Are Gamers Safer Drivers? 220
thecarchik writes "Racing video games: many of us play them and love them. But do they really make us better drivers, as some say, or do they make us more dangerous on real-life tarmac? Two studies go head-to-head on the issue."
Depends on the game (Score:5, Funny)
Depends on the game in question [xkcd.com].
Re:Depends on the OS too! (Score:2, Offtopic)
Depends on the OS too. -- How often have we heard that Linux has poor driver support!
*hwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*
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Uhm, what does that game have to do to the article in question? Try Carmageddon!
Except for initial levels, actually trying to race becomes tedious, hard and unprofitable so you end up winning every level by crashing all opponents. The best and most profitable way is head-on collisions.
Due to great realism it damages you just a bit, and you can instantly repair paying cash -- with each collision with another car bringing far more than you pay for damages (so you can afford colliding with the environment).
I
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Depending on your point of view, it's either funny or scary that I was playing Carmegeddon around the time I learned to drive.
Every so often I wasn't as alert on the road as I should have been, and started thinking in terms of scoring points. Now thankfully, I never did drive over any old ladies IRL, because those walkers would cause a lot of damage to the bearings.
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i had this same effect, but a bit more subtle.
At the time i was playing Project gotham racing 4. In that game, they just introduced bikes. The easiest way to win against a bike was when given the chance, just bodyslam them into the railing with your car when comming out of a corner or something, making them lose about 6-7 seconds, giving you a comfortable lead and breathing space to worry about car-driving competition.
Then one day i sat at the traffic lights, and a bike pulled up beside me, my first reactio
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If you treat "driving in real life" as a different mode from "driving game" then stuff like that just won't happen.
At least some people can be very context aware. So they have no problems switching from driving cars, flying planes, flying helicopters, riding bicycles without confusing themselves. You could still learn stuff in one mode and apply it to another, but it doesn't mean that you would automatically do the exact same thin
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type of game matters! (Score:3)
FTA: "Continental finds that frequent players of titles like Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto are more likely to crash their real-life cars than those that don't."
There's a huge difference between driving a car in Gran Turismo (or any racing sim for that matter) and driving one in Grand Theft Auto. If you can keep your car on the road in Gran Turismo, there's a good chance you can keep it on the road in real life. If you drive your car like Carl or Niko... well...
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If you can drive like Niko I think you need to get the Teflon taken off your tires.
I found that when I started driving my experience in how cars maneuvered in videogames helped me learn the ropes faster. Since the games had much different control schemes than actually driving I didn't transfer any bad habits.
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I think it is more to do with the competitive nature of games. In real life the best way to drive is considerately and somewhat cautiously, but in a game the only thing that really matters is beating everyone else to the finish line.
Even the summary is quite adversarial, putting the two studies "head to head".
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I think it is more to do with the competitive nature of games. In real life the best way to drive is considerately and somewhat cautiously, but in a game the only thing that really matters is beating everyone else to the finish line.
It sounds like somebody doesn't drive in a location with a lot of bad traffic.
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Really, and does it also mention that there is a strong correlation between people who play GTA and Gran Turismo and people who are relatively new and inexperienced drivers? No, why mention that. That would totally invalidate the survey that some special interest paid them to do.
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There's a huge difference between driving a car in Gran Turismo (or any racing sim for that matter) and driving one in Grand Theft Auto.
I won't say "you're doing it wrong", but Niko in particular has access to what seems to me to be a pretty fantastic physics simulation, and you have the option to not run into everything you see. (Sometimes, of course, running into something is the best course of action in the game...)
Re:type of game matters! (Score:4, Insightful)
Road rage carries over to discussion forums I see.
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how does that saying go?
"you can't make a slow driver fast, but you can make a fast driver safe" something to that effect.
What I got FTA: (Score:2)
"We're not sure..."
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"...more funding needed"
The Anti-Gaming Study is Questionable (Score:3)
TFA says that those who play games are more likely to be involved in certain types of accidents, but doesn't say whether they controlled for age. The accidents they're more likely to be involved in? Running red lights, road rage, or "low-percentage passes" whatever that means. I suspect playing Gran Turismo doesn't lead to running red lights or road rage.
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Not all skills transfer (Score:4, Funny)
I always get pulled over when I try up up down down left right left right on the freeway.
No (Score:4, Insightful)
What makes you a better driver is:
- Respect for other people on the road
- Courteous driving
- Attentiveness to road conditions and what others are doing.
