Slashdot Mirror
EverQuest - Not Just For Geeks?
DJPenguin writes "In this article at the BBC, a respected psychologist has co-authored a study into people who play games online, which breaks some of the stereotype of online gamers." This is similar in the results as the survey data we did of open source developers. The stereotypes and realities are often *very* different.
- About 85% of players were male.
- A "significant minority" (15%) adopt a character gender opposite to their own.
Could it be that the 15% of female players take on guys names?My college roommate played one of these games as a female for a while. He got hit on so much that he said he didn't see how anybody could play as a female.
I may be the odd one out, but I never considered EverQuest players to be largely geeks.
I imagined them to be ordinary people who use computers in their spare time, not those who make a career out of it.
I may be horribly wrong but I beleive everquest costs money to play, you have to pay a subscription to the game?
If so I think everquest maybe a little miss-representative of the set of people that this research found less of.
why? money... People under 18 don't have credit cards, which is a big barrier in getting money out of them and younger members of society generally have less income, or none at all (intermitent at best).
Therefore, no regular flow of money, no everquest?
Take a game you pick up off the shelf and pay once for, the games that teenagers can afford...
I don't mean to troll, just pointing out an observation
I don't know... how do his findings prove the Everquest gamers aren't geeks (see snip below).
And did you see this guy's picture. You just have to look glance at him to know that he's a gamer geek. I can safely say this b/c I'm a computer/gaming geek with a goatee.
The gist of this article is
"According to Dr Mark (who's a single guy that plays video games over 40 hours a week), all the single guys who play video games 40 hours a week weren't geeks."
I guess he figures he can get plenty of support on slashdot. Maybe a sort of revenge of the nerds type thing???
---snip---
Its key findings included:
* Over 60% of players were older than 19.
* About 85% of players were male.
* Fifteen percent of people play for more than 50 hours a week.
* A "significant minority" (15%) adopt a character gender opposite to their own.
Professor Griffiths said: "There is an image that people who play online games excessively are nerdy and geeky... This is not the case."
---/snip---
Am I the only one who saw no collelation between the stats in the article and the "its just not geeks" results?
The first was that it was overwhelmingly male. Um, isn't that a classic "geek" stereotype? Maybe if the numbers were more 50/50 (like I assume The Sims are) I'd be a little more swayed.
Secondly is the predominance of "19 and older". Well gee, what do a lot of people do when they turn 18? Go to college and live with a fat broadband connection. I'd be more impressed if it said the mean age was 32 or something. But then age has nothing to do with geekiness.
In truth I can't think of a statistic off of the top of my head that could prove the geekiness of a gaming community. Probably the only one would be if the statistics were more normal (more ethnic, gender, income diversity, instead of being primarily white, primarily male, primarily middle class like most things geeky). It wasn't like this guy bugged a High School football lockerroom and heard them talk on and on about their 40th level elf sorcerers.
What is music when you despise all sound?
Three to four hours of TV per night will turn your brain to cheese, people!
-kgj
Someone give Hemos a medal for this one.
Seriously, what's this all about? Someone just proved that EQ doesn't only spawn 16 y/o with a record of sexual harassment. Of course EQ has sane people, normal players and a whole wad of "John Doe"s running around, having fun (or not) in a non-offensive way. Same thing with CS. A bunch of people I know IRL play CS and lo and behold: They aren't complete idiots. One of them is probably one of the coolest and calmest people I've met thus far. Yet I myself still do associate CS with 14 year olds struggling for online acceptance by being creative with the english language and various symbols and numbers, while EQ still is a stereotypic hunting ground for 16 y/o kids suffering from pure hormone rage. It's not because things are like that; it's just because of the vocal majority of a game/community or the bad part which has been highlighted by others.
There's a difference between making fun of/using stereotypes and actually believing them.
Hate me!
41 hours a week isn't unhealthy? Of course it is! Plus the comparison to TV isn't accurate (4 hours times 7 days is only 28 hours.) To make a better comparison, it'd be like someone watching the same thing (such as QVC) for 41 hours a week. This guy is just trying to justify his and his friends addiction.
The single most important thing that - IMHO - makes EverQuest and other MMORPGs differ from chemical drugs is that it's far more selective. You really have to be inclined towards that type of game for it to become a problem. Me and others I know started playing some of those games, be it Ultima Online, Everquest, Dark Age of Camelot or whatever and then just quit it after some time because we just didn't find the fun part in it in spite of being the exact stereotype (male single "nerds" with too much time on our hands).
A chemical drug that causes physical or psychical addiction does so far more indiscriminately; unless you've got a very strange metabolism, it'll get you. There surely are people that fall for the massive timesinks MMO games are, but I think their number is far less alarming and their problems are far easier to cure than, say, those of alcoholics. It's far less painful. You don't suffer pain or shiver all the time. You just feel like something was missing until one or two weeks later it's all over. I know there are "reports" of people deliberately having their credit card invalidated to make them quit, but there always are some nutcases that just can't stop.
Fight hunger. Filet a politician and send him to a 3rd world country of your choice.
It's all right - I'll join you.
