Why Online Games Make Players Act Like Psychopaths

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It's the same reason that games like Pac-Man turned us all into pill popping ghost chasers and Mario made us turtle crushing plumbers? Oh...wait. ;)

That’s when I realized that my moral code in this virtual world was highly situational. When I was safe, clothed, and armed, my instinct was to help the girl that JB shot. When I was naked and alone, I felt no qualms about butchering a guy with a rock if I thought it would help me survive. What did I have to lose? It’s a lot harder to maintain one’s morals when you’re at the bottom of the food chain. I wondered if that rule would also apply if I were to lose everything in real life.
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I think it's a pretty good article actually. It's also hard because people know it isn't real, thus the moral calculations are different. Further, since a game cannot come close to bringing in all the calculations from real life and it has artificial constraints, it can create incentives specific to the game that don't carry over to real life (incentives to kill rather than help or vice versa).
 
For once an article that lives up to and exceeds its click-bait title. Great article actually, with a profound conclusion IMO.
 
If anything, this brings out what people are capable of if normal inhibitions are removed, constraints changed, and penalties reduced. That does not automatically make the players who do bad things inside the game psychopaths. The consequences in the game - losing your stuff and respawning with nothing - are still not nearly as close to severe as real world consequences. In the real world, if you die, you die. There are real attachments to family and friends. Taking a risk, such as robbing and killing someone, comes with much more severe consequences. Even in total anarchy some people will still encounter some kind of line they're unwilling to cross, and others will do things they didn't think they were capable of - either heroic, or hideous. It depends on the person, and nobody can predict exactly how they'll react in that kind of crisis situation.

As much as I am loathe to ever give the human race credit, this is one area I must. Human behavior is historically much better than this kind of game scenario could ever depict. If not, homo sapiens would have gone extinct from infighting, poor management of resources, and excessive risk taking. The game is a fantasy scenario, nothing more. I don't think anyone should read too much into it.
 
This is stupid. Reality is crime rates have gone down since the dawn of computer games. The only thing that makes computer players violent...their nature. Some people are just born violent, games make no difference.
 
Seen a 9 year old boy (he was pretty vocal telling all of his 'friends') at the local park on Memorial Day totting a black eye, being a wild and insane child that made me want to leave. Yelling and screaming, 10,000 MPH. Once he started throwing rocks around me and my 3 year old, I had to yell at him to knock it off since no parent was in sight. We left shortly after that.

I'll just say that I don't think Call Of Duty had anything to do with it. He must have some awesome parents to have a black eye and such wonderful problem solving skills, let alone that amount of energy exertion. Good grief.
 
Let's face it.....there are a lot of assholes on this planet. Unfortunately, asshole parents usually raise asshole children.
 
Im my entire time playing dayz, I could never kill another player who claimed to be friendly... this got me killed ALOT
 
I think what bothers me about a game like this being taken as some sort of evidence about psychology is that the game is set up in every way to encourage violence. Meanwhile, there are no means of interacting in ways that build stability or order, even if you want to. There are benefits to murder, but no real benefits of cooperation. In the real world, there are loads of benefits of cooperation.
 
Seen a guy in Duke Nukem Forver one time middle eastern guy after he won the game he goes "YOU FU$%$IN Suck thought it was pretty funny.

Usually these people have no life no job no childhood.
 
Personally, I don't enjoy games that are too Nihilist in nature ... even in a gaming environment I don't like to do things that offend my moral code (even virtually) ... in Fallout 3 this locked me out of some quests as I just didn't find the slaver or some of the assassination quests palatable ... in Bioshock this meant that I "rescued" the Little Sisters rather than "harvesting" them ... for many, computers have always been about escape (you can do things in the virtual environment that you would never do in real life) and there is nothing wrong with that for normal folks ... it is only those few people with mental illnesses that would actually be harmed by the virtual environments ... and even doing psychotic or psychopathic things in a game environment would have no impact on a normal person's behavior in the non game environment (at least until games become much more visceral and interactive) :cool:
 
I agree the constraints of the game world (not being real, mainly) causes people to be crazy/act like dicks in-game. Possibly, certain people who had pre-existing issues to begin with might be "tipped" by the wrong stimuli, but otherwise translating it to the real world is silly.

That said, when people feel anonymous and protected, they tend to act in different ways.
 
This kind of talk is just dangerous. If people try to link up what people do in video games to real life. We would all be locked up in prison for the thousands of people we have "killed" while playing a video game. Slippery vertical cliff.
 
m heisty said:
This kind of talk is just dangerous. If people try to link up what people do in video games to real life. We would all be locked up in prison for the thousands of people we have "killed" while playing a video game. Slippery vertical cliff.
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Luckily there is a vast difference between the sanitary violence (physically speaking) of video games and the extremely messy violence of real life ... real violence attacks all your senses ... there is a reason that people entering a particularly violent crime scene (in real life) may vomit or become physically ill ... the sights and smells of real violence are much more intimidating that computer violence ... realistically I don't think it even desensitizes you to violence (if you are a healthy adult) since your brain can judge the difference between pointing a virtual gun at a virtual head and shooting and pointing a real gun at a real head and doing the same ;)
 
One additional note, it is not easy to teach people to kill ... this is why military training targets the young (as they are easier to teach this to ... as was illustrated by the excellent documentary, "Anybody's Son Will Do") ... video games are just that, however (a game) ... a healthy brain knows this (just as a healthy brain can differentiate between a dream and the real world, while an unhealthy brain cannot) ... games cannot (in their current state) alter this equation ... nor can they turn a person into a killer (like comprehensive military training might be able to) ;)
 
kbrickley said:
One additional note, it is not easy to teach people to kill ... this is why military training targets the young (as they are easier to teach this to ... as was illustrated by the excellent documentary, "Anybody's Son Will Do") ... video games are just that, however (a game) ... a healthy brain knows this (just as a healthy brain can differentiate between a dream and the real world, while an unhealthy brain cannot) ... games cannot (in their current state) alter this equation ... nor can they turn a person into a killer (like comprehensive military training might be able to) ;)
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I can only sit and agree with this, somewhat. I have gone to a shooting range and fired a real weapon. It's believe it or not, not very easy for someone to "pull the trigger" I had to fight my mind every time I did. Video games and like you said anyone with a healthy mind can easily tell the difference (though I do worry about my bro's state of mind). Where video games have gone wrong though is they depict killing with being cool or being with the "in-crowd" this in my opinion is where that healthy mind goes sour. Video games make killing fun and give the persona of it being right. I dont think however that they can make killer or mass murders.
 
