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See the original image at cnn.com —

Drivers may get insurance breaks for playing computer games

cnn.com — Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play the games.

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  • FlyingSpaghetti, on 10/01/2008, -0/+68Next step: Revoke the license of those who fail to pass the video game.
  • HappyGamer, on 10/01/2008, -2/+12As long as they're not playing Spy Hunter. Grandpa will want to activate the machine gun again.
    • scoottie, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1well the are uncountable times i wish i had a machine gun on the front of my car or maybe a rocket launcher so maybe spy hunter would be a good test
  • TiMMY8765, on 10/02/2008, -0/+18unfortunately they want you to play their "games." playing quake or GTA doesn't count
  • Bawk, on 10/02/2008, -2/+55Possible games for this demographic could include Grand Theft Powerchair, Super Mario Bingo and World of ArtsNCrafts.
    • Lythium, on 10/02/2008, -1/+10I hear the Scrapbooking profession will be a bitch and a half to level.
    • CynicalTyler, on 10/02/2008, -0/+5Seriously, I farmed for four hours last night to get a single piece of pink 8.5" x 11" acid-free linen paper.
  • StrangeFamous, on 10/02/2008, -23/+4CHA-CHING
  • StrangeFamous, on 10/02/2008, -23/+3$$ CHA-CHING $$
  • zyklon, on 10/02/2008, -1/+26The irony would be if they used GTA for driver training. It would actually be very accurate, seeing as how they'd have to dodge both cars and pedestrians.

    And psychotic killers, etc.
    • twiztidsinz, on 10/02/2008, -2/+6Call me weird, but...
      In Vice City, I often found myself driving (as fast as I could) from North Point all the way down to the bottom trying NOT to hit any cars/people and then back. It's oddly fun, and sure helped me with the Ambulance missions :)
    • SevenTwo, on 10/02/2008, -0/+13Irony would be using Carmageddon.
    • Lythium, on 10/02/2008, -0/+8Crazy Taxi, all the way. =P
  • dmark77, on 10/02/2008, -9/+4Stunt Driver taught me how to drive stick shift :)
    • Brad324, on 10/02/2008, -1/+2.. says dmark77 after burning his clutch and driving the family vehicle into the neighborhood library
    • citizenchan, on 10/02/2008, -3/+2Then you are probably a sh*tty a driver.
      • dmark77, on 10/02/2008, -0/+4When making a derogatory comment - ***** is appropriate.

        Why spare anyones feelings at that point?
  • nofate2029, on 10/02/2008, -0/+10...But the last time I hit someone, shot at some homies for frontin' on my turf and racked up a few stars in the process...there was no Pay n' Spray around in sight!
  • KenSPT, on 10/02/2008, -2/+18I learned how to ride a bike from playing Paperboy ...
    • MrFisty, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1Paperboy taught me that actual paper rounds are ***** and don't have stunt tracks at the end.
  • arijit57, on 10/02/2008, -0/+2Cool!!!
  • InfernoX, on 10/02/2008, -11/+2This is silly.

    I've played games since I was like 4 and my hand-eye coordination is still terrible.
    • Temo1, on 10/02/2008, -0/+15Surely your personal experience means doing a study is completely unnecessary.
    • Visual77, on 10/02/2008, -1/+10Good God, man!

      You have just disproved hundreds of studies over several decades that were, apparently incorrectly, stating that video games improved hand eye coordination, pattern recognition and situational awareness.
  • elDud3rino, on 10/02/2008, -0/+1I'd sign up for this, I set the track record for making it to Wing Stop and back, didn't miss any of monday night football during the half.
  • removesstains, on 10/02/2008, -0/+8"See Grandma I told you all those 360 Achievements would eventually pay off and to think you wanted me to read."
  • OMGWTFROFLMAOx2, on 10/02/2008, -1/+30And they laughed when I said Burnout 3 made me a better driver!
    • frmatc, on 10/02/2008, -2/+32True story: I spent an evening playing Burnout 3, and that night it snowed. I was driving to work the next morning and hit the brakes to make a turn. I started sliding through the snow, and knew I wouldn't be able to slow down in time for the turn. My solution was to cut the wheel and gun the engine, and drift through the turn. Nailed it perfectly. The turn was 90 degrees on a city street with cars parked on both sides. It wasn't until I sat down at my desk that I realized what I did.
      • Valyn, on 10/02/2008, -0/+1Heard a similar story on the PCGamer podcast a while back.
      • cesar33, on 10/02/2008, -1/+6...And I never played golf a day in my life, but after many days and nights of playing some serious Tiger Woods PGA Tour, I went out the the course and wouldn't you know it? A hole in 1...on my first swing!!! So now i'm playing space invaders. You can bet your ass I'll be ready for when the time comes.
    • aterimperator, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4The burnout series is a dobule-edged sword, it may make your reflexes better and possibly give you a better sense of the physics of driving, but after playing enough of that I find all I want to do is ram the other cars off the road to increase my boost meter...
  • Lucas123, on 10/02/2008, -0/+12Do they shave points for gaming while driving?
  • blippityblop, on 10/02/2008, -2/+3*****, I'll play some stupid game if it means I don't have to pay ridiculous insurance fees for my car. The less money I spend the better.
  • opensourcer, on 10/02/2008, -2/+1GRIDlock
  • Sarcasmooo, on 10/02/2008, -3/+1I've believed this for the last 10 years. I started playing games when I was 11. I've been in 4 near misses in my life that I avoided by my own actions.

