Cool Magazine: GAMING

Showing posts with label GAMING. Show all posts

10 Most Expensive Items Sold That Don’t Actually Exist

By Mahmoud Alomda On January 14, 2018 In GAMING

If you have ever played an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) or similar video game online, you know that some people can get a little crazy when it comes to that one item or even location they simply must have. What you may not know is that there are people out there who will pay a lot of real-world currency for digital items and the amounts can get insane.

If you thought it was crazy that you dropped $19.95 on a game you were already playing for free on your phone, you fell victim to microtransactions, but that is not what we are talking about here. These items exist only within the game worlds they came out of, and people paid a ton of cash for them.

10Revenant Supercarrier (EVE Online) $9K

The purchase of this item comes with a rather sad story. A player decided it would be best to drop nearly ten grand on the purchase of a special spaceship in the game EVE Online. The game has its own currency called Interstellar Kredits, but they have a real-world cash value, so when someone dropped 309 billion ISK on the Revenant Supercarrier, they clearly were not messing around since that translated into a whopping $9,000! That is a lot of money for most people, but especially so given what happened next.

10 Craziest Events In The History Of Chess

By Ahmad Alomda On March 25, 2017 In GAMING

Chess is the greatest war game ever invented. There are only 64 squares and 32 pieces, but the game’s complexity boggles the imagination. The mathematician Claude Shannon, the “Father of Information Theory,” once calculated the number of unique games that could be played. The answer was a jaw-dropping 10120, which is more than the number of atoms in the known universe (1081).

Considering the staggering possibilities inherent in the game, some believe playing chess could possibly lead to insanity. However, there is no proof that chess drives it devotees mad. Perhaps mad people gravitate toward chess because it helps keep them sane.

10The Sugar Bomb

Chess masters are known to employ strange methods to win their games. Ruy Lopez, the famous 16th-century Spanish priest and chess player, once advised, “Sit your opponent with the sun in his eyes.” Another player named Lucena once recommended, “Try to play after your opponent has eaten or drunk freely.”

In the 19th century, Harry Nelson Pillsbury attributed his clear thinking to puffing on a cigar during his games. On the other hand, Szymon Winawer said he deliberately smoked bad cigars so the odor would mess with his opponent’s concentration. And at the 1935 World Championship, the superstitious Alexander Alekhine would place his Siamese cat on the chessboard before a game as a good luck charm. Alekhine was also allegedly hoping for an allergic reaction from his opponent. When he was forbidden to play with the cat on his lap, Alekhine turned to wearing a sweater with a picture of his pet on it.

So we are left wondering what Rosendo Balinas was trying to pull off at the 1979 Lone Pine tournament. A Filipino grand master, Balinas was playing against Jeremy Silman. The game started off quietly enough, but 10 turns later, things got a little bit crazy. According to Silman’s eyewitness account:

At this point, Balinas placed a thermos filled with hot tea on the table. Then he put a big cup of honey next to it. I expected him to take a bit of honey and mix it in with the tea, but instead he shocked me! He took the tea, poured it into the honey (which turned into a thick goo), and then drank every bit of it. Appalled, I noticed that his eyes immediately glazed over as the sugar hit his brain. Then, smiling, he continued the game.

But the Filipino was in a stupor after that incomprehensible act of self-sabotage. He lasted only another 12 moves. Silman was so sorry for him that he took no pleasure in his easy win.

9The Weirdest World Championship

Photo credit: 1, 2

Chess is above all a mind game, and players sometimes go to ridiculous lengths to psych out their opponents. But for sheer insanity, the World Championship showdown between Viktor Korchnoi (pictured left) and Anatoly Karpov (pictured right) takes the cake.

The two grand masters were intense rivals. Karpov was a member of the Communist Party and a model of the “Soviet New Man.” Like every chess player who brought honors to the Soviet state, Karpov was rewarded with a Mercedes, a chauffeur, a Moscow apartment, and a country dacha. Korchnoi, on the other hand, was a rebel who defected to the Netherlands in 1976 and constantly criticized the Soviet system. To the Soviets, the Jewish Korchnoi was a diseased and immoral character.

The 1972 title match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky proved that the Cold War could be fought as intensely on a chessboard as on an actual battlefield. In 1978, Fischer had forfeited his title, and the free world was now represented by Korchnoi. His showdown with Karpov, the ice-cold calculator from behind the Iron Curtain, took place in Baguio, Philippines.