I used to play computer games all the time when I was 15-21. I could actually pick up one of those rpg games and play the entire game the whole way through and discover everything there was to discover
I'm not trying to say gaming is not having a life, but I just can't fathom how people find the time to play these games that require a lot of time devoted to them. I spend most of my work day looking at a computer screen of some description or other - I can't think of anything worse than going home after work and sitting down in front of a computer. Much less spending my weekend doing it as well.
yeh, I think I'm just getting old
"Because it's there." - George Mallory, when asked why he wanted to climb Mt Everest, March 18, 1923 (New York Times)
Many of us are geeky, sure. But we lead real, productive lives where we are IT security admins, high-end speaker designers, reps for Coca-Cola, nurses, health food store owners, etc. To dismiss us as geeks because we play Everquest fails to get to the heart of the matter. We live in disparate places, yet have come together from across the world to PLAY.
That's what we are doing, playing. That's it. When you are playing Everquest, you get a sense of accomplishment, companionship, even friendship that many times is lacking in real life. Now, many of you will say, why aren't you out doing things to help society and other such drivel; get your feeling of accomplishment from that. I can't speak for anyone else, but I have my hands and mind full all day from saving my own little corner of the world. Let me enjoy my freetime a little, okay.
Stereotypes, at some point, are accurate. That's how they get to be stereotypes. This doesn't become a problem until you imply cause and effect to your stereotype in order to perpetuate it long after it is no longer accurate.
What I mean is, "Knives are sharp" is a good stereotype, and one you'd better heed if you want to learn to juggle. All you are doing is assuming because something is a knife, it is most likely sharp. Knives are a fairly static entity design wise, and most likely will remain largely sharp objects.
People, however, are not largely static, and stereotypes ought to change more. "Black people are uneducated" is an example of this. This is a bad stereotype, because, while it was true at least in the United States for some time, the CAUSE and effect wasn't accurate. A better stereotype is that "Poor people attend less qualified schools". (A rich black man doesn't have any more trouble getting his kids into Harvard than a rich white one.) Hopefully, this is also a stereotype that will outlive its usefulness.
My point of that ramble is that stereotypes are good; they are what protect you from needing every peice of information about all situations in order to make a reasonable decision. You'd never be able to get through a stoplight without stereotypes ( Most people will obey the law and stop when their light is red, so it is probably safe for me to go when my light is green). Stereotypes are bad and innaccurate only when they are making improper assumptions. Like pure logic, the equation can be valid, but if the assumptions are wrong it is still useless.
Never confuse volume with power.
> A quarter of people who responded to the survey said they played for 41 hours or more. If that's the usage of a quarter, how many are playing the game for 20 hours a week or more? What else are you doing outside of your job if you're spending that much time on there?
Substitute television for Everquest and ask the question again. A large percentage of the population of the U.S. watches 40+ hours of TV per week. I personally watch less than an hour of television a week, and so does my wife. We spend our time together after the kids go to bed playing Everquest instead. It's actually much more social than what she did before, and if we feel like talking instead of playing, it's easier to turn away from it because you don't miss anything if you stop.
> Whatever anyone says about the skills developed by games such as EQ, there are important ones that may (that's "may", not "will") be allowed to wither on the vine, like the ability to interact well with others in social situations.
See above. it's a lot more interactive than what many people choose for relaxation.
> Having been one of these people who spent every waking hour in front of a monitor, when not at work, in the past I can't overstate too much the importance of getting out and interacting for real. The geeky stereotype comes about when you really are using EQ as a replacement for more social activities.
Agreed, but be careful about how you say that. As I stated above I and my wife (and most of our in-game friends) use it as a replacement for less social activities, and that's one of the things that this study is trying to put forward.
Virg
The reason a lot of "geeks" like MMORPGs is the ability to be someone else; anyone else. While good role-playing isnt always easy to find online, there are a significant number of mature rpg fans that actually portray a character, not themselves. There are some "powergamers" that run around and just want to be the biggest and the baddest, but there are a substantial number of Dungeons and Dragons converts that value a well role-played [ read "acted"] scenario. Good role-playing is acting. Moreover its an creative and psycological outlet where you can express yourself through a persona you adopt, no strings attached. While some of the kiddies that like the MMORPGs will run around being 1337 Ub3r d00ds you'll find a more substantial community that value the social interaction, and even some combat with other mature role-players with distinctive characters.
I'd bet that Star Wars Galaxies will attract a whole new crowd of people into MMO games who may not have considered them before. SWG puts less emphasis on fighting, since loot from MOBs are less valuable than crafter-built items. A lot of effort has been invested in the game's economy, making activities like harvesting resources, farming, and crafting all full-time activities which can be done exclusively or as a part-time activity in addition to "blowing things up".
Also there are a couple of new classes which I haven't seen in other MMORPGs. There are two "entertainer" classes which heal "mind" wounds. They are dancers, and musicians. People in these classes can even group up to multiply their healing effects.
I can see perhaps some aspects of this game attracting a much broader audience who don't fall into the traditional AD&D/fantasy geek crowd. It should be interesting to note how the gender/age numbers differ between EQ and SWG once SWG has a couple of years on it.
[goes back to checking email to see if he got an SWG beta invite yet]
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
How about 40 hours a week reading? Or 40 hours a week painting? Why are these activities - which are arguably LESS social - seen as better than 40 hours a week chatting with friends. That's basically what online RPG's amount to. :P
If you are going to argue that 40 hours a week at BLAH is too much, then please start lobbying for those 25 hour work weeks. After all, I can't think of anything that interferes with my life more than those blasted 40 hours/week at work.
blue