy Hunter came out. It was bunk then and it is bunk now. It's not video games that make you drive fast, it's the Peter Gunn theme.

    • People have been claiming this since Spy Hunter came out. It was bunk then and it is bunk now. It's not video games that make you drive fast, it's the Peter Gunn theme.

      Whatever, man... All I know is that when those armored cars come to try and run me off the road, I'd better be prepared to hit back.

  • oh the irony (Score:4, Funny)

    by rarel ( 697734 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @10:50AM (#32579290) Homepage
    Aptly enough the fortune right now reads "You can get *anywhere* in ten minutes if you drive fast enough." :D

  • Teens found a way of dieing by driving accidents way before video games ever came along. If there's a way to identify higher risk youths then that's all and good I suppose. This just brings me back to my teenage years where there were a few people in my schools who ended up dieing in accidents (usually associated with drinking and driving, but that's another discussion).

  • Teenagers are really really stupid.

    • Teenagers aren't, as a category, stupid. They're just not able to think things through all the way, because they lack the experience to judge when things will go bad, and how. Unfortunately, the only solution is time.

      I'm no "smarter" at 35 than I was at 15. I am, however, a lot more imaginative about the number of ways in which you can die horribly.

  • I just want be prepared... (Score:4, Funny)

    by PFritz21 ( 766949 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:04AM (#32579470) Homepage Journal
    So, this is my fault for making sure I'm properly prepared for my road trip by packing plenty of turtle shells, banana peels, and mushrooms? Unbelieveable...

  • I've gotten big into sim racing e.g. GTR 2 and I noticed that my driving habits changed in a negative way. I found myself following "the line" on roads, cutting corners, accelerating faster, and breaking harder. This wasn't intentional at all since I've always been a cautious driver to the point of paranoia. It wasn't until blew past a slower truck (in the mindset of a slower GT2 class car in my way) half on a median and half in his lane that I realized how bad I had gotten. I'm now very conscious about

    • I agree, after entering a corner at a little too high a speed for my not race tuned car, I learned to give myself a little cool down time from GTR/Forza before driving.

  • You can't say that just because kids play video games and also drive poorly there's any relation. Kids always have driven badly - it's just that the worst drivers are also attracted to playing games. Violent driving games are not a cause, they are an indication of the interests of the average testosterone filled youth.

    The best thing you can do for a teenage driver is to give them cars with great handling but not too much engine. Something like a mini cooper (not the S), or otehr car that handles well but

  • What would the medical industry do without all these reckless gamers?

  • While the study assumes that the gamers learn bad habits like tailgating and driving over curbs from GTA, overconfidence may be another factor (assuming causation = correlation here, which I'm not completely convinced). How many teens have spent hours driving around in virtual worlds and think it will be a piece of cake when they get behind the wheel of a car made out of atoms instead of bits/bytes.

    My daughter is an expert driver in Ralley GT, but she came within 3 feet of taking out our fence the other da

  • I was a victim of this. I'd been playing about four hours straight of Gran Turismo or Forza or one of those sim-style racers, and immediately after finishing I had to head out to an appointment. I floored it, maintained a nice outside-inside-out line around the first curve, then realized I was doing 50mph in a residential zone. Stopped at the first (well, second, I blew the first) stop sign, took a breath, made a conscious effort to recalibrate myself back to Reality, and carried on to wherever it was I

  • It could just be that the kind of reckless idiot who drives dangerously also likes to drive dangerously in his video games. The link isn't between the video game and the reckless driving, it's between the basic recklessness and the behavior in both games and driving.

  • If it is true, then it is probably caused by subconscious programming. Just like kata "programs" the body and mind to respond without thought, aggressive driving games probably program aggressive driving behavior. It probably doesn't effect everyone and those it effects are probably effected to varying degrees.

    Some of it will come from one confusing one's ability in video games with one's abilities in real life.
    Some will come from believing that video game physics are the same as real world physics.
    Some wil

  • About 8 or more years ago I spent a saturday morning playing GT on the PS/2. I was working on unlocking the various license classes, and was really into it for 2 or 3 hours. The wife asked me to run to the store to pick up something. About a mile from my house I realized I was driving like a complete maniac...

  • I don't know about you guys, but with myself I noticed that when my car radio is playing an "agressive" (for example, heavy metal) or fast beat kind of music my driving gets a lot more reckless than after I've just had a session of playing GTA.

    In fact, interestingly enough, while playing GTA I find myself tunning the in-game car radio for that kind of tunes much more than slower/placid ones.

  • Yeah because none of us that were teenagers before games consoles were invented ever drove fast. NOT.

  • Study claims some people react poorly to some things! World stunned! Slashdot enraged! Members engorged! Politicians scandalized! Pointless and boring film at 11 between the police blotter and the taped report from the orchid festival!

