Driving: Between Virtual and Reality

According to a Malaysian Medical Resources article, quoting a report from BBC, computer driving games breeds bad drivers, especially amongst teens. Although the claim does hold some truth, but I beg to differ.

Actually, the generalization made in this report made it less accurate. While it’s true, that certain driving games encourage teen angst, thus increasing road violence and misconduct, some others, under the Driving Simulation genre, actually trains gamers to drive.

I believe, that violent games, is actually an alternative means of anger management, where gamers are allowed to release their anger virtually, rather than thrashing the nearest phone booth, for example. Although the cases differ from one gamers to another, many enjoyed releasing the stress they had kept since Monday on a weekend of games, rather than actually joining the Fight Club.

Maybe I’m a bit biased in this issue, since a driving game did save my life. It was when I borrowed a car from a friend, who forgot to inform me about her under-pressured brakes. I was going down a 10% slope, towards a junction. Both the hand brakes and the brakes do not work, and I was at a semi-panic state that I didn’t think about down shifting my gear.

So, having played Codemaster’s Colin McRae Rally game on a daily basis a couple of weeks before, I decided to brave the junction drift-style. Luckily, there was no other car coming through that road. I swerved just like how i used no brakes on most of the corners in CMR, and let the car stop itself on the side of the road.

I wonder if there’s any real case where a kid influenced by the game s/he played, that s/he did all the stuff in real life afterwards? There has been accusations, but the case seems to have another reason, not the game itself.

Maybe, if game influence is as bad as they say it is, then we should resort to fantasy, sci-fi, and puzzle games only. For those who wants realism, then provide them with simulator games. We’ll see if there’s any decrease in bad behavior, or accidents, for that matter.