Video Games Can Improve Terror Attack Preparedness, Even If You Don't Play Them 76
vrml writes: A study just published by the Computers in Human Behavior journal explores the potential of video games as terror attack preparedness materials for the general public. In the video game that participants tried (screenshots can be seen in the paper), players started a normal day going to a train station and performing actions such as purchasing a ticket and finding a train. Then, they suddenly found themselves in a bombing scenario that they had to survive. In addition to showing that playing the game greatly increased players' knowledge about preparedness, the study also considered a second group of participants who did not play the game but watched instead a video of the game play. Results indicate that passively watching someone else play the game is as effective as actively playing the game in terms of learning preparedness knowledge. However, they also point out a significant difference concerning psychological effects on threat appraisal: general perception of personal vulnerability to terror attacks and their severity increased more in those who actively played the game rather than those who passively watched game play.
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I wonder, is this effect as strong with other forms of video media?
Did watching golden girls as a child heighten AC's awareness of sex crazed octogenarians and lead to his obvious fetish?
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is there any way of filtering specific spam posts?
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Hmmmm .... (Score:2)
Duck, keep low, move away from the loud noises and smoke, hide behind shit, don't get trampled, use someone's kids as human shields.
Everybody knows this. ;-)
Re:Hmmmm .... (Score:5, Funny)
Unless you have a cameraphone. Then stand straight up and film as much as you can because it's gonna make you internet famous!
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Those people should be used as both a natural shield, and a reference point for whichever direction you need to keep moving -- away from the direction the cameras are facing, but in a quartering direction to keep you out of the direct line of threat.
Choose an exit path which keeps them between you and the danger, keep your head below theirs, and feel free to knock over those watching through their cell phone, because they'll never be able to identify you.
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I say if they hold their phones vertically, we disable them so they can be removed from the population.
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Not until you are clear from danger. In the event of an actual emergency, these people are your last line of defense.
In the case of a real emergency, you don't have time to stop to disable them just for sport.
Once you're clear and can do so from good cover, go ahead. ;-)
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Is this important? (Score:5, Insightful)
The risk of dying in a terrorist attack is infinitesimal. So should we be expending resources to make people more prepared for something that is almost certainly not going to happen to them? Wouldn't it make more sense to use video games to condition people to eat better food, exercise, and look both ways before crossing a road?
Re:Is this important? (Score:5, Insightful)
"general perception of personal vulnerability to terror attacks increased"
Precisely what we don't want. The risk of getting out of bed in the morning is higher than being bombed by terrorists.
This is just another ploy by people who get rich from increasing public paranoia (ie. governments).
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A video about click-bait awareness would be great for the /. editors
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They already implemented the strategies in that video. This is why we get so much click-bait.
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Hows this for click bait http://www.amazon.com/Amanda-R... [amazon.com]. Pay careful attention to the nature of both books by that author, what the titles seem to claim and what most knowledgeable people really understand about both of those situations.
"The smartest kids in the world and how they got that way" - one simple paragraph, they were born with the right genes into the right socio economic environment (buying the book will in, no way, shape or form alters this). "The unthinkable who survives when disaster st
Re:Is this important? (Score:5, Insightful)
But ... but ... people are so much more compliant when they're perpetually afraid.
Keep them constantly afraid, and you can convince them to agree to damned near anything.
Just look at how many people are willingly giving up civil liberties on the assumption that, as long as we're fighting the terrorists, it must be OK.
Oh, did you mean a valid reason? Sorry.
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Is there a simulation out there on what to do if you are jumped by a street thug? Happened to me a couple of times.
Make sure you are carrying a large arsenal of fully automatic weaponry.
If you out-Crocodile Dundee Crocodile Dundee by pulling a GE minigun out of your pants, most muggers are going to back off.
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yeah, reform your country so that it not only has universal health care (incl. mental health) but also has universal unemployment benefits and disability pensions so that people who would be broke as well as homeless, unemployed and/or crazy in your current system would have a small income on which to feed, clothe, and house themselves and therefore wouldn't be so desperate they had no choice but to mug strangers for a living.
it sounds like it would be expensive but it's much cheaper than prison and much ch
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You try to get government funding for that, good luck!
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Which is why this research is so vital, because terrorists will not take it upon themselves to massively increase our perception of the likely hood of attack, so we need to do it ourselves, and this is the research we need to determine how best to manipulate ourselves into a proper state of terror, to advance political goals and keep the funding flowing.
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Of course it's important. Jack Thompson (of anti-Grand Theft Auto fame) is perpetually trying to prevent people from playing video games. As it's now known that playing video games improves your preparedness for terror attacks, logically, it means that preventing people from playing video games reduces their preparedness for terror attacks. This is what Jack Thompson is doing, therefore, he's supporting terrorists.
Throw the fucker in Guantanamo.
(Of course, I'm kidding, but this is the only possible posit
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I'm conditioned to open every chest and box I come across...
...and apparently, strippers don't explode in a shower of cash when you shoot them.
Preparation, Preparation, Preparation (Score:4, Informative)
Your home or the high-rise in which you work are unlikely to be consumed by fire. Are fire drills important?
Is it important to know where, for example, the nearest exit is on an airplane or in a theater, even though it is extremely unlikely that you will be confronted with a disabled airplane or a theater massacre-in-the-making?
Preparation for disasters - whether in terms of visualizing the scenario or actual drills to practice response - can be extremely effective in boosting survival.
