Abstract

For our science fair project we decided to see how video games affect your blood pressure and heart rate.  We took five different games to test.  A sports game, a fighting game, an adventure game, a hunting game, and a racing game are what we used.  We played each game for 45 minutes each testing our blood pressure and heart rate before game play, during game play, and after game play.  The game that made our blood pressure and heart rate rise the most was the sports game (NBA Street vol.3), followed closely by the racing game (MX Unleashed), in third place was the hunting game (Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts), followed closely by the adventure game (GTA San Andreas). The game that increased the least was the fighting game (Dynasty Warriors 4) which actually kept us calm and relaxed because we were able to take any aggression out by playing the game.  Our conclusion is that faster paced games like NBA Street and MX Unleashed made your blood pressure and heart rate rise more because you were more into the game.  Slower paced action games like GTA San Andreas and Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts didn’t get us really excited but our blood pressure and heart rate still went up gradually.  The aggressive fighting game, Dynasty Warriors 4 didn’t really change much at all. In fact we believe that we were actually able to take out our aggression by playing this game and it kind of kept us calm and relaxed.