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This Is Your Brain While Videogaming Stoned 168

Posted by timothy from the for-some-values-of-your dept.
Daniel_Stuckey (2647775) writes "Pot and video games have long been bound together in hazy, wedded bliss—as well as in compulsion and codependency. Many a World of Warcraft binger has been found in the darkest hours of the night with clouds of sweet, milk-white smoke curling around him, a bong next to the keyboard. But the way these lovers, games and weed, commingle has only rarely been studied, and when done so, usually exclusively in the context of substance abuse and how it relates to what is known as PVP: 'problem video game playing.'" Motherboard takes a different look.
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This Is Your Brain While Videogaming Stoned More

This Is Your Brain While Videogaming Stoned

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  • PVP? (Score:4, Informative)

    by waddgodd ( 34934 ) on Friday May 23, 2014 @10:12PM (#47081089) Homepage Journal

    Say PVP to a gamer and they're thinking of how to frag everybody else, not that they're addicted.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by arth1 ( 260657 )

      And I'm also quite sure that you find very few potheads in the PVP ganker club.
      Live and let live, love and let love, and by the way, do you have a bag of crisps?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pax681 ( 1002592 )

        And I'm also quite sure that you find very few potheads in the PVP ganker club. Live and let live, love and let love, and by the way, do you have a bag of crisps?

        utter SHITE .. i love to get stoned and get some FPS action.. some good weed and ,atm Wolfenstein the new order, also a bit of Nether and some black ops zombie shootage with friends.... save yer "peace,love" and all that fucking bollocks.. give me weed and give me blood and guts and guns!

    • Oh you have PVP problems? I feel sorry for you. Not everyone can be 31337. Maybe if you dedicate more hours. Maybe if you stopped drinking and getting stoned you'd have better reflexes.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by qwak23 ( 1862090 )

        If you're havin PVP problems I feel bad for you son, I got 31337 problems but bein n00b ain't one.

    • Pfft. Back in MY day, we called them PKs.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Belial6 ( 794905 )
        Blame the pot smoking hippies. PK implies that one person is dominant over the other. Player Verses Player impartes the much more polictially correct notion that we are all equal. (Yes, I am joking.)

  • Wait (Score:3, Funny)

    by NoNonAlphaCharsHere ( 2201864 ) on Friday May 23, 2014 @10:35PM (#47081181)
    Pew pew pew...
    <PAUSE>
    <SCHLERP (bubble bubble)>
    "What?? That's ridiculous."
    <UNPAUSE>
    Pew pew pew...

  • Comparison with other drugs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by globaljustin ( 574257 ) on Friday May 23, 2014 @11:08PM (#47081283) Journal

    Let's see this same thing repeated with these for comparison:

    alcohol
    cocaine
    LSD
    MDA
    MDNA
    adderall
    zoloft
    perkoset
    xanax

    etc...you get my point...

    every damn time people anywhere talk about "drugs" and their effects we need to **compare** it to other similar things!

    • Let's see this same thing repeated with these for comparison:

      Reading Slashdot.

      every damn time people anywhere talk about "drugs" and their effects we need to **compare** it to other similar things!

      Comparison does not prove causation! We read and write that multiple times each day on Slashdot.

      You must be nude here.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
      So, you didn't read the paper did you?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by jones_supa ( 887896 )

      etc...you get my point...

      No, I don't. Of your list of drugs (which included both recreational drugs and medicinal drugs), some of them might increase a person's gaming capabilities, while some of them might dampen a person's gaming capabilities. So what?

      every damn time people anywhere talk about "drugs" and their effects we need to **compare** it to other similar things!

      I do not see why that would be necessary. You don't need to review other drugs to see how marijuana affects a person.

      • I've seen similar comments from others on this thread...

        TFA isn't just examining effects of marijuana...it's using the data to ***draw a conclusion*** about marijuana

        what conclusion?

        it wasn't just about performance, but "addiction"

        they're trying to see if marijuana smoking during video games makes the video gaming "more addictive"

        TFA had an agenda to show that somehow either weed or video games (or combination thereof) is inherently "bad"

        this is just like those B.S. studies that were gamed to make stoned dr

  • Do we link emo children to the sad music they listen to or stoners to the bad tv they watch?... Come on.

    Enough with trying to demonnize video games to a generation that never experienced them and so only has their own ignorance to base anything upon.

    • Re:This again... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Friday May 23, 2014 @11:40PM (#47081405)

      Well, it's getting harder and harder to demonize video games. The kids of today are already the second generation of gamers, their parents are the first. Having a teenager (i.e. the time when you start wondering "just where did my kid go wrong?") means that you're about 40 years old. That is about the age where you had an Atari 2600 or a C64 as a kid.

      Demonizing weed isn't easy either, since it's been around for two generations by now (or rather, two generations had some rather high rate of exposure to it).