If you are interested in some of the academic study on this and related topics, see this book, The Unthinkable - Who Survives When Disaster Strikes, and Why [amazon.com]. The author did a tremendous amount of research, distilling academic papers and studies of recent and not-so-recent disasters to explore human behavior both culturally w/r/t preparedness and engineering, and in the context of the disaster events.
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and in the context of the disaster events
I like that last line you mentioned since no one else did. Disaster preparation is just that, disaster preparation. Is there much of a difference between surviving a bombing scenario vs surviving an earthquake or a fire? What is a terror attack vs some crazed hostage situation?
People on Slashdot are straight away latching onto the terror angle but there's a lot of applications for disaster preparation.
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That's why the headline is accurate. It says "Video Games Can Improve Terror Attack Preparedness, Even If You Don't Play Them" and that's true. Any time you spend thinking about video games rather than terror attacks makes you better prepared for the real world than the imaginary one in which a terror attack is likely... unless you live in one of a very small list of countries, anyway.
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Why do you even have to phrase it in the form of a question, even if a rhetorical one? The obvious answer is: No, it makes absolutely no sense to spend even one second of precious valuable time on 'preparing for terrorist attacks.'
Top ten leading causes of death:
Heart disease.
Cancer
Chronic lower respiratory disease
Stroke
Motor accidents
A
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Top ten [sic] leading causes of death:
Heart disease.
Cancer
Chronic lower respiratory disease
Stroke
Motor accidents
Alzheimer's disease
Diabetes
Influenza and pneumonia
Apart from trying to be reasonably fit and following a sensible diet, there's not much you can do about any of those except motor accidents.
It would be much much more beneficial to make people play accident simulation driving sims than 'terror attack' sims.
Two things: first, driving sims and terror attack sims are not mutually exclusive, and second, all the anti-government crowd here would go berserk if it was suggested that there should be ongoing driver education/testing.
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So, pretty much Frogger?
Video Game? (Score:2)
We have a name for a video that you passively watch of fictitious or staged events. It's called a "movie," and I'm pretty sure that they've been used to train people for various scenarios roughly since the technology has existed.
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We have a name for a video that you passively watch of fictitious or staged events. It's called a "movie,"
I've personally defended Nakatomi Plaza from terrorists on several occasions.
Burning Questions (Score:2)
Can we host this on a Beowulf Cluster of IOT devices? Will this attract more women into IT?
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No, but you won't hear the end of how sexist that is and how it keeps them from coming.
All my years of playing Quake were training (Score:2)
During a terror attack, I know I'll hear a quick sound when the detpack is set. At that point I've got a short window where I'll use a rocket jump to accelerate into a bunny hop, swing by the detback to lob a grenade at the enemy if he's still there, and continue bunny hopping to a safe distance.
Easy as cake.
Learning responses versus planning responses (Score:3)
The group who watched learned responses.
The group who played developed responses.
VR Training (Score:2)
Results indicate that passively watching someone else play the game is as effective as actively playing the game in terms of learning preparedness knowledge.
It seems like VR would be even more effective than a normal game for those playing, but then you'd lose out on the secondary effect, as it would be difficult for others to watch you play.
Gamers (Score:5, Funny)
During the study, gamers tended to attempt to strafe and run while jumping in a random pattern instead of seeking cover... When shot, they shout out, "HAXOR!" before dying. During the study, the fake "terrorists" were unhappy with their success claiming a high ping made them miss more targets.
Graphics suck (Score:2)
If I'm supposed to be subjected to a fake terrorist attack to remind me that I'm supposed to be cowed into agreeing with any kind of atrocity we do for the sake of "fighting terror" (with the only actual terror being exacted by our governments), at the very least you could make it visually appealing.
This is an outrage! I mean, we were being bullshitted 'til now, too, but at least there was some production value in Navy CIS and the like. Now we get bullshitted and bored at the same time? What's that, we're m
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" Now we get bullshitted and bored at the same time? What's that, we're moving towards communism?"
No, more like flying on any commercial airline in the USA.
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That IS already worse than it ever was with Aeroflot during the Soviet days.
Worry about real problems instead (Score:2)
Or you could concentrate on threats that aren't vanishingly improbable.
"As We Show In This Updated list, You’re Much More Likely to Be Killed By Brain-Eating Parasites, Toddlers, Lightning, Falling Out of Bed, Alcoholism, Food Poisoning, Choking On Your Meal, a Financial Crash, Obesity, Medical Errors or “Autoerotic Asphyxiation” than by Terrorists".
http://www.washingtonsblog.com... [washingtonsblog.com]
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...so, what are the chances of being killed by low or bad terror attack preparedness? Because it's probably lower than being killed in a terror attack?
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Hmm, your link says that your chance of being killed by a terrorist attack in the USA between 2007 and 2011 was 1 in 20,000,000. Which suggests a higher chance of being killed by terrorists than seems to exist. List I googled for people killed in "terrorist attacks" included cases where the only person killed was the "terrorist". And entirely too many of the cases looked more like the usual crap that goes on, rather than terrorism (abortion protester shot? Is this terrorism now?).
tea? (Score:2)
"terror attack preparedness" - what is this?
Being able to make some tea?
Keeping common sense after a bomb went off a few feet away?
I call BS (Score:2)
How can you measure "preparedness"? How can you BE PREPARED for a bombing scenario?
Prepared to be torn apart by a bomb? What would be usefull to be prepared for in such a scenarion would be first aid. (if you*re close to a bomb explosion but not close enough to get hurt)
So... which kind of "preparedness" could increase to survive a detonating bomb?
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Other than that, you carry on as normal.
The alternative is to lock yourself in your bedroom and die a little every time you hear a car backfire outside.
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