When the world ends, humans are likely to go out singing: video game study

As the world ends, will you lock arms and sing “Kumbayah” or embark on a path of law-breaking, anti-social behaviour? A new video game based study suggests that you may be singing. In the study based on the virtual actions of more than 80,000 players of the role-playing video game ArcheAge, researchers found that despite some violent acts, most players tended towards behaviour that was helpful to others as their virtual world came to an end.

Researchers, including those from University at Buffalo (UB) in the US, classified 75 different in-game actions into 11 categories like combat, partying and building houses. As the world ends, will you lock arms and sing “Kumbayah” or embark on a path of law-breaking, anti-social behaviour? A new video game based study suggests that you may be singing.

In the study based on the virtual actions of more than 80,000 players of the role-playing video game ArcheAge, researchers found that despite some violent acts, most players tended towards behaviour that was helpful to others as their virtual world came to an end. Researchers, including those from University at Buffalo (UB) in the US, classified 75 different in-game actions into 11 categories like combat, partying and building houses.