GS News - Violent Video Games can Ease Pain

didn't this same conclusion already come out about video games helping with pain management in general, not just violent ones? the whole idea was that the video games engross you and involve more of your senses that might be involved with pain management and get them focused on the game instead of pain. i'm not sure that golf games are that involved, i would be more interest to see more about what they showed at the end, where pain WAS also well-managed when playing an engrossing exploration game vs a violent game to see if the violence really adds much.

Pain, natures way of telling you something's wrong.

Like if your a CS fan and you fade into watching the gameplay footage and missed what he said during Global Offensive

My idea of stress relief is thrusting two hidden blades into a guards face, lol.

Between the cussing and the video games, it's no wonder I can't feel anything.

hmm masoquists loved this news xD

lol you called call of duty a violent video game?

Well, it's not just limited to violent games, so to speak - a game that is able to grab your attention and force you to focus will take your mind off of the pain.

Granted, games do this usually fall under this category. XD

And yes, I'm speaking from experience. I've had (and still have) quite a few issues that temporarily fade when I focus down something in a game.  Smash Brothers works well. XD

Well, i can relate. I had minor surgery when I was a kid. It was painful, but I noticed that i tend to forget the pain when I played Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter on the PS1. Maybe its because i concentrated on the game? As for the study here, you certainly don't need a lot of concentration for golf, thus making you experience the pain normally....? Maybe?

Pretty interesting story. I have to sort of wonder about the study though. There are a lot of differences between FPS and golf games beyond them being violent vs. non-violent. An FPS requires pretty much constant concentration in order to move an aim and in a golf game you can take all the time you want to set-up your shot, choose your club and so on and then the part that requires concentration--swinging your club--takes only a second. I'd imagine that would make as much of a difference as anything.

I have not been that interested in these new news videos I liked Start/Select a lot more.

Intresting but I'm sceptical too many if's and but's to be answered in a 2 min video.

The snow game probably worked more as a distraction than anything to do with the game itself.

who want's Cam to shave his eye brows ?!

I DO !!!

totally fascinating. Science is too awesome. More science news in  the future please! 

Try playing "Bullet Witch"....that doesn't ease my pain!

You made them play Golf of all games? If anything I think golf can get on someone's nerves while FPS games could probably release any pent up anger. (And this coming from a non-FPS fan)

Nice one Cam :).

I already have a high pain capacity, so Ice cold water for me is ok, hurts a bit, but I just ignore it.

Love that t-shirt!!

Killing penguins with snowballs obviously sends the right message to kids in pain.

Why not just go babies and hatchets and get it all over with?

NO pain NO Gain.

COD is not really violent.Although blackops and World at war does have a decent amount of gore.But still they are no match for both the GOW gmes. God of War and Gears of War.But it was actually mortal kombat which introduced gore.

I know better than anyone else that video games can make wonders not only for pain but dealing with lots of events that happened in my life. I never asked for that but I'm glad I went through the experience of identifying myself with characters from several games and believing, even for some hours in front of the TV, we're going to be fine at the end. Not that a game has the power to release you from childhood traumas but it can lighten some burdens little by little.

Who funded the research? EA? Some other publisher?

Of course video games can ease pain.. the same way that reduces stress levels. Been able to release your anger or pain into something like killing millions of npcs it's always good, you won't be killing anything or making any damage in real life. 

As stated, swearing can reduce pain - but it is less effective for people who swear more often. So people who tend to swear in general conversation won't get that pain relief that someone who only swears when they feel pain.

If that's the same for playing games then it may be that people who play more games may not get as great a pain relief as say, casual gamers.

Yeah I' ve read an article about patients with severe burn wounds who played a particular game while they had their bandages replaced-an extremely painful process. Their immersing themselves to the game rapidly decreased their pain levels. So hell yeah more study on the matter would bring even better results.

It's not necessarily the game itself, but just the distraction. Sure the type of distraction may help more than others, but it really doesn't matter if it's a game, or just concentrating very hard on something else to take your mind far away from the pain you are enduring. It's kind of like when someone has been through a very traumatic event and they are in shock and will be in serious pain very soon, you try to make them laugh or put a good memory/thought in their head. It may not cure them instantly, but it has probably saved lives, if not calmed down a lot of stress.

This story reminds me of that PONG game ze Germans made that slaps the losers hand with a metal wire.  Mind over matter.

shouting,screaming,cursing and exposure to violence increases the mental capacity to reduce amounts of pain received over time in order for the person to continue. war cry's and moral cadences are made for such matters when pain is overlapping and can not be tolerated...which brings me to the point that increase your adrenalin flow, such thing makes you feel only 20% of pain during events of such, but when the adrenalin effects drop(heart rate settles) you might reach the point of having the pain reflect towards you in a 300% scale...main reason why injured people are always awake and on pain killers. 

Yes please do more videos like this very cool.

Interesting...

Always swear a lot before getting kicked in the nuts. It helps xD

I'm very skeptical about this "study." Who's to say that the "pain tolerance" isn't just due to sweatier palms? 

Besides, doesn't playing a golf game inflict pain anyway? :P

We need more news and opinions on how games are vilified, how failures of parental care, peer pressure leads to violence occur in school, and how media put the sole blame on video games and not parents, teachers, authorities who refuse to take responsibility  on incident of individual or group getting violence. 

Make the scope larger than just mere research, man. Games is supposed provide entertainment and not make you a instant trigger happy maniac!