For their first game, Korchnoi wore mirrored sunglasses to hide his eyes from Karpov’s stare, which had bothered him in a previous match. Karpov complained that the mirrors reflected the light into his eyes. Karpov also requested that Korchnoi’s chair be examined for “prohibited devices” (presumably the mind-zapping kind) and distracted his opponent by swiveling in his own chair during games.

Korchnoi’s camp then objected to the yogurt delivered to Karpov during games, suggesting that the color might be some sort of coded message. Perhaps a strawberry yogurt signified one move and raspberry another. Korchnoi was also bothered by a member of the Soviet entourage named Vladimir Zukhar, a parapsychologist who would sit in the front row and stare malevolently at him. Korchnoi suspected that Zukhar was hypnotizing him and interfering with his brain waves. Thanks to the “psychic,” Korchnoi was a nervous wreck by the seventh game.

To counteract Zukhar, Korchnoi brought in Dada and Didi, two members of an Indian sect called Ananda Marga. Zukhar had the two mystics teach him yoga and transcendental meditation. It was now the Soviet delegation’s turn to be unsettled when Dada and Didi hovered around them during the games.

Revived, Korchnoi came back from being three games behind to leveling the score at five to five. Whoever won the next game would become the champion. There was an unsubstantiated claim that the KGB was ready to poison Korchnoi. If true, his life was probably spared when he lost the tiebreaker. After failing to beat Karpov in their grudge match, Korchnoi said he would bring along the CIA next time around. Moscow simply laughed him off.

8Chess And Espionage

It is not strange that the KGB would be so involved in chess. The game lends itself perfectly to cloak-and-dagger operations. And since the USSR was a chess-crazy country, disguising communications as chess moves was an ideal cover. The KGB actually had a section on chess in its handbooks. In the ’60s and ’70s, the Soviet embassy in Washington kept a chess expert on staff who was also a KGB agent. According to defector Lev Alburt, many of his fellow Soviet grand masters were “KGB infiltrators.”

In 2009, a number of postcards surfaced, all addressed to Graham Mitchell. Mitchell was a deputy director general of the British MI5 during the 1950s. As for the cryptic notes, they all discussed chess games, and experts suspect they were some kind of code. The postcards are thought to have been sent by an undercover agent from Frankfurt, a hub of espionage activity during the Cold War. They contain chess notations to describe various moves. However, they’re probably ciphers with secret information. Hidden messages could also have been couched within the suspicious-sounding text. For example, the agent writes:

Without against Dr Balogh I always have now hard fights in my games.

Against Collins I have been fallen into a variation of the Nimzowich-defense who surely should be lost!

I shall try to find a new idea for defending. But only a little hope. But all my games go forward in a quick way.

Have I sent to you any games from me? And what happened in your games?

9. . . 5435 10. 1432 12.-16./6. 16./6. = od

It is not known if the agent was working for MI5, as Mitchell was suspected of being a Soviet spy at the time. As head of counterespionage, Mitchell could have been recruiting double agents for the KGB. No evidence of treason was ever found, however, and Mitchell retired in 1963.

The close affinity between chess and code breaking also led Alastair Denniston, directory of Bletchley Park, to recruit chess players to decode the German Enigma machine during World War II. Chess masters Harry Golombek, Hugh Alexander, and Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Berry immediately withdrew from the 1939 Chess Olympiad to report to Bletchley Park. The most prominent member of the code breaking team, mathematician Alan Turing, later created a chess program . . . years before the necessary computers to run such a program even existed.

7The Chess Prodigy Who Renounced Chess

Photo credit: Wikimedia

In recent years, chess has become a pretty high-stakes game, politically, ideologically, and monetarily. However, that hasn’t always been the case. In fact, the first unofficial world champion would be appalled by the giant prizes dangled in front of modern competitors. Paul Morphy (pictured left) abhorred the taint of professionalism, once writing to a rival, “Permit me to repeat that I am not a professional player; that I never wished to make any skill I possess the means of pecuniary advancement, and that my earnest wish is never to play for any sake but honor.”

