Gamers Far Worse Drivers than Non-Gamers

[dgriffs]

There's a difference between being a very cautious driver and actually having the skill to maneuver a vehicle. I know plenty of people that are "safe" drivers but can barely drive in reverse or cant even parallel park.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

Asian Drivers are still worse. Just trust me on that.

 

[Guest]

Here's an interesting thought.... old people who drive severely under the speed limit in the left lane of a 2 way highway. figure at least 90% do not play racing games. Does that mean they're a good driver? The answer to this one should be obvious. Not using mirrors or paying attention to traffic around them is not a sign of a good driver. So the research they did does not matter in my opinion. Personally, I like to play games (racing or whatever). However, I do also stay within speed limits (as traffic allows) and pay attention to other cars around me along with traffic lights, speed limits, using mirrors, etc, etc. So yeah, from gaming my reaction time may be a little better than someone who does not game, but at least I have enough common sense not to take what I do in a game into the public. If I did even half the stuff I do in a game into real life, I would certainly be dead by now. That's what the game is for. Stop trying to relate the two as if people don't have enough common sense to realize what is real life and what is just 'entertainment'. The same goes with any other game such as first person shooters (like it's going turn me into a sniper...lol), or fighting games (like I'm going to pick a fight with someone and try to rip their spine out aka Mortal Kombat). This can be related to any other form of entertainment such as TV shows (Beavis and Butthead with the 'fire comment'), movies (pick any favorite slasher flick), or music (take you pick on whatever... swearing, demonic worshiping, suicide, etc, etc, etc). Entertainment does not define the person, only the person themselves and society itself determines that. Funny how the news media wants to blame entertainment for society's problems instead of realizing that some people are going to be that way, regardless of the entertainment media or not. If you want a perfect example, Japan has comics/etc that have stuff that is obviously bad things in society, but yet they are very low in cases of that actually happening. So obviously the media is not to blame. Try to look at the root of individual people's problems instead of blaming everything else for what's wrong in society.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[JamesSneed]

Silly survey. All they really pointed out is younger kids are worse drivers. There is a reason males under 21 pay a crapload more for insurance. The age range from 17-39 will have many more gamers at the mean age of 28 and younger than 28 and over. They could have tossed a rather meaningfull stat about the average age of each group and im calling BS without it.

 

[nitzero]

I've been driving for about 20 years, never had an accident, never crashed my car and I've played racing games my whole life. I gotta admit I try to be precise on the gears and hit the accelerator hard to achieve the best out of my underpowered 2.0l Ford Focus lol. I had a few "almost f*k*d-up" but I reacted quickly enough to pull over the car on the sidewalk to avoid a collision against a drunk retarded coming in my direction out of a corner and things like that.

My brother, on the other hand, has never played a single racing game and has suffered so many accidents and almost died twice and he plays Farmville. Should study Farmville players now, the results are going to be scary.

 

[Wish I Was Wealthy]

Maybe that is why I am a better driver than most...I game,but with first person shooter games & the like...

 

[f-14]

i went looking for the study site and found it and the researchers running it are not scientists.
just another group of idiots we can tear into for poor control and parameters.

Thomas Jefferson once said: "The moment a person forms a theory, his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favor that theory."

wth is a prang? this study obviously wasn't done in america if they use a word like that, oh it says U.K. now it all makes sense lack of freedom, lack of liberty, and most importantly LACK OF AUTO'S. narrow streets and circle jerks and little frenchmen dressed up as mario driving all over on go-carts. ya that's why i promised myself if ever i went to europe the only vehicle i would drive is a great big peterbuilt tractor, give them a first hand taste of america! and i will drive it on the autobahn and top gear that chzit!
anyways here's the link to that poorly malformed and skewed u.k. study
http/www.conti-online.com/generator/www/uk/en/continental/automobile/themes/press_services/hidden/01-02-2011video-gaming.html

 

[Wish I Was Wealthy]

Once again those free add posts are up,I wish they would stop cluttering these threads so we can have something decent to read instead...

 

[Guest]

I thought AMD had the worst drivers...

 

[itchyisvegeta]

I am sure the US Air Force disagrees.

 

[Wish I Was Wealthy]

Yeah probably right,because their gear ain't up to standard & can't handle the overclocking speed of Intel...