    MONEY PLZ
    • ScionX, on 10/02/2008, -0/+8If it's a near miss wouldn't that mean that you hit them and almost missed?
      • Sarcasmooo, on 10/02/2008, -0/+3No, because with all due respect, what you and at least 8 other diggers (and a thousand people before you) are doing is trying to be clever while you stumble over very easy, very literal grammar. A "near miss" is not "nearly missing", a near miss is quite exactly like missing something that was very near. I understand that lots of people get tripped up in that expression, and want to point out their observational skills, but the fact remains that "near miss" is a "far cry" from "nearly missing".
      • ScionX, on 10/03/2008, -0/+1I was just being a smartass, but w/e

        ;)
  • hyperionshift, on 10/02/2008, -1/+6Do Solitaire and Minesweeper count?
    • Lythium, on 10/02/2008, -0/+3Where the hell are YOU driving? O.O
      • hyperionshift, on 10/02/2008, -0/+4In the slow car that's always in front of you. :P
    • Valyn, on 10/02/2008, -0/+1only if its while driving
  • rodon, on 10/02/2008, -1/+21I'd rather stand in line at the DMV than deal with the monotony of the license tests in Gran Tourismo
  • FredFredrickson, on 10/02/2008, -0/+3It's about time all those hours of playing GTA have finally paid off! Where do I sign up for this?
  • Glitchwerks, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1So, do those of us who have plenty of gold trophies on the GT license tests get our insurance for a vastly discounted rate? If we can run the 'Ring in under 6:00 minutes do we get it for free?
  • android6011, on 10/02/2008, -1/+3Playing GTA will probably be an exception, in fact it will probably raise your rates
  • Sharky35, on 10/02/2008, -2/+13My insurance should be free
  • freezerburn666, on 10/02/2008, -1/+3why spend all this time, money and effort to give people discounts?
    • Valyn, on 10/02/2008, -0/+1honestly, I don;t know, but the last sentence of the article is what they would have you believe.
  • twinklyJesus, on 10/02/2008, -2/+5People that play video games don't go any place. Your insurance rates would drop because you're not driving as much... ;-)
  • FeloniusMonkey, on 10/02/2008, -0/+15Take a blind survey of 100 gamers over the age of 16. Ask them what they like most about playing racing/driving games. I'd bet more than 90 of them will tell you they enjoy doing what they're NOT allowed to do on public roads!

    Oh the sweet irony!
    • MarkOfTheDead, on 10/04/2008, -0/+1I like getting my money back from the hookers with the car.
  • SquidLips, on 10/02/2008, -1/+2Oh, gawd forbid that anyone over 50 read Digg! We are all basket cases. I guess Digg is just for immature twerps
  • BoneStamp, on 10/02/2008, -0/+6Clearly, they haven't seen what my cars look like after I drive them in Video games.
    • Lythium, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1"The games are not all specific to driving. They're designed to reverse age-related cognitive decline and improve visual alertness." So - cute, but way to miss the point.
  • JonTheGoose, on 10/02/2008, -1/+3In all seriousness though, It's good to see a positive story in the news about gaming.
  • slorocks, on 10/02/2008, -0/+2Playing GTR Sim series of games would improve some ones ability to drive better? This is as long as they are using a wheel and pedals that have the simulation qualities.
  • sgtawol, on 10/02/2008, -0/+5Gran Turismo helped me be a better driver. Rally mode on snow = Physics.

