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.

Comments

Where computer games should be going - training

[nigel.selke]

I'm not a big gamer, to say I play a game every two months would be optimistic. Having said that, I used to play slightly more, and the games I've seen the most promise in have been strategy type games.

Not purely for entertainment value, but for training. Simulations of activities that could ahve some real-world application. Surely this would be a better place for electronic games (or should we say, simulations/training programs, if games start taking root in this way) to be deployed?

The fact that not only geeks play Everquest is interesting, but I would like to see more progress being made in using games (and other digital tools) to further education. In a country like South Africa where the national Matric pass rate is as low as 55%, alternative education methods are desperately needed.

Re:The thing is

[dsanfte]

Heh, awesome. Four months later and my article still gets plugs...

I got something right.