However, Morphy’s superhuman powers on the chessboard astounded his contemporaries. Born in New Orleans in 1837, Paul was a child prodigy who was beating his father and uncle by age 10. He’d never consulted a chess book, yet he was handling the pieces with an intuitively precise grasp of strategy and tactics. At age 13, he shocked the chess world by defeating the Hungarian master Johann Lowenthal (pictured right). It then became Morphy’s great ambition to defeat the best masters in the US and Europe.

After earning his law degree in 1857, Morphy set out on his insane quest. Howard Staunton, Britain’s star player, avoided him and was accused of cowardice. In Paris, Morphy played eight opponents simultaneously, neither eating nor drinking for 10 hours until all succumbed to his brilliance. Oh, and did we mention that he was blindfolded? (The moves were called out so he could visualize them.)

But in his tours of European chess circles, the idealistic Morphy was disgusted at how the game was being made into a business. While Morphy loved chess itself, he was repelled by this practice. He was further alienated from the game when he saw how it took him away from more important things, particularly his law career. However, people were more interested in Morphy the chess player than Morphy the lawyer, and his practiced folded after a few months. Adding insult to injury, a girl he was courting rejected the idea of marrying a “mere chess player.”

Frustrated, Morphy simply gave up on the game. He was reluctant to even play privately, and he never again dazzled the world with his power. Many tried to cajole him out of his aversion to the game. Once, a financially desperate Morphy approached an old friend to borrow $200. The friend said he would make it $250 if Morphy played a game with him. Grudgingly, Morphy agreed, but he showed his distaste by deliberately losing. Afterward, he left without bothering to collect his money.

On another occasion, Morphy was informed that the self-proclaimed world champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, was in New Orleans and wanted to see him. Morphy reluctantly agreed to a meeting on the condition that chess must not even be alluded to. After an embarrassing 10 minutes with nothing to discuss, Morphy and Steinitz parted ways.

In his later life, Morphy began showing signs of insanity. He suspected his brother-in-law of trying to poison him and refused to eat unless the food was prepared by his mother or sister. Morphy believed barbers were planning to slit his throat. He haunted Canal Street in New Orleans, muttering and smiling to himself, all while swinging his cane at anyone who approached him. He also stalked attractive women around town for hours.

Morphy’s relatives tried to commit him to an asylum, but he defended his sanity with clever expositions on his civil liberties, thus convincing officials to let him go. Sadly, Paul Morphy, the “Pride and Sorrow of Chess,” died in his home on July 10, 1884.

6The World Champion Who Defeated God

Photo credit: Wikimedia

Wilhelm Steinitz forever changed the way chess is played with his revolutionary theories, thus earning him the title of the “Father of Modern Chess.” Steinitz did away with the Romantic era of chess—a period when unsound attacks and flashy sacrifices were the norm—and substituted a more scientific and analytical way of playing.

Steinitz was born in Prague in 1836 to Jewish parents. Unlike Paul Morphy, he wasn’t loath to earn a living from chess. He defeated the world’s best player, Adolf Anderssen, in 1866 and proclaimed himself world champion. But his egotism and bad temper earned him few fans. Nevertheless, he defended his title ably. Steinitz played his match against Mikhail Tchigorin of Russia via cable. Steinitz was in New York, and Tchigorin was in Havana. New York police arrested Steinitz as a spy because they misinterpreted his chess moves as spy-talk.

The use of technology to play long-distance chess took a weird turn when Steinitz supposedly claimed that he used a telephone to call God and beat Him at chess, even after giving Him an extra pawn. This was an age when electricity was largely a mystery. The telephone was still in its infancy. It was also the heyday of spiritualism, and it was speculated that electricity might have something to do with the equally mysterious realm of the supernatural. If God, angels, and spirits were electrical entities as some supposed, then perhaps it was possible to communicate with them by electrical means.

The story of Steinitz defeating God is likely a garbled conflation of two separate incidents. In the first, Steinitz contemplated the possibility of telephoning or telegraphing God. In the second, he speculated on his results should he challenge God at chess. Taken in that context, it’s hard to interpret the story as a sign of Steinitz’s madness, as some historians have.

Still, there’s no doubt that Steinitz had mental issues. Whether they were caused by chess or some other factor is a matter of dispute. Either way, in 1899, his condition grew worse after failing in a London tournament. Steinitz had to be shut up inside a sanatorium. Tragically, the chess champion passed away on August 12, 1900, poor and insane.