- Doing a defensive driving course that teaches you how long it *actually* takes to stop.
I have not RTFA (proper slashdot style!) - if it states that gaming effects different attitudes then I am all for changing my opinion.
Re:No (Score:4, Insightful)
Quoted for truth. Most video games, save those that perhaps are specifically geared towards teaching safe driving practices (of which I've heard of exactly zero outside of any sort of classes or programs for driver's education ), do not typically reward any of the above, and a person who plays driving video games will not be practicing any more than anybody else who is behind the wheel of a real vehicle just as frequently. At the very worst, playing driving games could possibly even create bad driving habits as the above practices are ignored.
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At the very worst, playing driving games could possibly even create bad driving habits as the above practices are ignored.
So it's probably not wrong to conclude that since none of the mechanics above are relevant in video games (as you're saying, they're ignored) there's no transfer of either good or bad habits to real life.
(It would be different if e.g. you drive around in congested traffic for a big part of the game and learn that if you time your red lights correctly you can plow through an intersection.)
I think car physics are probably more transferable. I used to love Colin McRea Rally 2, and with an expensive wheel with
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Car physics are largely irrelevant when you are driving courteously, paying attention, and using sensible defensive driving techniques.
Car physics become important when you take a corner too fast, overtake in the wrong place, don't allow sufficient stopping distance, become distracted, or someone cuts you up and you haven't planned an escape route. The trick is not to get into that situation in the first place.
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Clutch control not taught... (Score:2)
Not sure if this is such a big issue in the USA, where I believe (please correct me here) most people learn to drive and continue to drive automatic cars, but here in Europe where the majority of cars are manual (stick shift I think you call it?) learning clutch control is a big issue. In the UK you can even take an automatic-only driving test which only allows you to drive automatic cars after you've passed, but very few people do so. I think the only people who take the automatic-only test are people with
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Statistics don't always work (Score:2)
There are many research fields where statistics don't provide the answers.
Don't start me, I just finished a PhD and spent a lot of time thinking about research methods ;-)
But yeah, we all just hang around on slashdot for pleasure so taking most of the things here with a pinch of salt is probably wise. Nice when people link out to decent resources though...
Hmm? (Score:2)
Hmm? I'm pretty sure that most games had an advantage if you can do at least some of those. Not all games are Grand Theft Auto.
I don't think any games teach one to respect some NPCs, but there can be as big a penalty as you wish for colliding into them.
Again, maybe not "courtesy" as such, but you can learn that if you drive all over the place you're going to get rammed.
Are you kidding? I'd like to
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I once played a game that was called "Bus Driver" (or something like that) where you had to drive a bus. You lost points for getting into accidents, running red lights, accelerating/braking too hard, etc. It was kinda interesting. I'm pretty sure it didn't sell too many copies.
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Defensive driving is actually often rewarded in racing games. Many racing games have such a low tolerance for failure (crashing, going off the track, etc) that staying clear of the other cars, being attentive, watching other cars, and knowing how long it takes to stop in game is pretty much a necessity to win. And while it certainly isn't your life, the prospect of having to redo (and win) the previous 4 tracks in the championship you just raced (30+ minutes) is a pretty good motivation to simply be defensi
Re:No (Score:5, Insightful)
You're confusing the different meanings of the word "better". You mean "better" as in "friendlier to other drivers", where this study means "better at actually driving the car" (judging angles for corners, slow-in-fast out with corners, learning how hard of a corner you can pull and the warning signs of when you're getting close to the limit, etc).
In regards to your comment about a driving course that teaches you how long it "actually" takes to stop - there are SO many different factors involved in braking that there is no "actual" time / distance it takes to stop from a given speed for cars in general - hell, even ONE car if you change the brake pads, rotors, tires, and suspension can have two dramatically different braking distances.
The real key to being a good driver is to know your car. That's one of the reasons I strongly advocate manual transmissions - not only does it cut out the whole "I've got a burger in one hand and a cell phone in the other" driving, but it also requires you to intimately know your car and pay more attention, which makes you a much better driver.
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The real key to being a good driver is to know your car. That's one of the reasons I strongly advocate manual transmissions - not only does it cut out the whole "I've got a burger in one hand and a cell phone in the other" driving, but it also requires you to intimately know your car and pay more attention...
to your car and less attention to the road. I like my fake-manual transmission when I want to accelerate fast, but I can feel the extra thought it takes to shift.
