Neuroscience May Cure Videogames Industry's Obsession With Guns [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ymovDtLEtuj2MeCdHi7ya7JjAVI/0/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ymovDtLEtuj2MeCdHi7ya7JjAVI/0/da)
http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ymovDtLEtuj2MeCdHi7ya7JjAVI/1/di (http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/ymovDtLEtuj2MeCdHi7ya7JjAVI/1/da)
An anonymous reader writes "Leading developer Chris Stevens tells Edge magazine that neuroscience researchers will soon find 'non-violent triggers to mimic the rush of pleasure gamers feel when firing guns.' Researchers can now use functional MRI scanners to monitor what is going on in a player's brain and search for more optimistic and non-violent pleasure triggers. 'For decades it's as if developers have been driving a car with no speedometer,' Stevens claims, referring to the reliance on reported emotions rather than empirical measurements in game development. The functional MRI now gives a much more accurate indication of when peaceful triggers light up the brain's pleasure regions, opening up alternative game designs, without crude weaponry. 'I would like to see many more beautiful games like Fez and Limbo,' Stevens says. 'When I was a kid, games were more beautiful and magical and immersed you in fantastical, peaceful and enjoyable landscape.' The functional MRI could make these peaceful titles provably superior — no mean feat in a mass-market games industry currently obsessed with the crude dopamine-triggering effects of simulated weaponry."http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (http://twitter.com/home?status=Neuroscience+May+Cure+Videogames+Indus try's+Obsession+With+Guns%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2 FOVD3oh)http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fsto ry%2F12%2F07%2F24%2F037240%2Fneuroscience-may-cure-videogames-industrys-obsession-with-guns%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebo ok)http://www.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-16.png (http://plus.google.com/share?url=http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/07/24/037240/neuroscience-may-cure-videogames-industrys-obsession-with-guns?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=googleplus)

Read more of this story (http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/07/24/037240/neuroscience-may-cure-videogames-industrys-obsession-with-guns?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed) at Slashdot.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/yOsbmYzklK0

[Collector_Gaming]

Oh science sometimes you work in such wonderful way to tamper with human beings in such ways nature didn't intend.
Am I the only person that thinks the real good way to end behavior related issues is good old fashion psychology which you sit down and talk to a doctor about whats going and on find a way to push pass those pressing matters.
Or am I just blind in the idea that they should be replaced by pills that are suppose to change how we think or how we act.

[SpaceHarrier]

'Neuroscience May Cure Videogames Industry's Obsession With Guns'
They say this like it's a real problem that needs addressing.


'I would like to see many more beautiful games like Fez and Limbo,' Stevens says. 'When I was a kid, games were more beautiful and magical and immersed you in fantastical, peaceful and enjoyable landscape.'

I wonder what serene, utopian age this guy grew up in?

This one?
http://1morecastle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ManiacHamster.png

I mean you could always go play Endless Ocean or something.

[Emperor Megas]

My shelves have plenty of beautiful, fantastical, magical, modern games that don't employ guns, and some that do but are just as whimsical. The video game industry is dominated by gun centric games for the same reason Hollywood is dominated by gun centric films; it's just what's popular. Regardless, there are several alternatives to gunning games for those who want something else.

[Gameguy]

I wonder what serene, utopian age this guy grew up in?
You just have to go further back, to the golden age of arcade games. Games like Battlezone, Galaxian, Asteroids, Space Invaders, Warlords....maybe that's not old enough. Okay there's Death Race from 1976 or Gun Fight from 1975........screw it, just go back to the first arcade game. That's right, Computer Space from from 1971 which was based on Spacewar! from 1962!! There's nothing wrong or violent with that title. You just have to avoid enemy fire from flying saucers while firing back missles to destroy them before they can destroy you........alright I have no idea what he's talking about.

There are plenty of non-violent games though. There's plenty of dating sims from Japan that aren't about violence. I guess those are better?

[G-Boobie]

Oh science sometimes you work in such wonderful way to tamper with human beings in such ways nature didn't intend.

Not to put too get too granular, here, but nature has no opinion on whether or not we "tamper" with ourselves. Nature has never intended anything: it's not a conscious force. Unless you're talking about co-evolution/competitive evolution, in which case your statement works, but only in the loosest possible sense. Your genes still don't care about what pills yer popping. Just whether or not people who pop pills are more successful at copying their genes. So there's some science for you.


Am I the only person that thinks the real good way to end behavior related issues is good old fashion psychology which you sit down and talk to a doctor about whats going and on find a way to push pass those pressing matters.
Or am I just blind in the idea that they should be replaced by pills that are suppose to change how we think or how we act.

Your statement betrays a certain nervousness about being personally forced to think or act differently through pharmaceuticals. Allow me to reassure you: no one cares what you do, or what you think, unless you're harming other people, or in the state of mind to harm yourself. In those instances, those pills you're so disdainful of can help.

My younger brother went through five years of SERIOUS depression in his mid-teens. He was missing school, running away from home, lashing out at friends, and it culminated in a suicide attempt and a brief course of psychiatric therapy. Therapy didn't work. What DID work, though, was a three year regimen of Prozac. He used it like you're supposed to: use it to get through the rough patch, and move on. He's a great guy, and hasn't needed the drugs in ten years. He's still a fan of science, by the way. It makes your nerd-shit easier to acquire.

Now, obviously, that won't work for everyone. There are people with serious chemical deficiencies or brain damage that, in order to function in any way approaching normally, need to continuously be on their meds: folks with schizophrenia, autism, aspergers, and other serious disorders. Therapy won't solve SHIT in those cases, but then again, there are some people who just need someone to talk to in order to get right, and therapy can work wonders. So, like every other fucking thing in the universe, it isn't one thing or the other: it's a scale. Where you fall on that scale might differ from where I fall, or your neighbor, or that irritating jerk from three doors down that mows his lawn at five AM every Sunday.

As far as the article in question is concerned: disregard the title and the video game part and focus on the science. What we should be interested in isn't that a neuroscientist is drunk on nostalgia, and might even be some kind of pacifist hippie, but that we're pretty close to figuring out how another part of the human brain works. Sounds neat to me.