      What's left is demonizing the combo. Because when you were a kid during my generation (i.e. the "40ish" people of today), you were EITHER a geek OR doing dope. The combination was rather rare.

      And it simply can't be that your kids are simply walking hormones that come without a user manual, where you have to figure out how to deal with them. So SOMETHING must be wrong here. He was always such a nice boy...

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
        I'm sure the 'two generations' makes it all nice and neat for you, but you're just so wrong.

        Cannabis has been around pretty much as long as humans have. The only time there was a drop in 'exposure' was during the propaganda wars starting in the 1930's by good ol' US capitalism and even that didn't last long, just eliminated all the medical supplies and drove use underground.

        • Cannabis has been around for ages. Yes. But it's only become a "youth thing" two generations ago. It was outlawed some more generations ago (after being legal for ... well, pretty much all of humanity's existence), probably around the same time we tried to do the same with alcohol, and the 60s youth revolution "rediscovered" it. They had to deal with a parent generation that grew up without it and hence feared that, to them, unknown drug. Since then, it's been part of our "youth culture", in a way.

          In other

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
            Citation for your misguidedness?

            After all, you don't even know why it was prohibited. BTW, the drug cartels would beg to differ with your made up history.

            • it was a bullshit article, with a bullshit point, that shouldn't have made it onto Creed's thoughts (oblique reference to 'The Office') let alone on Slashdot.

              Headline: People enjoy smoking pot while engaging in leisure activities.
              Headline 2: Young people often have the copious amounts of free time and lack of responsibilities that enable playing video games and/or smoking pot.

              Neither of these are newsworthy, or interesting at all.

              The following exposes would be equally fine examples of journalistic ... somet

              • You forgot the dart profi players!

              • Re: (Score:1)

                by Jmc23 ( 2353706 )
                Ah, the new slashdot.

                Everbody reads the crap article by a bunch of stoners, nobody bothers to read the scientific paper. Then a bunch of stoners keep replying to stuff that's happening in their head and not in the threads.

                I can certainly see how the resulting chaos caused by stoners reacting to ghosts in their head might spice up online gameplay.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

              After all, you don't even know why it was prohibited.

              And how could you know that he doesn't know? Historians have written hundreds of books on the subject. It appears that your knowledge of 20th century American history is weak; you might start by reading up on this guy. [wikipedia.org] He was the assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) on August 12, 1930.

              He was the one behind marij

    • You clearly didn't read the article (The "Motherboard takes a different look" one at the bottom)

      They killed it on the games while stoned, performance was equal or greater (often massively so) in all cases. It's also full of references to other studies (for example about driving) suggesting weed does not decrease focus & performance, and in some instances enhances it.

      So.... pretty much the exact polar opposite of the "demonizing" you're complaining about.

  • being stoned helps the grind (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Friday May 23, 2014 @11:32PM (#47081373) Journal

    Well, I'm stoned and I've been playing video games stoned for almost all of my video game life.

    And all I have is this to say:

    What are we talking about again?

  • Could it be the case that playing video games are simply the most likely recreational activity a stoner is going to feel motivated enough to perform? Honestly, how many people get stoned and then go hiking, running, playing football or whatever?

    It's bad enough that some people believe video games cause violent behavior, but now drug use too? Next we'll be demonizing food, since every murderer, stoner and rapist ate food regularly during their lives.
     

    • it's more like the recreational activity which they can engage in and stand zero risk of getting arrested, losing student loan eligibility, and being denied the opportunity for a proper job -- oh and I guess working for the FBI.

    • Plenty of people use cannabis and go hiking, hang out with friends and have normal lives.

      Just check out /r/trees on reddit (or some similar forum), plenty of users there post "smoke spot" pictures from hiking trails and the like.

  • Reading this article, atl-tabbed in between 2 battlegrounds, hitting up the bong at 1AM

  • Alcohol too (Score:3)

    by Hamsterdan ( 815291 ) on Saturday May 24, 2014 @12:32AM (#47081553)

    I used to drink when playing Quake 2 and UT with my clan. The goal was not to get too drunk, but just enough to be a real Kamikaze. Weed also enhances creativity as many artists will confirm.

    • Back in university, I tried playing Pinball after two or three beers. I quickly realized that there was no point. No matter what pinball game I played, I was very much worse in my reaction time and coordination.
  • Is that because it's au naturel and hasn't been trimmed?

    That's a helluva lot of leaf!!

  • Drugs and programming (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Kevin Fishburne ( 1296859 ) on Saturday May 24, 2014 @12:48AM (#47081621) Homepage
    From personal experience, drinking while programming isn't so bad, although the increasing mental and physical clumsiness will eventually become a problem. Smoking weed while programming, on the other hand, is asking for trouble. If you're a designer brainstorming before coming up with a rough design document, weed's probably an ally in many ways. Programming, though, God help you. I suppose it adversely affects the ability to base one logical proposition upon another, which is generally bad for a series of equations relying upon the results of the previous for a useful result.

