Violent Games Actually Make People Relaxed and Less Angry

Every now and then some psychologists, scientists or general researchers come up with a study that makes us, the gamers, feel a little bit better and hope that the general game-hating will drop (at least a little). Of course, these types of studies are far less than those who prove the contrary – but at least they do exist!

Miss Jane Barnett and her colleagues at Middlesex University found out that people who play online violent video games actually feel more relaxed and less angry after they have played. 292 male and female World of Warcraft players were recruited and all of them had to play the game for two hours. Before starting the game they had to complete a questionnaire on anger, aggression and personality – then, after the two hours have passed, they completed it again. The psychologists found out that players, aged between 12 and 83 years, were more likely to feel calm or tired after playing WoW - but there were differences depending on sex, age and personality.

Jane Barnett said: "There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type. This will help us to develop an emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life."

One thing the study didn't reveal is whether those with a different personality type seemed to be more violent or not. Anyway, as much as we'd like to believe this study and finally say to the world: "You see? Video games are not bad!", we can't ignore the fact that the gamers played WoW for 2 hours only and we have no idea if they were casual or hardcore gamers. However, it's a start. Hopefully more studies which tell the truth will appear. Or, even better: maybe no study will be ever made again on this matter. People don't need studies to decide if they should or should not play video games.

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