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Spoken like someone who's never driven a manual. You pay attention to the road because you need to know what's coming so you know when to shift, what gear you need (hills, corners, etc) - you pay more attention to how close you get to other drivers (especially when stopping at hills) and you pay more attention to everything going on. Every person I know who went from driving a manual on a regular basis to driving an automatic on a regular basis openly admits that owning an automatic has made them a worse
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Thank you for pointing out heavy traffic, its nice to know some manual drivers understand that facet. As someone who drives 30+ minutes 2x a day 5x a week in stop-and-go traffic, I would never touch a manual. Some things are worth effort, and shifting my car every 15 seconds for 5 hours a week is not one of them.
Another point is out-of-shape or old people: I know some older people here who have switched from manuals solely due to the soreness in their leg from driving in that same traffic. I'd rather ot
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Just because your situation doesn't require it doesn't mean its not required in some situations. I live in a city with a million people, and the transportation you describe does not exist. Not driving is not an option unless you live downtown and work downtown, which isn't the majority of people. Even if you do work downtown, most people don't make the kind of money required to live comfortably in that location. My condo would cost 400% more if it was within 2 miles of my old office. Also, peoople chan
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to your car and less attention to the road. I like my fake-manual transmission when I want to accelerate fast, but I can feel the extra thought it takes to shift.
The reason you can feel the extra thought is that you let the car shift most of the time. In my car with a manual transmission, I will be in third gear and not even remember shifting. It becomes automatic. Plus, one has a lot more control over a car with a manual transmission.
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Please, repeat after me:
Correlation does not imply causation [wikipedia.org]
It may have everything to do with education required for licenses, wider roads, narrower roads, lower or higher average speeds due to different population density, larger or smaller cars due to individual preferences, taxes, cost of gasoline and/or the insane density of speed trap cameras in the UK.
In short: it is not clear how many cars in the UK have automatic transmission and how many are manual. Neither is it for the US. Both countries differ w
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Exactly this. The UK's road network isn't nearly as extensive as the US road network, and while the measurement taken there is deaths per vehicle mile, you can bet your bottom dollar the average speed for that vehicle mile is very different in the US and the UK. Now I know speed is not the only factor in road deaths, but it's certainly a powerful factor for severity of injury.
I'd also cite the counter-example of Australia, where autos and manuals are nearly equal, with a more extensive road network than the
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Repeat after me: 'Correlation does not imply causation' does not imply 'correlation is not useful'.
Moreover you've spent the rest of your post making an entirely different point! Namely, that the correlation might not exist. Which, I'll add, he conceded before you even attacked him!
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This correlation-causation fallacy needs hammered in everyone's minds, since it accounts for so many wrong decisions, prejudices and sheer crazyness.
Of course there might be a possible relation, but when comparing countries so different in terms of traffic and roads like the UK and the USA, it can not yield a single hint of a theory. It can only mislead or confuse, so it has a negative measure of information content.
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Correlation does not imply causation.
I did not say anything more and wouldn't do so. "No implied causation" also implies "no implied lack of causation".
To fully confuse the thing: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. [wikipedia.org]
"UK people drive more manuals, have lower road deaths per mile as US people, who drive more automatics. But Italians drive like crazy and they also drive manuals."
"X and Y may or may not be connected by causality and I have an unquantifiable gut feeling about both being true" is usele
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So what? Of course there will be technical differences in stop times but general rules (heuristics) exist and those a
Yes, but... (Score:2)
What makes you a better driver is:
- Respect for other people on the road
- Courteous driving
- Attentiveness to road conditions and what others are doing.
- Doing a defensive driving course that teaches you how long it *actually* takes to stop.
Very true, however what makes you *avoid* accidents are quick reflexes and being able to control the vehicle under extreme conditions.
I've had two cars totaled by rear end crashes. In both cases the drivers who hit me were middle-aged women who would never dream of having road rage or tailgating someone, but they couldn't control their cars when traffic suddenly shifted around them.
In most cases it's wrong to attribute the cause of a traffic accident to one driver alone, there are circumstances where a driv
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One of the best pieces of advice on how to be a better driver given to me by my driving instructor ages ago: BE PREDICTABLE.
Simple as that. It's easy to remain safe on the road when you can anticipate events - even stupid events with enough warning.