    Why am I elbow deep in 1000-pin parts and ruing my eyesight scanning 600 page user manuals for the one poorly documented "gotcha" that could ruin my whole multimillion dollar R&D? Why do I live with this stress? Where do I send my resume so I can spend my work days doing *

  • Race Drivin' (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MattW ( 97290 ) <matt@ender.com> on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:26AM (#32579780) Homepage

    When I was 15, Race Drivin' (the sequel to Hard Drivin') was out; it was a sit-down racing simulator with amazingly realistic wheel feedback/physics. Unlike basically every other game I've played, the car you were driving behaved much like a real car. (ie, you could fish tail, and if you steered with the slide you could recover)

    The first time I ever accidentally fishtailed my car in real life, I instinctively steered with the slide and recovered. I've heard that people without training tend to turn against the slide and exacerbate the problem. I have always thought that without my really extensive Race Drivin' playing, I wouldn't have reacted that way. (And when I say extensive, I mean it - I got to the point where I could gain time on laps and once played for an entire hour and stood up with the "remaining time" at the cap.)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by rwa2 ( 4391 ) *

      Heh, slide recovery was actually one of the plot points from the Pixar "Cars" movie.

      I enjoy playing the racing sims (Race Drivin', Ferrari F350, GT4, Live 4 Speed, with the FF wheel and clutch and everything) more than the arcade racers (which, to me, are indistinguishable from sliding down a tube... though I do like the Burnout series for making crash-cars fun like back in our Hotwheels die-cast car days).

      I learned a lot of interesting techniques, esp. from GT4. It made driving our car (a boring 2001 Maz

  • May be true. Still no scapegoat for common sense. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:27AM (#32579782)

    People talk about having positive role models for children. This is because we, as humans, look towards those we admire and emulate them. Race car drivers, whether real, in a video game, on a movie screen are "cool" in a lot of people's eyes. What they do is cool. Their lives are cool. We envy the thrills for which they get paid.

    I remember several years ago I had some sneak preview tickets for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Let me just say that I waited 30 minutes after the end of that movie before everyone who had just seen it had finished peeling out of the parking lot and speeding away recklessly. And these were normal people, from a wide range of age groups. Maybe the young ARE more impressionable, but that doesn't allow one to place the blame solely on the medium. Any example of alternate behavior lends itself to emulation. Whether that takes the form of a "copycat" killer or holding the door open for someone isn't necessarily the result of exposure, but merely the impulsiveness and decision-making skills of the one exposed. Whether you agree or disagree on the merits, this is why we have ratings systems for video games. And for film. To limit the exposure from those whose decision-making skills haven't completely matured, albeit deciding who is limited in an arbitrary manner.

    This isn't meant to advance a viewpoint one way or the other - it's merely an observation.

  • Burnout (Score:2, Informative)

    by DanCentury ( 110562 )

    I used to play an excessive amount of Burnout on the PlayStation. In that game you get points for side-swiping other cars. I found myself targeting and aiming for cars in real life. I stopped playing the game because of that.

  • While driving, an amusing point and counterpoint occurred to me many years ago:

    [young person] It terrifies me to think that I’m sharing the road with people who grew up before the era of videogame sensory overload.

    [old person] It terrifies me to think that I’m sharing the road with people who learned to drive in an environment where they’re used to having three lives.

  • Catholic Priests (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:45AM (#32580076) Homepage Journal

    See, I knew they'd find the cause of all this reckless driving. Now if they could only unearth what videogame causes all those Catholic Priests to become pedophiles. And which videogame turns ordinary muslims into suicide bombers. Then we'd have all the world's problems solved.

  • You think that's bad...? What about the time I went driving with the radio on right after my all-night Amplitude gaming session?

    Radio Announcer: Next up, Cherry Lips by Garbage!
    Me: Da-da da-da da-da da-da, Da-da da-da da-da da-da
    (the car suddenly swerves into the next lane, crashing into another person doing the same thing.)

  • I've always wondered my driving was so reckless... and why I felt compelled to throw turtle shells out my window.

  • Gaming & Driving (Score:3, Funny)

    by tgibbs ( 83782 ) on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @11:59AM (#32580316)

    I would no more drive a car immediately after playing a racing game than I would drive a car after having a couple of drinks.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by russotto ( 537200 )

      I would no more drive a car immediately after playing a racing game than I would drive a car after having a couple of drinks.

      But if you drink while playing the racing game and then drive, it's OK, it all cancels out.

  • Tetris proved this... (Score:3, Funny)

    by jafo ( 11982 ) * on Tuesday June 15, 2010 @02:41PM (#32582412) Homepage
    Tetris is singlehandedly responsible for a dramatic increase in sudden lane-changes as you approach a stop-light.

    Sean

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