5The Jew Who Dined With Nazis

Photo credit: Wikimedia

Aron Nimzowitsch rescued chess from the rigidity of doctrine that followed Steinitz’s reformation. Nimzowitsch taught the chess world new strategic principles and more creative ways of approaching the game. His theories were ridiculed and mocked at first, but the new vitality they brought to the board was adopted by more and more players. Today, Nimzowitsch’s hypermodern style has been vindicated.

Nimzowitsch was born in 1886 in Riga, Latvia. His father, a Hasidic Jew, was a chess player of master strength. As a child, Aron occupied himself with the study of the Talmud. But after learning chess at age eight, he began to play seriously. By the early 20th century, Nimzowitsch was among the chess heavyweights. He became a Danish citizen in 1922.

Like many players, Nimzowitsch had a peculiar streak. His most famous tantrum came when he jumped on a table after a loss and shouted, “Why must I lose to this idiot?” As his friend Hans Kmoch recalled:

Nimzowitsch suffered from the delusion that he was unappreciated and that the reason was malice. His paranoia was most evident when he dined in company. He always thought he was served much smaller portions than everyone else. He didn’t care about the actual amount but only about the imagined affront. I once suggested that he and I order what the other actually wanted and, when the food was served, exchange plates. After we had done so, he shook his head in disbelief, still thinking that he had received the smaller portion.

In one tournament in Bled, Yugoslavia, Nimzowitsch showed up at the playing hall in only a bathrobe. As the queen of Yugoslavia was due any moment, Kmoch took his friend by the neck and kicked him out the door. Then there was the time that a doctor told Nimzowitsch to exercise more often, so he complied by doing calisthenics during games. According to grand master Reuben Fine, he actually stood on his head as he waited for his turn to move.

With Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s, Europe became a much more dangerous place for Jews like Nimzowitsch. However, Nimzowitsch was confident because he was protected by three consulates: the Latvian, the Danish, and the Dutch (he worked for a newspaper in the Netherlands). He boasted of this protection to Reich Minister Hans Frank. This was the same Hans Frank who would later mass murder Jews in Poland, so Nimzowitsch was flirting with disaster.

In 1934, Germany hosted the Alekhine-Bogoljubov world championship match, and Nimzowitsch followed the games as a reporter. One day, a high-ranking Nazi official entered the press room. Nimzowitsch demanded his credentials and when the Nazi failed to show them, the reporter ordered him out. The shocked onlookers fully expected the Nazi to fall on the Jew who dared boss him around. But the German simply left. Hans Frank also watched the games and invited the group to his villa for lunch. At the table, Nimzowitsch’s paranoia surfaced again, and he began complaining that his plate and knife were dirty. Opposite him, the future “Butcher of Poland” pretended not to hear.

Nimzowitsch was lucky his boorishness didn’t get him killed. He died of pneumonia in 1935. The entire Nimzowitsch family, save for an older sister, was wiped out during the Holocaust.

4Simultaneous And Blindfolded

Photo credit: Wikimedia

Playing chess without sight is an amazing feat of memory. Doing it simultaneously against more than one opponent makes it even more awesome. It was once considered so miraculous that in the Middle Ages, one observer thought that a blindfolded player was in league with the Devil. When Francois-Andre Philidor (pictured above) defeated two opponents in a blindfold game in the 18th century, eyewitnesses were asked to sign affidavits confirming it really happened.

Most masters can normally visualize positions in their heads. The Cuban champion Jose Raul Capablanca even found it unnecessary to own a chess set at home. If he had to set up a position physically, he used everyday household items, such as two lumps of sugar to stand in for rooks.

Blindfold chess is physically and mentally exhausting. From the very beginning, people have warned that these stunts could damage the brain. For example, a New York Sun obituary for Paul Morphy said, “The strain in his brain produced a brain fever, from which he never recovered.” And The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin said Wilhelm Steinitz had “been driven insane by the game to the mastery of which he had devoted his life.”

In 1930, the USSR banned blindfold chess because of its supposed health hazards, and a Russian player allegedly died attempting to break the world record for number of opponents. World champion Mikhail Botvinnik warned against undertaking such a stunt, and his student Garry Kasparov declines to attempt it seriously.

