Slashdot Mirror
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."
I am human? Jesus why didn't someone tell me? Next thing I know they will tell me I'm white.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Now if only someone could convince my wife...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
well duh!!
In other news: 1) Slashdot.com is a Website! 2) Apple makes computers! 3) Chickens are just birds! 4) Microsoft is a company! 5) Water is wet!
DAMN YOU OCTODOG! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
So... Gamers are normal and non-gamers are the exception?
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."
...given your username I would have thought you liked to wear a green tunic and cap, carrying a sword...
Gibble: Descriptive of an emotional state in which one's mind is scrabbling for some purchase on reality
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...
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of a gaming clan?!"
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Something I've noticed is that it's become okay to be a gamer, even a computer gamer. When I first got into computers in the seventh grade, you were a nerd if you chatted with your friends via text. A mere three years later, and it was hip to be chatting your friends on Yahoo or AIM. Jocks and trendy girls were sending e-mails to each other, and it was okay.
;) The nerds of nerds.
While it was kind of hypocritical, it is cool because the result since has been that the image of a gamer is more mainstream now. In fact, I've noticed a lot more older gamers these days, which is natural since the people who first played Super Mario Bros. in the 80s are grown adults now, often with families, who still follow gaming. But I think the barriers of age, social class, and so on have kind of broken down. Though you still have gamers even other gamers won't touch, like EQ2 players.
All in all, though I think gaming companies are in trouble, the gamer is doing pretty well these days. And yes, we are human.
"Gamers Are Human Beings!"--announces Industry Group
"People with money are people"--reveals Las Vegas Visitors Bureau
"Bill O'Riley isn't an evil git"--proclaims his mum
"Gays aren't people, too!"--admits Karl Rove
"Moderators are nearly human"--slashdot
"first posters are fairly human"--slashdot
"A sufficiently patched hack-job is indistinguishable from actual security until later notice"--Microsoft rolling out any new release
"Will Eisner, still dead."--everyone BUT slashdot
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
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...
At the risk of saying something other than, "Well duh... who posted this?!"
I think the great engine behind the "popular" image of gamers as loafers stems from marketing rather than popular experience. I see "gamers" depicted in television advertising regularly. It always has 2-3 guys in their early 20's sitting in a dark room, on the couch, surrounded by junk food and illuminated by the blue glow of a television. I see this almost every time I turn on "The Simpsons."
By contrast, in real life I've only seen this environment a handful of times. Now why exactly the marketing folks think telling me I can be like the balding guy on the couch is going to get me to buy their game, I don't know. Maybe the answer is that gamer/loafers tend to wind up in marketing?
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
This story seems to be about how people perceive video games and the people who play them. Since a huge slice of Slashdotters likely are also gamers, this probably is of interest to more people than you might think.
One of the reasons I like Slashdot is that it goes beyond the same tech stories I could find at any number of other sites. Slashdot is an online magazine of geek culture, and that culture includes plenty of things beyond new *NIX applications.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
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
What is it about mainstream culture that has made entertainment something you watch rather than participate in. Isn't it more likely that sports fans are the ones that are not execising, going to church and voting. "Can't right now babe, the game is on." OK that is probably a personal bias since I don't watch sports. Still I do not get this attitude that gaming is somehow bad for you. Where did it come from?
Insert Generic Sig Here:
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.
"you were a nerd if you chatted with your friends via text".
When I was a kid, if you wanted to chat via text, you had to put it on a 5 1/2" floppy written in Basic and pass it to your friend. Sure there was IRC, but you had to hook up your 9600 baud modem to make it work.
I have been a gamer though throughout. Back then it was Brickout and Lode Runner. For me today it is SOCOM II (I am biased against Halo) and Doom and various RTS computer games. In my experience, the most successful games are 'social'. There is a community or clan that hangs out as much to be around other people like you and to be social, as anything else. Everquest works because of the group dynamic. The advent of voice communication makes that even more powerful, and makes computer games more like a fun phone call or chat line.
Up to date video cards, system boards, disk space, games, subscription MMORGs, broadband...
Sheese, maybe I'll go back to 2nd Edition AD&D...
---
Yea, yea, I'm sure I'll come up with a snappy sig soon
I guess that means I lose my +1 INT, DEX and WIS. On the upside, the -2 STR was getting rather annoying.
paintball
Could this work?
[prompt]
>north
The Troll Room
This is a small room with passages to the east and south and a forbidding hole leading west. Bloodstains and deep scratches (perhaps made by an axe) mar the walls.
A nasty-looking troll, brandishing a bloody axe, blocks all passages out of the room.
>moderate troll -1
The troll vanish, humiliated by your geekdom superpowers.
>
[/prompt]
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove