Gamers Far Worse Drivers than Non-Gamers

No surprise there.

-_-

Facepalm, like we care. They make studies like this to prove that we don't measure up to the rest of society ignoring the obvious.

Not going to release my age, but suffice to say, I fit the demographic. I started driving at 16, licened by 18. To date I have had 2 vehicles, a 1998 Pontiac Bonneville, and my current, a 1986 Jeep Cherokee with a manual transmission (stick shift). To date, I have hit 3 curbs, and accidentally backed into my mothers car once (damage was mostly cosmetic). I have been gaming since 12 when I got the original Xbox. I have played every NFS title (technically they are my brothers, but I entertain them) and most of both the midnight club, and Forza series.

I say that to say this, bad driving is bad driving. Here is a study for you, every member of my family is middle class. Most of us are day labor, several are farmers. I have witnessed one accident, the people involved were both fairly affluent (I say this because they were driving new cars). According to this study, rich people are crappy drivers. This study seems to fit, as rich people tend to have game money.

Yeah, I know. Thats all crap, and so my point is made.

Frald out. Goodnight folks.

Worse drivers doesn't mean the same thing as more legal/safer drivers. There's a huge difference. Huge.

Worse drivers doesn't mean the same thing as more legal/safer drivers. There's a huge difference. Huge.

Worse drivers doesn't mean the same thing as more legal/safer drivers. There's a huge difference. Huge.

"The most important issues for driving safely are concentration, an appreciation of road and vehicle conditions and an awareness of potential risks,"

I agree, so how do testing things like how many insurance claims they file or how many red lights they run prove they lack concentration or perspective? Professional drivers do not prove how skilled they are by driving at the speed limit and stopping at red lights. The gamers break more rules and take more risks because they're more comfortable doing so. If the results were something more direct such as comparing the accidents of the two test groups under the exact same driving conditions then they might be more meaningful, but just asking vague questions like this are an inaccurate testing method. The gamer group might drive in more dangerous areas or during more congested times of day than the nongamer group, corrupting the results.

It's pretty sad how so few of these "research groups" seem to understand the basic scientific methods of testing taught in grade school.

Thank you. That is an excellent point, but I counter point.

I drive pretty hot, especially for the old truck. But I ALWAYS have plenty of clearance.

Example, I spent a week in albany pulling a 1000Lb trailer in town. I routinly passed people, and ran at the speed limit. During the whole week, I had one horn blown at me, and that was because the guy didn't see my blinker after 50Yds.

It is my opinion that test groups are selected based on the desired results.

A "Good" driver and a safe driver are two different things. The people in the survey have two different definitions of a good driver. If you have manual transmission and heel-toe brake a corner successfully are you a good driver? If you have no wrecks on your record are you automatically a good driver? So Good-safe, Good-risky, Bad-risky, and Bad-safe are more likely and fair compared to just good and bad.

I would say racing video games make people shift from safe to risky drivers... not good to bad.

Another trend is that those who are insulted by a study result, call it BS.

Am I the only person who read the title of this and thought they were talking about software drivers instead of actually driving a vehicle?

God, am I tired...

Before the age of sophisticated next-gen consoles I witnessed no end of idiots racing round the streets in their chav boxes, music bleating out whilst they tail-gate, drive too fast, break too late, or just menace other people off the road thinking they own it. I don't think a certain element really needs good driving games to fire their enthusiasm to act like pricks..

lol matt, nice one. Join me on the front-side-bus as we prepare for hyper-transport yaaaaaay. Goodnight xD.

No one cares...
Plus, good drivers dont play need for speed, they play LFS or GTR and some might say GT5, and to some extent forza.
I like to play racing cars, and havent taken the GT5 disk out of my PS3 since it came out. But i dont like to drive that fast... most of my friends call me granny. I actually just got my license 5 months ago, when i decided i was mature enough to have it (i'm 23) I know i already drive a lot better then most people will ever drive. But that in itself doesnt make me a maniac... I particularly hate to drive fast, not because I dont know how to, but because people are insane, and i'm not in a god dam closed circuit inside a carbon fiber monoque with flame resistent clothing.
Being an A-hole while driving cant be linked to gaming with this test, as it doesnt distinguish which comes first... If playing racing games leads to being an A-hole, or if A-hole drivers tend to be attracted to games. Drinving A-holes have been around for a lot longer then racing games.
Oh and btw has anyone ever seen a gamer entering a motorway going the wrong way?

You missed the point of the comment. The whole point in the anicdote was that games have no bearing on the ability to drive well.

As for your driving style, thats very good. The only reason I drive hot is because I know my abilities, and I know my vehicle. I don't exceed the speed limit (except when passing occasionally), and I always make sure to have a comfortable distance to anything. None of these things came from games, the came from actually driving.

While I'm impressed with their sample size, the study fails to show if playing racing games actually causes people to drive more erratically. This is a correlational study. There is a relationship between the two. However we can't tell if erratic drivers are more likely to play racing games or people who play racing games are more erratic drivers.

If they want to show that racing games cause people to drive erratically, bring some non-gamers into the lab, introduce them to a racing game, and record their progress over a few months.

'Grandma is that Need for Speed?'
"Shut up nub. There are cookies for you in the oven."

because in video games... a red light is a green light

here is a fun fact.

every car in america, is illegal to drive.
a cop has told me once, that if they want to pull you over, they can, because no car is every 100% street legal. the laws are so convoluted that ANYTHING can be illegal.

yeh i believe those studies like i believe women drive better... and they have cheaper insurance because of it....

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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/genera [...] aming.html

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...

I thought AMD had the worst drivers...

I am sure the US Air Force disagrees.

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

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