New report: Gamers are not lonely losers
by Amanda Dean 
Jun 14th 2008 at 3:00PM
Gamers seem to get a lot of bad press. From controversial episodes in the early days of Dungeons and Dragons to WoW addictions that are more shameful than online porn. Anyone who doesn't know us might actually believe that we're 10 million basement-dwelling social troglodytes. The American Medical Association is even considering the addition of video game addictions to their big book of mental problems (also known as the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
A new study by
The researchers concluded that public opinion of gamers is largely driven by stereotypes than actual fact. Sure, non-gamers don't understand why 2 hours of game time is considered casual, but for the life of me I don't understand why people plop in front of prime-time TV every night or jump out of perfectly good airplanes. It's a matter of perspective, which is largely driven by popular media. I believe that as the gamer community continues to grow and becomes more mainstream, public opinion may shift.
John Loton, the author of the study was quoted as saying "I think it's an evolution of social and cultural stereotypes that suggest only nerds and geeks play computer games. The reality is that nowadays everyone is playing video games."
With all of the bad press, it's exciting to see a story that doesn't demonize online gamers. I'd like to see more studies that show who gamers truly are. It's no longer astonishing to discover that a public figure logs in to WoW.
Filed under: Fan stuff, Virtual selves, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
annar Jun 14th 2008 3:14PM
Good point with the TV comparison.
Howzome staring at a tv-screen as a zombie (no interactivity) is a better waste of time than wow or any other computer game :P
jessica Jun 15th 2008 12:46PM
Yeah I pretty much quit watching tv on a regular basis when I started to raid. I don't miss it much (I do watch some tv shows on netflix, no commericials for the win!)
SpaceLady Jun 14th 2008 3:15PM
I am proud to say that I play WoW. I also have a job, a social life and pay my bills. I don't live in a basement. I am a 48* year old mother of two. I may not be the typical on-line gamer, but I bet there are more of me out there than you think.
Aler Jun 14th 2008 3:26PM
These numbers look bad to me.
15% of 621 gamers is 93 people. 1% of these "have poor social skills, specifically shyness" - in other words, one person.
Really?
From experience, I find it hard to believe that only one percent of ANY population has poor social skills, unless they're using quite a conservative criterion.
I think the conclusion is reasonable - gamers are more or less representative of the general population - but attaching numbers and statistics to this doesn't make it more correct. We might like this conclusion, but the science is just as bad as those reports that hype addiction.
Brandon Jun 14th 2008 3:31PM
exactly, its clear this study has a remarkably low standard for what is considered socially inept. after all, saying anyone who plays a game for under 50 hours a week doesn't have a problem is lunacy. I would say anyone playing more that 20 hours a week has a problem (myself included).
Hybrys Jun 14th 2008 4:10PM
You two are nuts. I play 40 hours a week, and enjoy a job, and full social life. I'm an insomniac, thus I have more time to fill than most people. Nevermind that being common, it's still possible to hold a part time job, play 40 hours, and have a social life.
112 hours of free time in a week, estimating 8 hours of sleep. Let's say my parttime job gives me 25 hours a week. (PS: 25 hours * 25.41 = $635.25 per week.) That's 87 hours of free time.
Now, I bring up the income for this specific reason. I can save money hanging out with my WoW friends, instead of going and getting drunk at a stupid bar. Of course, I don't exclude myself all the time, but, a night at the bar can run $50-100. VS a night on WoW, that's, like, $0.20. And just as much fun, and much less negative results.
47 hours a week with my friends OFF WoW. Should you say I'm addicted to my friends instead?
rick gregory Jun 14th 2008 3:49PM
20 hours a week indicates a problem with a game... but not with, say, watching sports? Or TV in general? Or if drinking with friends in a bar?
The subtext to 'spending a lot of time on games is bad' is that our free time is very limited. IN fact, this isn't generally true. If it were true we'd not have the time to go out to dinner, have drinks with friends, surf the web, watch TV, garden etc etc etc. Spending 20 hours a week on entertainment isn't indicative of a problem if it doesn't cut into what i think of as life maintenance... cleaning the house, working, cooking, etc. especially if that person also goes out with friends etc. After all, what 20 hours means is that you play WoW in the evening every weeknight for 4 hours. Watching TV for 4 hours is OK... but playing WoW according to the same profile isn't?
Oh and as for the science on the study... it's standard statistical techniques. Most of the polls and poll based studies use a very small number of people to characterize a population.
Michael Jun 14th 2008 6:09PM
So if I'm diagnosed as a video game addict, can I get prescribed some nice, loopy drugs?
Zeplar Jun 14th 2008 6:31PM
Post #3 pretty much highlights that these are not real statistics. There's simply not enough people to make it representative.
karellen Jun 15th 2008 2:22PM
It's really pretty simple. The mainstream media doesn't get jack shit when people plug their televisions into a console and boot up their favorite game- instead of tuning in to watch the inane drivel they pump out over the airwaves. So it's completely logical that they use their infotainment outlets (Fox News, CNN, nightly news programs, etc) to stir up public sentiment against video games. It's a competing distraction, and every minute you're busy playing WoW or Halo 3 you're not watching any commercials.
It's not just that video games are a competitive activity that's caused such a media backlash- there are a million things you can do with your time that don't involve watching TV. But the big difference between reading books, camping, crocheting, etc. and video games is that video games are competing for money with the media right on it's home turf- your television screen. That's right, you turn on your TV, tune the signal to a local source, and then toil away in front of it for hours- and the media doesn't make a damn cent. That's why there's been such a huge backlash against video games in the mainstream media- they're trying to keep their market cornered.
Oh, of course they'll happily take any video game publisher's money when those companies want to put ad spots on the airwaves. But still they'll unleash fiery waves on invective, call in "experts" to bash gaming ad nauseum, and villefy game producers as irresponsible every time some unsettled person who happens to play video games does something illegal or outrageous. Note that as the study says, video gaming has become commonplace in our society, so it's pretty likely that just about everybody getting into trouble these days has played a video game at some point in the last year. NEWSFLASH- THOUSANDS of CRIMINALS go to CHURCH every year! Obviously churches must be gathering places from which criminal conspirators plot their capers...
Look what happened in the aftermath of Columbine. Where were the "experts" blaming the parents for letting their kids build bombs and procure firearms without their interference? Apparently the "experts" were all to busy blaming video games and music- Doom 2, Marilyn Manson, and KMFDM. Doom 2, is a game that doesn't even require a television to play, and both of the artists cited as influencing those kids were signed to independent labels (nothing records and Wax Trax!, respectively) whose record sales didn't inflate the media conglomerates pockets. Oh, they listened to edgy, independently produced and distributed! If only they'd listened to Britney Spears and watched Everybody Loves Raymond religiously, those boys would never have gone wrong!
And so the vilification of video games continues, but all the evidence suggests that video games are only going to get more commonplace, and the more people are exposed to and enjoy them the less relevant and effective the media's anti-video game marketing campaign people will become.
STereo Jun 16th 2008 12:28PM
Not gamers, just raiders.