    Oh, PS - Monoline insurance companies are pretty weak. Use an independent local agent.
  • delvach, on 10/02/2008, -0/+4Do the games improve my reflexes? Certainly. But I also find myself zeroing in on certain cars thinking, "Ooh, that Banshee is faster than what I'm driving! I should ram him and... NO, no, no..."
  • KKKamikaze, on 10/02/2008, -1/+4The important thing to note is that Insurance Companies might possibly have more variable rates, based on qualities of the driver. They currently only use very few factors, such as age, sex, and location, to base your insurance premium on, which is ridiculously inaccurate. However, there are many more important factors that they could include. Aspects such as eyesight, response time, intelligence, etc. are vital to determining how likely someone is to cause an accident or other auto related problems. This could be one small step to finally charging people the right amount for insurance.

    It is unfortunate that auto insurance is required, especially considering I am in the group where I pay a ridiculous amount for auto insurance, yet am one of the safest drivers on the road. I am sure there are many others who can relate to that, and hope that the system will change one day. Ideally we could eliminate the concept of necessitating everyone to have auto insurance, but since that is unlikely to change, this could at least be one giant step in the right direction.
    • carlosos, on 10/02/2008, -0/+2If there would just be a "turns on light at night", or a "doesn't use high beams all the time" or "knows when to use a turn signal" discount...
      I hope that we will have soon automatic driving systems in our cars so that the bad drivers won't cause problems to the other drivers.
      • KKKamikaze, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1Well, in all honestly, I think it is highly impractical to think an 'automatic driving system' would be realized, at least anywhere in the near future. However, we could implement a 'monitoring' system in vehicles that monitors how well someone drives and could adjust insurance rates accordingly. This could also be used as evidence during accidents to determine who did what. The only problem here would be cost, but we do have such capability. We could just force the poor drivers to pay higher premiums to cover such expenses in order to implement this system. Or course you could argue that this is an elitist theory...
    • fuckloginskevin, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1"very few factors" - BZZZZT try again
      "It is unfortunate that auto insurance is required" - again wrong, i'm glad that perfect drivers like you are required to have liabilty coverage cause in the event of an accident I want my car / health nearly back to pre-accident condition.
  • delvach, on 10/02/2008, -0/+5Couldn't this cause more caveman-related discrimination? I mean, some of these games are NOT so easy a caveman could play them, especially if their thumbs are still evolving.
  • Frumbler, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1Can I get a long time gamer discount? I was the first kid on the block with Pong.
  • PEMDAS, on 10/02/2008, -0/+2ITT: People with really clever GTA references that nobody saw coming.
  • U83RMENSCH, on 10/02/2008, -1/+5I actually learned how to drive playing Gran Turismo.
  • vitaminz1990, on 10/02/2008, -0/+3Note: This does not apply to Chinese drivers. Nothing in the world will ever make them better.
  • mattcoady, on 10/02/2008, -0/+1I dunnno. Any every drive immediately after a long session of GTA? Lets just say, driving up onto the sidewalk feels a little more natural.
  • ohcoaster, on 10/02/2008, -0/+5i know being a cyclist makes me a better driver. assume other drivers don't see you until you make eye contact, scan every intersection, quick reflexes to avoid nut jobs etc. too bad my insurance company doesn't seem to care.
  • SaraSu, on 10/02/2008, -1/+1Well this would be nice...
  • Enlefo, on 10/02/2008, -2/+3The US is the ONLY first world country without mandatory driver training. Germany and Japan have some of the lowest accident rates in the world and guess what? They are the hardest places to get a license. Still we keep lowering speed limits and trying to crack down when people just need to learn how to drive. Also, lets retest everyone over 50 every 5 years. I'm not talking about anything humiliating but seriously, just go in and take a quick driving test. Every time I pull up next to some guy doing 25 on the freeway in two lanes... they are old and look like they are barely able to hold onto the steering wheel.
  • singularityv, on 10/02/2008, -0/+2What about if they play Burnout?
  • b0rg, on 10/02/2008, -0/+6I'm completely ***** if they find my leaderboard entries on "Burnout Revenge". A $10 million bus wreck is not a trivial accomplishment.
  • Ismith988, on 10/02/2008, -3/+1It's because my penis is so huge
  • mcottier, on 10/03/2008, -1/+3With as many games as I play, my insurance will be free.
  • ele1122, on 10/03/2008, -0/+0This is inaccurate, everyone knows videogames will make you kill people!
  • christinefen, on 10/14/2008, -0/+0This would be nice! At the same time, I love to share a good game with everyone-www.evemaven.com.I hope you don't miss it! happy to you!
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