"Gamers get their kicks from dying" from Wired discusses research into games and violence which comes up with a startling conclusion - that gamers seem to get off on these numerous deaths by all manner of means - to rise like the phoenix to shoot 'em up another day.
This is the fascinating argument of a new paper by Niklas Ravaja, a scientist who has done pioneering research into the emotions of gamers as they play. In "The Psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic Emotional Responses to Violent Video Game Events" -- published in this month's edition of the journal Emotion -- Ravaja reaches an amazingly counterintuitive conclusion: Gamers don't like shooting their opponents, but they're suffused with pleasure when they themselves are shot dead.
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