Brain Candy

Nintendo 3DS Derives Deceitful Discernment


The recent release of Nintendo's 3DS has been met with, among gamers, generally positive attitudes. Being from Nintendo, not a lot of people doubted that it would be successful, and it has sold decently well (though I notice it's still stocked in almost every store I've been to). Right from the get-go, though, Nintendo has done what it can to cover its ass regarding the 3D functionality. They said that you should take a break every thirty minutes to avoid feelings of nausea or illness, and they have warned that children under six years of age should not play the 3DS as it might damage the development of their eyes.

Even though eye specialists have said that there are no harmful side-effects whatsoever to be concerned about, that hasn't stopped certain sources from conducting their own non-peer reviewed, half-assed, blatantly biased and defamatory "study" on how the 3DS affects people who play it. The Sun, an overseas newspaper/gossip paper, decided to get in on this 3DS-hating with their own shitty experiment, deciding to follow no guidelines whatsoever. If you read the link, you'll see that they fail to define anything going on (such as how much 3D is being used, what the baseline for human heart-rate of blood pressure is) and subject the fellow to playing the 3DS while doing different activities.

Yeah, in order to test the effect of the Nintendo 3DS, they have the person playing do other things.

I hope I don't have to explain why that immediately invalidates everything they claim to have discovered. Yeah, viewing 3D in a moving car makes pulse and blood pressure go up, and yes it causes nausea. So does just being in a goddamn car.

The conclusion they come to is that the longer you play the 3DS, the higher your heart rate and blood pressure will be, and they fail to take into account that they had the subject walk around and ride in a car while he played the 3DS. The link I posted (here, for convenience), has a satirical but also serious follow-up, in which they have one of their staff members go out and read The Sun while sitting, walking and riding in a car. I don't want to spoil it, so please give it a read, the results are great.

It pisses me off that gossip magazines can get away with doing such biased, prickish things without getting any backlash at all. Likely, they'll have higher sales and the 3DS will suffer a little because the folks at The Sun who did this study are completely clueless as to how to actually carry out an experiment. Or they did this on purpose, and they're just assholes.