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This Just In - Gamers Are Human
A new study by the Entertainment Software Association reveals that, amazingly, gamers are regular human beings. The study shows that avid game players are just as religious, artistic, and social as anyone else. From the article: "Gamers are everywhere and they're everyone. They are your friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and kids, they lead responsible and caring lives, balancing their enjoyment of interactive entertainment with many other activities important to a well-rounded lifestyle...Indeed, those who continue to portray the game population as single-minded loafers are living in their own fantasy world."
well duh!!
I mean, really.
> The study shows that avid game players are just as religious, artistic, and social as anyone else.
I'm a tolerant dude, and all, but...
> From the article: "Gamers are everywhere and they're everyone. They are your friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and kids, they lead responsible and caring lives, balancing their enjoyment of interactive entertainment with many other activities important to a well-rounded lifestyle...
> Indeed, those who continue to portray the game population as single-minded loafers are living in their own fantasy world."
We get a story like this ("Many Gamers Not Psychopaths!" or "Games Good For A Small Part Of Your Brain!") twice a week, always with this triumphant spin as though something significant has been rebutted.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Does anybody have a link to the full study?
This article doesn't seem especially informative. It basically just says that gamers spend more time non-gaming than they do gaming, and that they participate in many of the most common mainstream activities.
What it doesn't provide, however, is any comparison to statistics for non-gamers, including obesity rates and total time spent partipating in cultural events.
It also doesn't provide definitions for many of its activities. Does "theater" include "movie theater"? Does "daily newspaper" include Slashdot?
No, we really need more information...
Knowing that Games in general are not a subset of the population means that we are a demographic which can be a good thing as companies start thinking of us a targe audience.
This might mean more games.
It also might mean more advertising in game :-/
Quit yer bitchin'.
/. -- don't we get enough of that from the rest of the world? -- but wherever it comes up, it's useful to have this kind of information to counter it.
As a gainfully employed 35-year-old techie (not so much a gamer, but that's largely due to lack of time) who exercises and bathes regularly, owns his own home, and has a sex life, I get really goddamn tired of all the geek stereotyping (fat smelly unepmployed virgins living in their parents' basements, etc.) It's especially annoying here on
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Actually, that was a pretty reasonable review. They didn't massacre it for it's violence, they just said it wasn't very good for christians.
I like the quote at the end, " it makes no allowances for the Christian gamer. " Like they expected Rock Star games to have you witness at the end and find Jesus. Lol.
But seriously, they didn't berate the game, they didn't complain that it was killing society, and why won't someone think of the children? An altogether responsible review. No, I don't agree with their outlook, but I don't see anything wrong with it. As long as they aren't trying to keep ME from playing it.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Knowing that Games in general are not a subset of the population means that we are a demographic which can be a good thing as companies start thinking of us a targe audience.
What?!? Run that by me again. How does not ebing a subset of the population make one into a demographic? It's that what a demographic IS? A category to put someone in? Hence, a SUBSET?
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
If Pat Robertson had published a study saying that 83% of all gamers are pedophiles, we would have screamed that the study was obviously biased. Well, if we're going to convert over people who are actually against games, we're going to need studies that aren't going to appear totally biased to the Censor-Happy crowd.
I live in Michigan, and at this time of year water is, indeed, not all that wet at all.
WIVES. Jesus Christ. Not only did you get the plural form of the word wrong, you even added an apostrophe. That's beyond stupid .. that's stupid squared.
I'm not sure TV is viewed as being acceptable entertainment either. I seem to recall about a decade or so a lot of fuss over TV watching habits, the rise of violence on TV etc. Some dork made a V-Chip, it wasn't really what anyone truly wanted, it's mostly forgotten (except to /.). Now it's games. In 30 years it'll be VR or some other mental pornography. This is junk science.
/. though do I get quite the same sense of either self-conciousness or self-loathing about the subject. Most of my non-"geek" friends who are around my age or lower play games without thought. If they have to sneak, it's because their particular SO doesn't approve usually due to wanting attention or chores done. That's not a new problem either.
The entire premise of an article that suggests "Gamers Are Normal" is flawed. Is it abnormal to entertain yourself? Since when? History suggests never.
The intellectual elite has been bemoaning the "poor quality" of passive entertainment for centuries (yeah, before TV!). Shakespeare didn't write books so much as he made plays, for people to watch! The trouble with plays are that you have to go out on the town to get to them, sit in a crowded room with lots of people and maybe not be able to see or hear. TV is Shakespeare in a box! (And before you get hung up on his genius, consider his subject matter is not more or less intellectual than your average episode of Friends, he simply presents it with greater skill)
People enjoy both passive and active entertainment and have for a long time. Dancing for example is active entertainment from time forgotten. Cards as you mentioned are another form, even solitaire is active entertainment with just one person! Again these forms of active entertainment had problems (getting people together, matching schedules, finding quality opponents, etc.) Video Games are an answer to this.
What's so new here to lead us to this "Gamers May Be Abnormal" conclusion? Nothing, except perhaps VIDEO GAMES, originally marketed to young children (like me, now grown) are working their way in to culture and refining themselves. The next excuse is that gamers, like couch potatoes, are not getting enough physical excersize...Games are ruining our bodies! Oh No! Then someone is going to invent VR games or the like, and mark my words, there will be equal backlash. It's new, it seems different, something must be wrong!
Only here on