Study shows gamers get a thrill out of dying

By Mark O’Neill

Not being a gamer, I wouldn’t know myself. But according to Wired, a new study just out has shown that gamers get distressed at shooting their opponents dead but they get very happy when they get killed themselves.

According to the piece :

Ravajas (the study author) isn’t entirely sure why gamers feel this way, though he has theories. If we feel distress when we kill an in-game opponent, it may be because it violates our ingrained sense of morality; we know killing is bad, even when it’s virtual.

His much weirder experimental result, though, is our thrill at dying. Ravajas thinks this might occur because getting killed is “transient relief from engagement”: A first-person shooter is so incredibly stressful that we’re happy to get any respite, even if it requires being blown to pieces.

What do you think? When you get blown to pieces in a computer game, are you annoyed as hell or are you completely exhilarated that you’re being hacked to pieces by a two-headed monster with a bad breath problem and a bad attitude?