HERE WAS A TIME when men ruled the world. Not the home, mind you, but great swathes of territory taken by force and cunning and a large amount of treachery. Soldiers marched in armies led by these men, reveling in all that rape and pillage, but not so much in the parts involving having their legs lopped off and goolies impaled. And was it enough? Nope. There was always more land and peoples to conquer, mead to be drained and whoring to be done. OK, not for everybody, but you get the basic medieval male fantasy life I’m portraying here. After all that, the prospect of digging sewage trenches and begging for alms tends to lose its appeal.

And within the brains of those men - the fantasy fighting blokes immune to serious battle injuries and Olympic stallions with the wenches - the part associated with feelings of ‘reward’ was working overtime because all that conquering meant they felt very good about themselves indeed.

Shoot forward a few thousand years and what victories do we celebrate? Shouting at Match of the Day on the telly in a pub, beating your fat mate who smokes at squash, running for the bus without having a coronary and nipping ahead of that ‘tosser’ in the Aston Martin in your crappy Ford Fiesta during the rush hour commute. Heady stuff indeed.

The fact is, our rewards are less grand these days and the associated feelings we get from achieving something diminished because, well, it’s just not as risky nowadays. You risk less, you feel less. You’re hardly going to feel like a God for snatching that last ‘King Prawns On Four-Seed Granary Bap’ during the M&S lunchtime rush, now are you? Maybe you do.

You will though if you play computer games. And you’re a bloke. Men that play games more than occasionally know that for every skull they crush, trap they overcome and city they nuke, there’s a great big rush of prancing, dancing reward hormones. Is it primeval bloodlust? Is it harmless fun? Is it going to nuke your relationship? Probably all of the above. Women say it’s timewasting and that their partners are being cruel and insensitive by ignoring them for games. This conversation happens just before they make you rejoin The Great Big Herd Of Sad Single Bastards. In many ways they are right but do you know what? It’s not all men’s fault. It’s our brains you see. Honest.

This week, boffins released the first results of tests that tracked the neural processes that occur in men and women when they play games. Using scanning equipment, they tracked what happens in the brains reward and addiction spot – the mesocorticolimbic center, no less – when men and women played a simple game. The results showed that the mesocorticolimbic centre was a lot more activated in men’s brains and that the level of activity correlated to how well they were doing in the game. In other words, the reward room was lit up like an exploding star. The more territory they controlled in the game the more happy, ‘well-done’ feelings that washed over them.

Writing in a recent Journal of Psychiatric Research, Allan Reiss at Stanford University’s School For Medicine said: “These gender differences may help explain why males are more attracted to, and more likely to become 'hooked' on video games than females.” Reiss was not all that surprised either: “I think it's fair to say that males tend to be more intrinsically territorial. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who historically are the conquerors and tyrants of our species—they're the males.” It’s also no surprise then that most of the games played by men include territory control and aggression.

Of course, there are many ways of interpreting the results, including that women have more control over external stimuli, are not distracted by stupid, childish games and are sensitive and well-balanced enough not to revel in ‘blowing things up’. However, that’s missing the point.

This proves that men’s gaming addiction is actually a brain-related problem. It’s medical, which means it’s not entirely our fault. In fact, our brains are hard-wired to respond in this way. Like a females in-built cravings for Ben & Jerry’s and chocolate, just transferred to high-caliber weapons and tanks. We finally have an excuse. A proper one too. All men should have this data to hand the next time they get it in the neck for conquering the universe - from their basements. It should be in a place of importance, like on the fridge, right next to the shopping list. In fact, I’ll tell my missus right now.

“Honey, I’m not being cruel. All these years of gaming through the night and ignoring your needs, it’s not my fault. It’s medical. See, they have proof. I have a condition.

Honey?

That’s weird, why’s the back door open? Where are the kids? Why are there suitcases in the hall? Is that a car pulling away? What’s going on?

Oh, there’s a note on the fridge…”

Source:http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1036828/men-
love-games-help

AND I THINK THE SAME THING APPLIES TO REWARD POINTS ON SHARENATOR!

Excellent post. I wholeheartedly agree.

are you kidding me? i get home everyday after school and do everything in my power to get more points on sharenator. sharenator is not just a website, sharenator is my life. points dont matter, ha! thats like saying knowing Taekwondo DOESNT get you laid. what a dumbass!

In my opinion points do matter, but not in the way people make them out to be. I think they help bring traffic to member's obscure posts as in if he has a lot of points, there must be either good posts or a lot, therefore I missed something this member posted and wish to find it.

Put the best way I can, I like my points. I think they taste delicious... However I don't see them as a form of ranking or any of that. I see points as a method of figuring out what things I post that people like and what things they don't want to see. The reason for my usually adding things if a post gets more points is, if it gets more points that means people must like it and want to see more of it. If it does not get more points, people don't like it and don't want to see more of it.

A method like that is what makes people like myself different from people like the still-infamous Justjim. One Better Post a day keeps the flaming trolls away.

um apparently we can use the points to buy shit :P

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I blame all of this on dannyl. That's right, dannyl. Why? I don't know.

this is a very good post to make some points for yourself..... jk jk i understand what you mean

i don't normally rate a post but i agree on this....people who dedicate their lives on sharenator and try to become the top member doesn't change a thing in life. +3

I agree with you, I really don't see the big deal in the points. It's good when people think before posting something, so they could get more points, but it gets annoying when it is just spam - because of that single 1 (or 3 for a post) point you can give yourself for every comment you make.

Points arent a big deal. but they are important or else you wouldnt be on sharenator

i post the same thing and i get like no points :(
ahhh that does not mean you dont deserve nthem + 3

Totally agree, sharenator is a place to share some fun stuff, sadly it becomes more and more the "uprate place"... Hate those posts

These things make me laugh, just ignore people who freak out. its like on XBL someones being obnoxious and they get the mute button i've done it and had it done to me just relax

Hey Guys and Girls, yes we all think points are important, but what has worried me more is that children r coming home from school 2 c what has been posted on this site and no age control is in place. I have to admit that I never gave this any thought and I am so trully wrong. All I can ask for is perhaps the site can introduce some sort of age limiter to make posting safe. Sorry as a parent I welcome restrictions and I will not continue to publish adult material. Sorry but I honestly didnt know young people were in charge of this site

Yeah, really. We're here to have fun, who cares about points?

I am very much in agreement with FirePheonix