Beyond that - I wish people would realize tailgating doesn't gain them anything. Rather - I wish officers would start enforcing this more than speeding. This isn't NASCAR where drafting is ok. This is a bio-mechanical ecosystem filled with machines that crunch an
No kidding (Score:2)
Most of the dangers drivers create on the road, most of the problems, are related to bad practices, not to skill. Things like not watching the road, refusing to yield, driving aggressively, speeding, etc, etc. You look at most of the accidents and these are the kind of things that were in play. It is far more rare to find something where the driver was doing what they were supposed to, but simply lacked the skill or reflexes or whatever to be able to deal with the situation. It happens, of course, but it is
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Can't agree more. I drove a car for 15 years before I got my first motorcycle. Ended up driving the motorcycle 29km to work and back every day. After doing that for a month, I have never driven a car the same way since. I check my mirrors and blind spots more often looking for bikes and such since I wouldn't want someone to kill me when I was on a bike.
Almost thinking that a motorcycle licence should be a prerequisite to getting a normal vehicle license...
Anecdote (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of my friends are big video game players. A number of them are nutso drivers. We all used to play Mario Kart when we were 14, one friend in particular would always win. Great reflexes, totally twitch, and when he turned 16, he took to driving a real car like it was a game.
I don't remember how many cars he's crashed. He's mellowed out on the road over the years, as hyper-aggressive teen drivers tend to do when they hit their twenties, but I still get nervous when I see him near a car.
He's technically proficient with a vehicle. Yes, he can maneuver out of a tricky situation much better than I can. On the other hand, he's more likely to put himself in a tricky situation than anyone I've ever met. He would try to min-max his driving, slam on the brakes not a second later than he needed to, slow down only at the brink of an accident, and tailgate like crazy. These are all very good things to do in Mario Kart. In the highway, you've probably seen someone like him: that maniac who zooms past you when you're already going 10 over, swerves a foot in front of you to avoid rear-ending a semi, and vanishes on the horizon.
He might even drop a banana in your lane.
Another anecdote (Score:2)
I can nail snap shots with ungodly annoying precision in FPSes, and love to master arcade racers like Need for Speed in between coding sessions. I like to think I'm an above average gamer. The only traits I have that might be partially attributed to a life of gaming are that I don't startle easily and I'm very slow to stress.
I'm not a crazy driver. I'm happy speeding at 80mph like anyone else who grew up in Southern California, but I'm otherwise safe and entirely unlike the kind of person you describe.
Arcades vs Simulators (Score:2)
We all used to play Mario Kart when we were 14
And I used to play Space Invaders, that's why I always shoot first when I see an UFO. I think you are mixing cause and effect here, your friend seems to have an aggressive personality, that reflects in both his driving and game playing.
I have played several car simulators using a force feedback wheel and I think this has improved my driving. When the car starts slipping for some reason I'm able to regain control easily. Real life cars usually have more grip than simulator cars (because they are driven much
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I think you think I said something that I didn't say.
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These are all very good things to do in Mario Kart. In the highway, you've probably seen someone like him: that maniac who zooms past you when you're already going 10 over, swerves a foot in front of you to avoid rear-ending a semi, and vanishes on the horizon.
Not quite. Usually that maniac zooms past you, swerve a foot in front of you, then abruptly slams on his brakes because he failed to look past the end of his hood and realize there was a *reason* for the speed you were going ;)
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He would [...] tailgate like crazy. These are all very good things to do in Mario Kart.
I don't know what version of Mario Kart you lot played, but tailgating was NEVER a good idea unless you had a green shell and even then it was often just a chance to get something dumped in your lap before you could pull the trigger. Duh.
In fact, it was one of the only Mario Kart lessons that actually transitions well to real driving: Don't stay too close behind people, you never know what kind of crazy shit they're about to try.
Re:Anecdote (Score:5, Funny)
Mario Kart is NOT a "racing" game.
So what is it? An adventure game with an exceptionally fast gameplay and a weak storyline? An on-a-rail third-person shooter with a terrible aiming system?
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dont take the guy so literal. Mario Kart is still a racing game in that it depicts moving cars, and the first across the finish is the winner, but it has so incredibly little to do with actual racing (not how i didnt say the fastest is the winner), that it is more of a party-game then actual racing.
Mario Kart is to racing what McDonalds hamburgers are to good beef
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It's a Mario Kart clone.
Not in my experience (Score:3)
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And I bet most of those same gamers are male, under 30, and childless.
Anecdote (Score:2)
About ten years ago I had a driving test. My brother had just bought a steering wheel + pedals, so I ended up playing Gran Turismo (I forget the version) the whole day before. Failed due to excessive speeding. No damage though.
