Do racing games negatively affect driving habits?

[Weiss Pinguin]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

I do think that a person who plays a great deal of call of duty or Silent Hunter 3 for example - might be much more inclined to join the Army or the Navy than a person who does not play such games.

Playing Silent Hunter 3 and becoming interested in the history of the war in the Atlantic has caused me to read half a dozen books on the subject that i otherwise might have skipped over in the book store without the influence of the subsim genre. Therefore, in some way - i was influenced by the simulation.

Additionally; Though i had always been interested in airplanes, i had my career sights firmly set on being an architect - had my father not purchased Microsoft Flight Simulator for me in my early teens... i might not have become a big fan of the MSFS Series and ultimately i may not have chosen aviation as a career path over architecture.

Ah, but these aren't necessarily exampes of a simulation influencing someone's real world motor skills/habits, are they? Do you personally regularly play flying sims, and if so, do you think it influences how you fly in the real world? IMO in the case of certain sim types/games (like call of duty, SH3 etc), the way you perform actions on a computer and the way you would perform them in the real world are so vastly different that doing them in one wouldn't affect the other. But then there is a psychological aspect too; you'd probably have a different mindset while doing something in a game than you might have while doing that same action in the real world, and they might carry over and influence each other And then there is not much difference between the physical actions of playing a racing game or flight sim and and the real life equivalent.

as reinforcement to my above personality trait comment... i knew a kid who grew up playing the Gran Turismo series as well. He routinely achieved 100+ MPH on the local highway - and always applied the breaks very heavily into turns - waiting until he was right on the turn to decelerate. I can only assume either he was a moron - or he was influences by the GT Series - or both.

IMO anyone who lets a racing game like GT influence how he drives day to day is a moron And honestly, how many people who don't regularly play driving games exceed the speed limit on a routine basis, and on the flipside, how many people who do go bat*$&@ insane in their racing games drive like a regular person in the real world?

Personally, I think if you keep in mind that there are differences between playing a game and real life that what works in a game is not always a good idea outside, a lot of negative influencing can be eliminated; Don't go driving outside with the same mindset you would have doing laps around a virtual race track.