This perceived danger did not stop some masters from pushing the envelope, and their number of opponents steadily increased over the years. Pillsbury took on 20, and Richard Reti played against 29. Alekhine challenged 32, and George Koltanowski went up against 34.

When the war broke out in Europe, many players found themselves stranded in Argentina after the 1939 Olympiad. The Jewish players particularly felt that to return home would be foolhardy. With no way of communicating with his family in Poland, Mojsze Najdorf hit on a novel idea. He would attempt to set the world record in a simultaneous blindfold exhibition. It wasn’t a stunt for its own sake. Najdorf hoped this feat would be reported in Europe so his family might read it, know that he was safe, and contact him.

Najdorf took on 40 opponents, winning an astonishing 36 games, drawing one, and losing only three. Tragically, he never heard from his family. When Najdorf returned to Poland after the war, he discovered that they had all perished. With nothing to live for in his native land, Najdorf returned to Argentina, settled there, and changed his name to Miguel. Happily, he lived to a ripe old age, all the while lucid and perfectly sane.

3Fischer And The False Prophet

Photo credit: 1, 2

No discussion on chess insanity would be complete without mention of Bobby Fischer (pictured left), the legend who descended into paranoia and darkness in his later years. His single-handed demolition of the Soviet chess colossus has recently been made into the movie Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire.

To many, Fischer’s obsession with chess was his undoing. The man once said, “All I want to do, ever, is just play chess.” In fact, his preoccupation worried his mother so much that she took him to psychiatrists. Legend has it that when Fischer lost his virginity at age 19, he remarked on the experience, “Chess is better.”

But Fischer was actually interested in one other thing—religion. In the mid-1960s, he got involved with a sect (many label it a cult) called the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). It was led by a huckster named Herbert W. Armstrong (pictured right) who based his radio ministry on end-time prophecies. The cornerstone of Armstrong’s bizarre apocalyptic scenario was that the US and Britain had actually descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. He taught that God would punish America and Britain via an invasion from a United States of Europe led by Germany. Normally rational and logical, Fischer bought all of this, hook, line, and sinker.

Fischer was driven nuts trying to keep all the cult’s teachings like Sabbath observance, dietary laws, and tithing. He was also forbidden from befriending “unconverted” people. He would force himself into Bible study and prayer, even after returning exhausted from the chess club at four in the morning. Fischer also began giving his hard-earned money to the cult. Upon winning the World Championship in 1972, he sent $61,200 of his prize money to the WCG.

Meanwhile, he never improved his own standard of living nor his mother’s, a woman who lived in a shabby apartment with no bathroom. By contrast, Armstrong was living a lavish lifestyle, touring the world in his private jet, and giving expensive gifts to world leaders.

Armstrong had been predicting an imminent Great Tribulation since the 1930s and had been proven wrong repeatedly. He was now prophesying 1972 as the apocalyptic year, but when the year passed, Fischer began to see Armstrong for what he was . . . a false prophet and master manipulator. He also learned of the sexual escapades of Herbert’s son, Garner Ted, and concluded they were both hypocrites. Fischer left the WCG. He could only lament in the end, “And I should have known that it was all just a pack of lies. He was just playing with me. Lie after lie . . . ”

2Chess Rage

Bobby Fischer once said, “Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” And as for his greatest satisfaction, Fischer explained, “I like the moment when I break a man’s ego.” There are few things quite as humiliating as a chess loss. No wonder losers throughout history have flipped out and engaged in murderous violence.

Most anecdotes of sore losers involve royalty. Pepin the Short was said to have killed his opponent, Prince Okarius of Bavaria, by bludgeoning him with a rook. In AD 1027, Earl Ulf lost his temper and overturned the board when his opponent, King Canute, took back a move. Canute ordered the earl executed.

William the Conqueror clobbered a French prince with a chessboard after he was checkmated. A brawl between King Henry I of England and France’s Louis VI over chess in 1120 supposedly triggered a 12-year war.

Even further back, an Ummayad caliph named Al-Walid killed his courtier by throwing the firzan (a queen) at his head. What prompted this little outburst? Well, he found out that his courtier was deliberately losing their chess games, and this didn’t sit well with Al-Walid.