Video driving vs real thing (Score:3)
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That's not contradicting the study - that's simply saying that the game is not a 100% perfect recreation of real life. The game clearly taught him the track well enough that he got pretty damn close to his game time, especially given that (as most games go, I'm assuming Gran Tourismo does this too) the in-game cars are significantly faster than their real life counterparts.
And since we're on the "safety" thing, you cannot press a key to restore your car on the track
I dunno, I heard that Bill Gates has that option.... ;-)
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I remember this same episode, and I believe his experience was also testament to the actual fear of driving a real 3,000lb vehicle to the absolute brink; it not that he was physically unable to brake late in real life... he wasn't mentally able to so the way he had in the game. The most crucial thing a game like gran turismo omits is the g-forces exerted on the driver. This whole experience also goes to show the amount of skill, patience, and fearlessness a professional race driver has to push a car to the
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carmageddon (Score:2)
Simulators (GTR/iRacing etc) might very well do. (Score:2)
Simulators (GTR/iRacing etc) might very well do, in a car without ABS I managed to get round a corner of black ice without an issue, as I knew what to do past the level of grip, to regain it, while the car infront went into a ditch, funny really (nobody was hurt) as I was the early 20's driver and the other guy was very middle age.
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Simulators (GTR/iRacing etc) might very well do, in a car without ABS I managed to get round a corner of black ice without an issue, as I knew what to do past the level of grip, to regain it, while the car infront went into a ditch, funny really (nobody was hurt) as I was the early 20's driver and the other guy was very middle age.
True that, but most accidents do not com from exceptional road situations, but from stupid people mistakes.
In order to become safer on the road we don't need to be better drivers, all we need is more care and patience.
Don't know if anyone can relate to this? (Score:2)
One of the reasons I never got a drivers license was because I was afraid I would treat it a bit like a computer game (the main other reason was just a general lack of interest in cars and public transport otherwise sufficed).
Probably a good thing - occasionally I've walked down the street and been so lost in thought I've stopped (consciously) processing visual input and once even crossed a road in this state.
How gaming helped me. (Score:2)
The only help I got from gaming was horning the reflex I needed when driving, in the snow. And have zero problems viewing the minimap aka GPS once in a while. I know many people that aren't gamers, with a low visual bandwidth, that has trouble looking at the GPS, even for 1 second. So I think gaming improves your visual bandwidth somewhat.
The most helpful advice I got from my driving instructor was always noticing what's around me while I was driving, and always know your safe spots (where to steer) in c
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The visual bandwidth is a good point. Games tend to spread important information all around the screen and that helps with real-world cars, since they, too, have a map there, a speedometer there, a radio down there and three mirrors around the other edges of the screen. Being able to track all that without losing focus on the main part is very important. Hard to do for most non-gamers, but trivial for people that have been playing FPS games all their youth.
Being able to track a large number of "opponents" a
Correlations (Score:2)
Gamers are more likely to be young men, who are already much more accident-prone than the average. Did the studies take this into acount?
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Both "Gamers" and "Accident Prone" are subsets of "Young Men". How much do these two subsets overlap?
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The problem is that video games NEVER model physics correctly. All driving games also lack haptic feedback like feeling the rear wheels slip out.
If you have a young male child that loves driving games, the bes thing you can do is get them into REAL racing. Start with kart racing and then upgrade as their skills upgrade. Even full car dirt oval is cheap to get into, I raced from 13 years to 18 years old. I was driving a piece of crap on a dirt oval at 16 years old against 18-40 year olds and learned mo
I'd say that it makes us safer. (Score:2)
And here are my reasons.
1. There is the fact that with most video games, we are forced in game to pay attention to everything that moves as it may be a threat. This is the case in First Person Shooters as well as driving games. In order to not get ganked by either the game's AI or by other players, we gamers need to learn spacial awareness and the ability to access and analyze anything that could potentially be a threat and/or opposition.
2. The Unites States Air Force frequently uses Microsoft Flight Simula
YES WE ARE! (Score:2)
Now shut up before I run you into the guard rail!
Hrdly head-to-head (Score:2)
One study looked at players of FPS games and found them to be better at answering quick decision questions after playing than players of Sims. And speculate that those decision making abilities might be useful in driving, maybe...
