Gamers' fear is real

Today's popular video games are anything but mindless. So engaged do players become, concludes a new study, that the common fear they experience is very real. In fact, hardcore gamers say they enjoy feeling afraid.

Results of an Indiana University study of college students indicate that emotional reactions to playing violent or intense video games, more than similarly themed movies or TV, are as keenly felt by players as emotions elicited in "real" life. Apparently that's because players get more involved in the content of games such as "Resident Evil," "Call of Duty," "Silent Hill," and "Amnesia: the Dark Descent," interacting with screen characters and events in a way that heightens the experience. That's probably why so many players enjoy such games to perceived extremes, playing for hours on end.

So far there has been little formal research examining video game-induced fear; previous research focused primarily on non-interactive media such as film. The IU findings were published in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media.

"It was interesting to see how the fright reactions that people had, how the emotional experiences that they were having, differed from those reported with non-interactive media," assistant researcher Teresa Lynch - also a self-styled gamer - told Science Daily in June. "There are a lot more of these anxious feelings ... and an enjoyment of that fear."

Nearly half those studied said they enjoy feeling scared, some explaining that they liked "surviving" the zombies, evil characters, and dark themes. Researchers speculated that part of that was knowing no actual harm could result, and noted that players wanted to talk about it, even when questions were optional.

Men and women responded to the stimuli similarly; however, women were less drawn to the most violent games. Researchers observed that emotional responses in males and females, regarding both fear impulses and bravery choices, were the same, and speculated that such notions of different gender experiences of fear are likely societal phenomena. Study subjects played the games alone, so gender relation dynamics were not a factor.

What scared gamers the most?

Although survival horror comprised more than half of fear-inducing games cited, other things also induced fear responses. A third of those cited as fear-causing were shooting games. Frequent fear factors included darkness, zombies, and the unknown. So were feeling hunted and overwhelmed or helpless. Games presented in first-person perspective (and feel more closely interactive) were more fear-inducing than those presented in third-person. Natural disasters, the weather, fantasy animals and vampires were among those cited least frequently as fear-inducing.

Scrabble, anyone?

Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.