We may question the authenticity of such accounts, but there are too many stories to discount them all. Based on the evidence, it seems likely that some rulers reacted badly to defeat, or in Al-Walid’s case, victory. In those days, chess sets were made of stone and were surely tempting weapons in the hands of a frustrated player. Today, we are more sportsmanlike, and besides, chess sets are now made of wood or plastic. So we have relegated such violence to the medieval past, right?

Many modern players vent their anger by throwing tantrums, like Alekhine hurling pieces across the room or destroying furniture. But occasionally, games still end in blood and gore. The most extreme case was in Dublin in 2014 when Saverio Bellante stabbed his landlord, Tom O’Gorman, to death. Why? Well, Bellante grew incensed after O’Gorman called his king move “stupid and perverse.” Bellante then proceeded to cut open his victim and eat part of his heart. A jury eventually ruled Bellante not guilty by reason of insanity.

1For The Love Of The Game

Chess addiction is a real thing. As H.G. Wells once put it, “The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. [ . . . ] It is the most absorbing of occupations, the least satisfying of desires, an aimless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. [ . . . ] There is no remorse like the remorse of chess.”

Chess can make you ignore your job, your spouse, and even your own life. In AD 813, the succession struggle between the brothers Caliph Muhammad ibn Harun al-Amin and al-Ma’mun was reaching its climax as al-Ma’mun’s forces laid siege to the Abbasid capital of Baghdad. In an unparalleled bloodbath, al-Ma’mun advanced street by street to the Golden Gate Palace. Within its thick circular walls, Caliph al-Amin was engaged in a different kind of battle. Instead of fighting his brother, he was dueling his favorite eunuch, Kauthar, in a game of chess.

According to the medieval Islamic historian Jirjis al-Makin, a messenger burst in with news of the approaching enemy. “O Commander of the faithful,” implored the emissary, “this is not the time to play. Pray arise and attend to matters of more serious moment.” He might as well have been light-years away. Al-Amin was too engrossed at the game to pay attention to the messenger’s desperate entreaties for him to escape while there was yet time.

“Patience my friend,” the caliph calmly replied. “I see that in a few moves I shall give Kauthar checkmate.” A few moments later, al-Amin triumphantly trapped Kauthar’s king. But by then it was too late for al-Amin. The man who checkmated his eunuch was himself checkmated as his enemies swarmed the palace. Al-Amin was swiftly beheaded, and his brother Al-Ma’mun took over the Abbasid Empire.

H.G. Wells was right. Chess can annihilate a man.

Larry is a freelance writer whose main interests are history and chess. You can play a game with him at Chess.com.

10 Ways Video Games Affect Your Brain

By Ahmad Alomda On March 14, 2017 In GAMING

Video games are everywhere. With kids starting to play simple iPhone games as young as two years old, video game addiction has become a problem. But video games can affect our brains in other surprising ways.

10 Sibling Relationships10a-sibling-effect-video-game_000016606359_SmallAccording to the old saying, “the family that slays together stays together.” Nothing improves sibling relationships more than brutally slaughtering each other in Call of Duty. And now, science has proven it.In 2015, Brigham Young University conducted a study to determine how playing video games together affected sibling relationships. They had brothers and sisters report how often they played video games, how often they played with their siblings, how often they had conflict with their siblings, and how they would rate their sibling relationships. Then the researchers asked the study participants to name the top three games that they liked to play with their siblings.The results surprised the researchers. Siblings who played violent video games together had less sibling conflict. This goes against most video game research that says violent video games increase aggression. But one has to consider the context. Most of the time, the siblings are defending each other against violent opponents. It’s kind of hard to stay mad at your little brother when you remember that he saved your life in Halo.Researchers also found that video games increased affection between siblings due to shared experiences. “By immersing themselves in the video game world, siblings can share experiences, play together, and strengthen sibling bonds,” explained researcher Sarah Coyne.The researchers theorize that playing video games together may be a new way to strengthen sibling relationships like never before.9 The Bystander Effect9-bystander-effect_000013598742_SmallThe bystander effect is one of the darkest things that humans naturally do. Starting with the murder of Kitty Genovese, psychologists discovered that if there are more people in a given area, it becomes less likely that one of them will help a person in trouble. Most people assume that someone else nearby will take care of the problem.A study by the University of Innsbruck found that the bystander effect also happens in video games and can linger after the game is over. When there are more non-playable characters (NPCs), players are less likely to help other NPCs. Research has proven that even if the presence of other people is imaginary, people are still less likely to help out.The participants in the study were asked to play Counter-Strike: Condition Zero in two groups: One would play as a member of a police team against a terrorist team, and one would play as a single police officer trying to stop a terrorist.After the game was over, the participants were asked to assist a student trying to complete his own project. They were asked how much time they were willing to spend helping the student. Participants who were solo game players were willing to devote more time to helping the student than those who played on teams. The imaginary team still existed in players’ minds despite the fact that the game had ended.

8 Moral Sensitivity8-video-game-guilt-shame_000065690687_SmallMorality video games are a relatively new idea. In the game, you can choose whether to be good or evil, and your choices affect the end of the game. As of early 2016, games like BioShock and Undertale have some of the best reviews and are surging in popularity. The idea that the entire game’s story will change with every decision is appealing to players. But how will it affect behavior?As always, science has the answer. A study led by the University of Buffalo examined the effects of being good or bad in a video game. They asked participants to play a first-person shooter game as either a police officer or a terrorist.The game informed the player of the motivations and goals of the characters. After the game, the participants completed a Moral Foundations Questionnaire and were asked to rate their guilt and shame about what they had done.Participants who played the terrorist rated higher on guilt and shame. This surprised the researchers because they expected players to become desensitized to violence and moral violations.Yet players who experienced evil intentions as a video game character actually became more sensitive to the evil in the world. But it only happened if they originally felt guilt. If they didn’t initially feel guilt for their actions, that’s a worrisome sign. 7 Desensitization To Death7-video-game-death_000007555475_SmallVideo games open up new worlds and let us experience things that would be unthinkable in real life. In video games, we save worlds, play the hero, and go to fantasy worlds that we never thought possible.We can form harems, save or topple nations, and discover truths about the world and ourselves. We can even die and come back to life—repeatedly. In some games, characters’ deaths are essential to the story.A study by Auburn University examined the correlation between violent video games and suicide capability. Suicide capability is defined as “the ability to overcome fear of death and a tolerance to pain to commit suicide.”The theory behind the study was that playing violent video games desensitizes players to death and increases their capability to commit suicide as a result.Participants were asked how often they played violent video games and the average rating for the games they played (E for everyone, ET for everyone 10 and up, T for teen, M for mature). Then they filled out psychometric questionnaires about fearlessness of death and pain tolerance.Surprisingly, the frequency of playing violent video games had little effect on the fearlessness of death. Once a participant had completed a violent video game, the effects stayed with them. People who played more violent video games had less fear of death but not an increase in pain tolerance.Keep in mind that this study isn’t saying that people who play violent video games will commit suicide. It simply means that they are more comfortable with the idea of death and dying than others.6 Aggression6-video-game-aggression_000000081097_SmallThere has been a media storm that links violence in video games to mass shootings. Although studies repeatedly show that video games increase aggression, it again depends on the context: If you are playing a hero, you are likely less aggressive than someone who plays a villain.Research led by the National Science Foundation found that players of violent video games in a prosocial context (such as helping a fellow character) were less aggressive than players of violent video games in a morally ambiguous context.Participants played one of three video games: a zombie game in which the character protected a fellow character as they collected supplies, a zombie game in which the character was hunting zombies for sport, and a puzzle game that was like Tetris.The participants were told that they were playing against another participant, but they were actually playing against a computer. The “loser” of each round had an unpleasant blast of white noise sent through their headphones. The intensity and volume of the white noise was set by the “winner.”The computer was programmed to win 12 times and let the participants win 13 times. Although both were aggressive, participants playing the prosocial zombie game were much more lenient than the morally ambiguous players when deciding the intensity of the white noise. The most benevolent players were the puzzle game participants.