    While playing games it depends on the game. If it requires the same sort of sequential, analytical processes as programming then you're doomed. If it's just a twitch game with simple goals and gameplay you'll be minimally handicapped. In any case, I can't imagine being high will improve your ability to play a game; just your enjoyment of it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      From personal experience, drinking while programming isn't so bad, although the increasing mental and physical clumsiness will eventually become a problem. Smoking weed while programming, on the other hand, is asking for trouble. If you're a designer brainstorming before coming up with a rough design document, weed's probably an ally in many ways. Programming, though, God help you. I suppose it adversely affects the ability to base one logical proposition upon another, which is generally bad for a series of equations relying upon the results of the previous for a useful result. .

      Bullshit! There are many a programer that do their best work high.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      My experience, with average programming, is that a not too big dose of weed might numb my brain a bit, but on the other hand i am more focused on the work and can make up the lost brain power by sitting for a longer time, while also enjoying myself more.

    • The interesting thing is that I seem to have conditioned myself to only be good at videogames (I play mostly Counter-Strike GO these days) when I've had a sip of beer - not even a lot of beers, just one or two over the course of a few hours of gaming. I can't hit anything when I haven't cracked open a beer, but as soon as I take that first sip, the headshots start coming.

      I'm actually sliding down in the ranks slowly because I've been too lazy to buy beer lately...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Reziac ( 43301 ) *

        Might be an effect of being slightly more relaxed, the same effect a very small amount of alcohol can have if you're tense. So you get better reaction time because you don't have to overcome muscle tension first.

    • I guess it rather depends on the dose.
      When I was young and drank cocoa with canabis, I rather felt inspired than stoned.

    • From personal experience, drinking while programming isn't so bad, although the increasing mental and physical clumsiness will eventually become a problem. Smoking weed while programming, on the other hand, is asking for trouble.

      There are numerous people who have the EXACT opposite experience. That is part of what makes the world so marvelous: We are all different. :)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

      From personal experience, drinking while programming isn't so bad, although the increasing mental and physical clumsiness will eventually become a problem. Smoking weed while programming, on the other hand, is asking for trouble.

      That was the opposite of my experience back when I was programming. Two beers and I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag, but being high was actually beneficial, so long as I didn't get zombified.

  • My Takeaway (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 24, 2014 @01:10AM (#47081697)

    Playing stoned made them more confident. They felt like they were playing better, so they took more risks. A lot of games have systems in which risky behavior is often more greatly rewarded, but rewarded less frequently. Spelunky especially is one of those games. Tetris, however, can be much less forgiving of risky behavior, hence the lower scores there.

    So I don't think this was a very good test of the effect of actual basic skills that contribute to good or bad play. I think a series of reaction time tests, memorization tests, and problem solving tests, independent from complex interactions within the game itself or the nebulous "score" would make for a better testing environment. Also, three people playing just four games, all of which are single player and most of which are puzzle games, doesn't seem like enough data to come to any useful conclusion whatsoever.

    I've played with and against players who were high in competitive multiplayer games in which the high players were obviously making mistakes and playing poorly (the whole time insisting that playing high enhanced their abilities) to change my belief that playing high probably makes you worse rather than better. Especially in a multiplayer context with a group of highly skilled and experienced players, ones overconfidence can be much more directly and specifically exploited and countered. The high players were not only overconfident, but much less likely to recognize and acknowledge mistakes, leading them to repeat those mistakes or allow their opponents to capitalize on the mistakes even more frequently or severely than normal.

  • like, RTS, for example. I suspect that THC is helpful for situations where one needs to focus in, but the opposite of helpful for situations where one needs to multitask. However, that which seems like multiple tasks to one mind may well be perceived as a single (multidimensional but easily subject to simultaneous apprehension) task to another. If people play video games for job interviews as was discussed this past January, ...

  • instead of doing something you love you should spend all your time beating the bible outside the grocery store, cause drunk on jesus is fine but playing a dumb ass game is not

  • Man (Score:2)

    by JustOK ( 667959 )
    Mannnnn, have you ever looked at your hand controller? I mean, REALLY looked at it? It's like, wait... it doesn't control MY hand. It should be called a control handler. I smell a conspiracy and it smells like pop tarts.

  • problem video game playing

    That's when your video card can't handle Watch Dogs on high graphics settings.

  • ... even if N = 4 in a non-double-blind placebo-controlled experiment isn't exactly science. But a lovely anecdote, and one that matches my own personal experience (from long ago) in many ways. I hope people are actually reading TFA -- but wait, this is /. so that's a silly thought.

  • Take your new acronym, put it back on the shelf.
    PVP = Player vs Player.

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