 

[Guest]

this study is total BS.
just because i sometimes drive over the speed limit and glide around turns at double the recommended speed does not mean i'm a bad driver. to YOU or some others it may seem as such because if it were YOU doing those things, it would be considered reckless as you do not have the skill, know-how, concentration or reaction time to do so.
it all comes from personal ability. i would say redo this test on a closed slalom course in different road conditions with strict variables and constants, close in the age range a bit more (say 20-29, seperate tests for genders as well).
oh.. one last thing to point out.. you "safe" drivers that are constantly driving at "safe" speeds are the timid little jerk-offs that cause the majority of accidents on the road. you people don't take in to account what your actions do to other drivers, such as merging onto a highway at 40 mph when the speed limit is 65 or 70.
Here's a tip: u don't want to be scared of us "scary, dangerous" drivers.. stay in the hell out of our way.. possibly in the right lane, because we most likely wont be there

 

[pocketdrummer]

I've been a tamer for as long as I can remember starting from the super nes. I've had 3 cars now, however they were all replaced due to their initial shoddy condition and I had money to "upgrade". In 7 years I've never been in an accident. I know this study probably has some merit, but it's not 100% true of all gamers.

 

[cpatel1987]

Lol perhaps this explains my tendency to go 80 in a 55. In my defense though, I always keep 3 seconds of a distance between me and the driver in front of me. ;-) That in my eyes is more important than following other rules.

 

[cpatel1987]

@biggeektx: Could not agree more. Hate fast drivers? Well get yourselves out of the left lanes unless your exiting on that side. I could care less if people follow the rules and go at the speed limit. In fact, good for you. Its when people do it in the left lanes, which are designated for PASSING that make it wonder, do you do in on purpose? And I'm a firm believer that there should be a slow limit on all highways, with the exception of course being during snowstorms.

 

[RevolutionRed]

Speaking as a software developer/researcher with significant experience working with the insurance industry, I have to say that many of you are missing the point. The study was done from the perspective of the insurance company, not a Formula 1 race team. They don't care if you have faster reaction time, more concentration, and are at the top of the leaderboards in Forza. If you have more claims (presumably accidents, since that is the most common type of claim) you are a WORSE driver, because you cost them more money. Try to redefine the term and bash Asians, women, old people, and everyone else all you want, but it doesn't change the fact that this study shows that young gamers make more claims.

Does that mean that gaming caused the accidents? No. It wasn't an experimental study. Could the cause of the accidents and road rage be caused by the fact young gamers are sexually frustrated? Possibly. No way to tell without further studies. Does the study suggest that young gamers think that they are way more skilled than they actually are and thus get themselves into tons of trouble causing accidents they really shouldn't? Oh yeah. And judging by the number of comments here defending dangerous behavior, they are absolutely right. Does this apply to every single young gamer on the planet? Of course not. Studies are done with random samples. Insurance companies have to generalize to make a profit. They spread the risk around to thousands of different people so that when one idiot makes a $100,000 claim, everyone else's premiums pay for it.

I was once a young gamer myself. I routinely drove 150+ on my motorcycle on public roads. I was lucky and never caused an accident. I had a friend named Anthony that wasn't so lucky. He died when he smacked the side of van at three times the speed limit. He broke the leg of a person in the van, who then sued his family for everything they were worth. An extreme example? Yes. But ask yourself this: How many Asians, geriatrics, and women do I know that could potentially wind up doing something like that? How many buddies do I have that could potentially wind up doing the same thing? If you have more buddies that engage in more risky behavior, it's more likely that they'll screw up. Pretty simple math.

 

[cpatel1987]

@RevolutionRed: I don't mean to sound rude, but going 150+ mph in a public road, which I'm gonna assume has a high 45 mph speed limit, is a lot more reckless than going 80 in a 55 mph highway zone. And I hope you don't do that now. That is just plain reckless, frankly gives no appreciation to those driving around you, or worse, crossing, and gives young people a terrible stereotype of how most really drive, which, is NOT that.

From the start of having my license, I've been going 80 in a 55 mph highways for the longest time. I personally have never had an accident and going for 7 years. Now in car license speak, that's not much, but to make it out of my teenage and adolescent years without an accident is not something everyone can say.

 

[molo9000]

correlation =/= causality.

One of the first things you learn in a statistics class.
(Best example: there's a statistical correlation between stork population and number of babies born. Do storks bring babies?)

My guess is that road raging, fast & reckless drivers are much more likely to play racing games than the kind of people who see driving only as a means for getting from A to B.

 

[hannibal]

One thing is that recles driving is actually bad driving...
Being young several lightg years ago, I know that it is fun to drive fast, but was it because I was a good driver then... most bropably not. I didn't have any accidents, but some close situations. So recles driving is = bad driving IMHO.
But playing driving games =/= is not same as being bad driver. So comment about correlation and causality are valid! It may be better to say that improved reflexses and better car handling does not correlate with better driving. Then the announcement would have been more accurate...

 

[Ciuy]

DUH!!!!