Why Gamers Enjoy Failure
A recent study suggests gamers enjoy losing games
A recent study in Finland looking at emotional responces to video games showed gamers had a positive reaction to negative game events.
A new study conducted in Finland by M.I.N.D Lab at the Helsinki School of Economics seems to suggest that gamers enjoy losing.
The study, entitled The Psychophysiology of Video Gaming, analyzed 36 Finnish university students as they played Monkey Bowling 2 on a Nintendo Game Cube.
For those who haven't played it, Monkey Bowling 2 is set on a bowling lane in outer space where players throw clear balls that contain a money down the lane to knock down pins. However, rather than have poor throws end up in the gutter, the monkey falls off into space.
The players were hooked up to electrodes so researchers could monitor their emotional reactions to events in the video game.
Some results were predictable, like the players having a positive response to knocking down the pins, but the data showed one twist.
Players were reacting positively to the ball falling off the edge, into outer space.
"Unexpectedly, we found that (the monkey falling off the edge of the lane to the depth of outer space) elicited an increase in positive affect," wrote the research team.
"Although the event represents a clear failure, several physiological indices showed that it elicited positively valenced high-arousal emotion (ie. joy)," the study continued.
But as the game replayed the failed throw, the emotional response from the players was suddenly negative.
The study concluded that players showed a positive reaction to failure in the game when they directly participated in it but reacted negatively when viewing that failure in a passive form (the replay.)
This might explain why some of us keep going at games even when we suck and why we might intentionally mess up the game.
I know I've spent too long driving the wrong way in Forza Motorsport once my car was mostly demolished...