The other looked at players of race driving games, and found that they crash their real cars more often than non-players. With no reference to the actual study (well other than "in the print edition of Metro") so no idea if players of racing games just drive more or whatever other
What my driving instructor said (Score:2)
don't know about games but... (Score:2)
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There's better, then there's SAFER (Score:2)
I used to be an almost anal retentive driver because I'd been hit a couple of times by careless drivers. About 3 years ago, I was thinking about getting a stick shift and I bought a Logitech wheel and GTR2 (a full-blown racing simulator) to practice with to get the coordination down. Having never been a racing fan, I found myself hooked on the driving lessons and competition. I started subconsciously crossing lines in the road to "follow the best line" and getting as close as I could to inside curbs. It
The studies don't contradict each other.... (Score:2)
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have never had car insurance
Where in the world is it legal to not have car insurance? I don't care if you were genetically engineered in a secret government lab to be the ultimate safe driver, you sure as shit better have insurance if you're on the same road as me.
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Yes, but it certainly doesn't work the other way around. Driving hasn't made me a better gamer, I still completely and utterly suck at racing games, seemingly flying off the track every 5 seconds,
Fortunately I don't do this in real life.
Perhaps being bad at racing games makes you a better driver in that you know you suck so badly at it you just generally don't bother trying to race, and instead prefer to do other things like run round shooting people and chopping them up with chainsaws... wait, no, that's n
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To be good in racing games you need to realise that slowing down adequately (pick a braking point by the track to help you judge when to brake, and try to brake *before* corners rather than on them - throughout a corner you need to be on the gas slightly to keep the car balanced/at a constant spee
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In other words he needs situational awareness, that is very tough to get on a single monitor.
Personally I use my peripheral vision a lot. Playing Racing sims, and FPS games is tough because I can't see over my shoulder. I have been tempted for years to build a three monitor system to give me a little side to side views but there are so few games that support it well.
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Yes, this is a major part the problem with racing games. You just can't judge the distance to a corner or the speed you're doing in a racing game simply by the context of your surroundings (other than your speedometer) like you can in real life.
I know when I'm going too fast in my car because I start to feel and hear it in the engine and the car, I can better tell my surroundings, and can more easily judge the stopping distance required.
I imagine it's largely because on a 2D screen you just can't judge dept
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I imagine it's largely because on a 2D screen you just can't judge depth for corners like you can in a real car.
At very high speeds the stopping distance you require shoots up parabolically (exponentially? whatever :P ), so it becomes very difficult to judge even if you can tell the depth. Real racing drivers still have to use braking points by the side of the road after high speed straights, and similarly I'm fine with judging low speed corners on a 2D display.
You can get 3D with Gran Turismo 5 on a 3D TV, though I don't want to shell out for a new TV having just bought a nice 1080p HDTV 2 or 3 years ago.
Shift doesn
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I'll check Shift's settings when I get home, I was playing with the defaults and couldn't find an option to change, so maybe I just hadn't got far enough past the "tutorials" before I got fed up with it! I might find it more tolerable in 3rd person.
I don't think it's the aircraft obscuring targets in flight sims because I still find 3rd person easier and 1st person more of a challenge, only the difference is despite it being more of a challenge it's one I can step up to, which of course I can't in driving s
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The catch-falling-items-in-mid-air effect is actual. As a (former) avid FPS gamer, I can attest this has everything to do with it. This has brought much fun when things were dropped around friends and family. Average people don't expect someone to catch falling stuff in the blink of an eye and more often than not applauds when seeing that. Depending on the circumstances :) it could be even more fun when not catching that thing but striking an obstacle in the process, since force and momentum of this is impr
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Don't underestimate skill. As a gamer would say "Skill is when luck becomes a habit".
Of course, everything can be brought down to attitude, since everyone driving 10kph everywhere would reduce accidents and their severity by far. Wouldn't make much sense for overall traffic, though.
Tracking other car's vectors, guessing about driver's intentions, accounting for road conditions, knowing when and how to service the car correctly are skills that invaluable to safe driving. Attitude is not flooring the accelera
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If "preparedness" includes "natural talent and/or the appropriate amount of training", then in a way yes. But when that lost airliner wheel crashes into an empty backyard instead of your house, it's luck and nothing but. Skill would be noticing the falling debris and a well-timed rush to cover. Preparedness doesn't help there...
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The first study said no such thing. In fact it compared two different types of games and found that one type correlated with better performance on an arbitrary test over another type. Neither type was "fast paced racing games", in fact neither type involved driving at all.
The second one is a simple statistics correlation and likely without even reading it you've jumped to a conclusion and decided you know the cause or the correlation. Here's one alternative cause of the correlation: People who enjoy playing