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'Boozy Gamer' Researcher Questioned

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the we-only-like-good-beer-at-least dept.

Via GameSetWatch, a Gamespy interview with Sonya Brady, the person who ran the research study we reported on a while back. The one that claimed gamers enjoy getting high, drinking alcohol? From the article: "What kind of feedback have I received? My feedback from research colleagues and other older adults has generally been positive. What I find most interesting is the feedback I have received from adolescents and young adults. Some people are interested in learning more about the research, even if they are skeptical of the results. Other people have been very angry."

2 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Explain to me... by Bieeanda · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...how gamers are any different from other [young] adults, in that they as a group tend to enjoy drinking and experimenting with drugs? For that matter, how are 'gamers' defined as separate from young adults as a general population?

    And for the question of the year: Who really gives a shit? Come on, young people are demonized as a matter of course, particularly for drinking or doing drugs. Trying to draw a causal link between games and that sort of behavior is unnecessary.

  2. Further research needed (and get better summaries) by the_demiurge · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The original research said that a group of people were made to play either GTA or the Simpsons driving game (Hit and Run). The people who played GTA had more permissive views of drug uses than the people playing Hit and Run. Assuming that their methodology for those results are valid, the research still leaves a lot of questions unanswered:

    What if they were made to play other sorts of games? What would be the differences between Katamari Damacy and Tetris, for example.

    What if they were exposed to other sorts of things? What would be the difference between playing GTA and watching Casino? Or between watching football and watching fishing.

    I think more data is needed to avoid making an oversimplified generalization from these results.