Violent games relax players, says research

People who play violent games online actually feel more relaxed and less angry after they've played, reckons Middlesex University Jane Barnett, who's research on the matter's to be presented at the British Psychological Society’s Annual Conference in Dublin today.

Barnett studied nearly 300 people playing World of Warcraft between the ages of 12 and 83, and found that instead of becoming immediate killers, the game wore them out.

“There were actually higher levels of relaxation before and after playing the game as opposed to experiencing anger but this did very much depend on personality type," said Barnett.

“This will help us to develop an emotion and gaming questionnaire to help distinguish the type of gamer who is likely to transfer their online aggression into everyday life.”

We're all about the emotion and gaming questionnaires. Go Jane.