Games Make You Drive Faster?

Mike Fahey — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:20:40 MST

Prestigious British driving school BSM recently took a survey of 1,000 drivers between the ages of 16-24 regarding how their driving habits are affected by video games, and the results showed that 27% admitted to taking more risks on the road after playing a racing game, with a quarter saying they pretend they are actually in the video game when they drive. A BSM road safety consultant said this presented an indisputable link between gaming and dangerous driving.

What the survey fails to take into account is the fact that most drivers between the ages of 16-24 suck, and probably shouldn't be driving in the first place. No offense to any young drivers out there, but it's true. I'd daresay some of them are better off imagining they're in a video game.

Besides, everything you do affects how you drive. Take it from David Perry, who randomly showed up in the BBC article I took the story from.

"Anything that affects your emotions will affect how you drive. The guy in front, the music on the stereo...those are the things that make you speed up, not a game you played an hour ago."

In short, this study is stupid, and the creator of Earthworm Jim agrees. Thank you for your time. Michael Fahey

Games 'make drivers go faster' [BBC NEWS - Thanks Mr_Fujisawa!]

Games Make You Drive Like an Idiot

Mike Fahey — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:40:06 MST

Three teens in New Zealand died on Christmas Eve when they led the police on a high speed chase which ended with a crash into a pine tree and a roll down a gully. Now the New Zealand Herald reports that a national transport spokesperson is blaming bad teen driving on video games.

National's transport spokesman Maurice Williamson says today's young people think they are bullet-proof. He blames Playstations and X-boxes for making teens think they can drive stupidly and just push the reset button if anything goes wrong.

Not sure I buy his conclusion there. I thought scientists had conclusively proven that stupid teen driving is caused almost exclusively by being stupid and a teenager. I'm not even seeing any proof to indicate that these kids even owned video game systems. I mean hell, if they did they'd be home playing, not leading the police on a 190KPH chase through downtown Auckland. I suppose something has to be a scapegoat in situation like this. It's not PC to just call the kids retarded and be done with it. Michael Fahey

Computer games blamed for teen road deaths [NZHerald.co.nz via Destructoid]

Kotaku: games are bad

Games Make You Drive Faster?

Games Make You Drive Like an Idiot