5 Regulation Of Emotions

It’s no surprise that video game therapy is now considered a legitimate form of treatment. After all, equine therapy has been an effective form of treatment for a long time. If animals can help people overcome mental issues, why not video games?Researchers at the Eating Disorders Unit of Bellvitge Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, wondered if video game therapy would help girls to overcome eating disorders. They particularly focused on bulimia nervosa, an eating disorder in which patients binge (overeat) and then immediately purge (vomit the contents of their stomach). Surprisingly, video game therapy does help in this context.PlayMancer is a new platform that uses a biofeedback machine to play video games. The game objectives are designed to help players control impulses and learn to relax in stressful situations.Based on results from the biofeedback machine, the games become more difficult as the players become more nervous and stressed. In some games, the character won’t move until the player’s breathing becomes slow and steady, they make proper facial expressions, or their heartbeat slows down.The researchers found that girls who played the games had reduced anxiety and more impulse control at the end of their treatment. The use of simulated situations through video games proved to be an effective treatment because “89 percent of the patients were abstinent from bingeing and 100 percent from vomiting, and these gains were maintained at the end of [regular] treatment.”This study is being used as a pioneer to explore more effects of video game therapy. 4 Self-Esteem4-cosplayers_000017092340_SmallEveryone has a favorite character, whether it is from a book, movie, or video game. People write fan fiction, draw fan art, and even dress up as their favorite characters.Thousands of people cosplay as their favorite characters at conventions around the world. Heck, professional cosplaying is now a legitimate way to make a living. But what are the effects for growing attached to someone who isn’t even real?Michigan State University and the University of California at Santa Barbara decided to explore the subject. They asked study participants to rate how much they agreed with statements such as “I consider my character a friend of mine” and “I can see myself getting into a relationship with my character.”Then they asked participants to rate how much they enjoyed video games with good characters, how often they played video games, and how high their levels of self-esteem were.Participants with higher character attachment often had lower self-esteem, even if they enjoyed the game more and played it more often. After all, it would be extremely disappointing to find the perfect girl only to realize that she wasn’t real.This doesn’t mean that enjoying characters’ stories or writing fan fiction about them is a bad thing, just that obsession is undesirable and could have negative effects. 3 A Special Emotional Reaction3-special-video-game-emotion_000067347909_SmallMany people have become attached to certain video games, and it expresses itself in all sorts of crazy ways—from buying extensive video game collections to killing other people in the name of video game characters. This isn’t shocking because people were obsessed with book and movie characters before video games even existed.But it may be a surprise to learn that video games elicit a special type of reaction from players. An article by the University of Munster addresses this phenomenon of “eudaimonic reactions,” which are meaningful reactions that are not hedonic.Those are emotions that don’t directly tie into enjoyment or pleasure. This includes how we reflect the story, how playing the game satisfies our need to be competent and enhances our cognitive function during the game, and how interacting with other characters or players satisfies some of our need to socialize.The article discusses how the use of narrative, context, and mechanics introduces new layers of interaction and more layers of response. “Although each of the dimensions discussed above makes unique contributions to the gaming experience, it is when all three factors—narrative, mechanics, and context—interact in concert that games may be able to create the most powerful experiences,” said author Malte Elson.Video games unleash a totally new experience for people. They play the characters, they witness the story, and they interact with the game world. 2 The Avatar Effect2-avatar-effectHalf the fun of playing video games is personalizing and customizing an avatar. Games like Skyrim and Pokemon X rely on players customizing the characters to look like themselves to make the game more lifelike and personal. But what does this do when we play violent video games?A study by the University of Sussex and the University of Innsbruck found that personalizing an avatar increased a person’s level of aggression when playing violent video games.Participants were divided into four group: those who personalized an avatar in a violent video game, those who personalized an avatar in a nonviolene1-video-game-fast-reactions_000047852944_SmallIt’s common knowledge that the faster you try to finish something, the less accurate or correct it is. A hastily written paper isn’t nearly as good as one written carefully over a couple of days. Food cooked quickly usually isn’t as good as food cooked correctly.Maybe you’ve had that one friend who says “Think fast!” and then throws something at you. Usually, you’ll miss it because you didn’t have enough time to figure out where to place your hands to catch it. If you usually catch it, congratulations. That’s impressive.An article by the University of Rochester discussed the relationship between increased motion discrimination, task switching, and visual search abilities in those who played video games and those who didn’t.They found that those who played video games—especially games like Call of Duty or Halo that required the player to think quickly and shoot accurately—had increased their ability to sense motion, keep track of people or items in their peripheral vision, and switch from one task to another quickly.The article concluded by suggesting that video game training may be an effective form of reducing reaction time and increasing high cognitive functions.Roxanne is currently studying psychology and Shakespeare at Southern Utah University. She also plays way too many video games. The perfect game would have psychology and Shakespeare themes, but sadly, that hasn’t happened yet.