The Psychology of Shooters

"Why shooting feels so good." by Jamie Madigan of Penny Arcade fame.

Try this experiment: go outside and find some wild animal babies, like wolves and/or toddlers. Got them? Great. Now, watch them play. Many animals, including humans, engage in play fighting where they only pretend to savage each other. In real fights even victors can get hurt, so any risk-free practice is valuable. Of course, no psychologist will tell you that dragon-punching Zangief is going to help you when some bully comes out swinging-but there's a parallel to play fighting in another part of our imagination that can have real benefits.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/217312/the-psychology-of-shooters/

Army of Two...Two

Army of Tutu?

Regardless, my love and I played "Army of Two: The 40th Day" together this weekend, and I do reccomend it to any gamer couple or gamer platonic duo as a relationship exercise.

You tend to divide early in the level and conquer separately, but must come back together to advance to the next level or checkpoint - be it helping each other over obstacles or working together to move heavy object. Often one team member must snipe from the roof (that's me) while the shotgun guy goes and obliterates on the ground floor (that's my dove).

This game is not mindless - when I start to zone out, I die (on easy). I really enjoy this game as an A+ shooter for the differences in gun handling, position, and silent kills. That I get to play in cooperation with someone is icing on the cake.