Pulling the trigger on a gun at a paper target is easy, blasting pixels into chunks is easy, killing real people is not for most people, and should not be for the few that it is. I don't let " irl morality" get in the way of my gaming. It's not real, so generally my real life morality does not apply to games.
 
Sorry, I think it's a bogus concept. As long as the world is virtual then your morality is nothing more then a construct, at best you mimic your normal self because hey, you're already trained and the monkey will do what the monkey always does. I think it's fallacious to try and see correlations to reality in a virtual world because although we can point out the things that make it similar, the things that aren't there are legion. For instance, smell. If you think smell doesn't matter then your not such a bright animal after all. The scent others exude has a profound impact on how you might treat them. But smell is simply not there in a game yet. What about your sense of well being? Do you think a colored bar that represents how hungry you are actually is representative of actually being hungry and desperate, not even close. And if you are a little hurt, being cognitively aware that your virtual character has a bad sprain doesn't add up to being in pain every step you take knowing you can't escape a conflict. That this writer sees or imagines some kind of reality in today's virtual reality only tells me he's bored or looking to support some kind of agenda because it's stupid.
 
By Metrea;
Video games make killing fun and give the persona of it being right.
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I am sorry Metrea but your statement makes me ask a question. Have you ever actually killed anything other then a bug?

I have, trust me I truly have and there is absolutely nothing in this world similar to killing a real living person and a representation in a game, mob or player makes no difference. Now if a person already has a warped mind and a problem with reality, well all bets are off and I can't speak for them. But no healthy minded person who has ever killed as in a hunter or someone who was in a really bad traffic accident would ever tell you there is a similarity or a correlation. Just take it from someone who knows.
 
Clearly this only applies to Brits.

But I like the concept in the game of if you die you really die and lose all your shit. Then have to start over as another character. I might consider it.
 
Course it's not a new idea, many games in the past offered perma-death or perma-death was the only option. In Diablo2 they called it "Hardcore" and if you created a Hardcore character then death was the end and the only way not to lose your equipment was to have allowed other players to loot your corpse, if they were buddies then they could return your equipment to you, if not, it was their lucky day.
 
I've got to admit, the first time I played super mario brothers I went outside and jumped on the head of every kid I saw..
 
MrGoodbar said:
You.....Bastard.... Those aliens have families and children, you murderer.
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haha

I am sorry Metrea but your statement makes me ask a question. Have you ever actually killed anything other then a bug?

I have, trust me I truly have and there is absolutely nothing in this world similar to killing a real living person and a representation in a game, mob or player makes no difference. Now if a person already has a warped mind and a problem with reality, well all bets are off and I can't speak for them. But no healthy minded person who has ever killed as in a hunter or someone who was in a really bad traffic accident would ever tell you there is a similarity or a correlation. Just take it from someone who knows.
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No I have not killed anything in my life with a gun/ knife or any other object, I hope I never have to. I wasn't saying that there is a connection. I was stating that video games don't make a person a killer. I simply am saying that video games instill the wrong ideas about killing into younger generations like my brother who has grown up around shooting games his whole life.
 
That’s when I realized that my moral code in this virtual world was highly situational. When I was safe, clothed, and armed, my instinct was to help the girl that JB shot. When I was naked and alone, I felt no qualms about butchering a guy with a rock if I thought it would help me survive. What did I have to lose? It’s a lot harder to maintain one’s morals when you’re at the bottom of the food chain. I wondered if that rule would also apply if I were to lose everything in real life.
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South and West sides of Chicago ... nuff said.
 
Metrea said:
haha



No I have not killed anything in my life with a gun/ knife or any other object, I hope I never have to. I wasn't saying that there is a connection. I was stating that video games don't make a person a killer. I simply am saying that video games instill the wrong ideas about killing into younger generations like my brother who has grown up around shooting games his whole life.
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Well, I grew up around shooting guns my whole life. That never made me into a killer, and I play violent video games too.

Your thought process is flawed.
 
BBA said:
Well, I grew up around shooting guns my whole life. That never made me into a killer, and I play violent video games too.

Your thought process is flawed.
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Once again I am not saying that they make people into killers. I am just saying that to relate video games to the pressures your are faced with when actually firing a weapon is harder then they make it seem. That is where I am worried about my brother, because he thinks it's fun and funny to shot people and it's already progressing to reality.
 
Then your brother needs a dog. He needs a dog and one day when that dog get's F'd up chasing a truck and he needs to be put out of his misery, then he needs an opportunity to help his friend leave this world, to relieve him of his suffering. He'll never think of killing or shooting anything the same way again. Time to move to the country Bro.
 
lcpiper said:
Then your brother needs a dog. He needs a dog and one day when that dog get's F'd up chasing a truck and he needs to be put out of his misery, then he needs an opportunity to help his friend leave this world, to relieve him of his suffering. He'll never think of killing or shooting anything the same way again. Time to move to the country Bro.
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I sincerely hope there are other ways of learning empathy than this. :p
 
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