According to researchers at Nottingham Trent university, gamers have reported hearing sound effects, music and characters voices long after playing games for an extended period of time. Researchers are calling this “Game Transfer Phenomena” or GTP.
Researchers collected the responses from over 1,200 online forum users and 12% of them reported to have experienced hearing noises, describing them as “scary” and “maddening”, with one reported to having heard “death” repeatedly for days.
They are still studying how certain noises, particularly the sound of bullets, lasers, screams and vehicle noises are staying with the gamer after consoles are turned off. The researchers found that most of the users started to hear the noises when trying to sleep but some reported hearing them during other day to day tasks such as walking, driving or listening to music.
Angelica Ortiz De Gortari, a psychology researcher in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Social Sciences, says “It’s important to help gamers understand their experiences since re-experiencing sounds and voices may provoke distress, especially when associated with dangerous situations in the game.”
And according to a blog set up by Angelica some gamers are more susceptible to GTP than others, but says that the effects are usually associated with excessive playing and the effects are only temporary and will leave the gamer without any treatment, adding that the best way to stop this from happening is to cut down on the amount of gaming.
This study is still being conducted and they are looking for more people to participate.
Thank you Sky News for providing us with this information
Image courtesy of GTP
“Researchers collected the responses from over 1,200 online forum users”
right… this make the whole study so trustable…
nicce
Are they sure these gamers aren’t hitting the bottle hard? Next thing they’ll report seeing pink elephants as well.