Usernames Reveal the Age and Psychology of Game Players (sciencedirect.com)

limbicsystem writes: Your online name can reveal a lot about you. Researchers from the University of York and Riot Games have shown that information harvested from the usernames of players who signed up to 'League of Legends' can sometime reveal both their ages and how they behave online. And the short story is that both younger players and players with obnoxious names are more likely to exhibit toxic online behavior.

Comments

And this is news?

[BarbaraHudson]

And "the short story is that both younger players and players with obnoxious names are more likely to exhibit toxic online behavior" is news? The opposite finding might be ... but not this.

Re:And this is news?

[TwentyCharsIsNotEnou]

There's a difference between anecdotal evidence and properly correlated research data.

Research that confirms an expected answer is not useless.

Research sometimes does need to state the obvious

[Firethorn]

In my experience, sometimes you need to research the 'obvious' because sometimes what seems clear-cut turns out to not be. It's part of the reason that people say things like 'data is not the plural of anecdote'.

And once you've done the research you have to write the paper to justify the expenditure of resources and time to verify the results.

Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

What age are the original names? And do they use the age when I CREATED the name? (25 years ago, offline) or do they use the age when I first used it online (20 years ago)? Or do they use one of the many years in between then and now? I mean WTF. I have handles from when I was 10 years old BBS'ing. And the name is even on the list of legal names in Iceland. (did you know you have to have your name approved by the gov't in Iceland? But I digress.)

This whole concept is officially stupid. Only people who want to be known as assholes will pick asshole names. No News Here. NNH.

Re:tee-hee

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

Well, I can probably make a reasonable guess at your age and gender.

Maybe, but I self-identify as a 16-year old girl with big boobs who is a poly-demi-platonic trans-otherkin.

Re:Fuck "Toxic"

[narcc]

League is competitive; if someone tells you to fuck your mother, then you're doing it right. Don't like it? Then fuck right off, faggot. You're obviously not prepared to handle actual social interaction.

Amazing. Someone actually believes this. I'll repeat the kicker:

You're obviously not prepared to handle actual social interaction.

From the guy who wrote:

if someone tells you to fuck your mother, then you're doing it right. Don't like it? Then fuck right off, faggot.

Seriously. It's right above this post. Read it for yourself. This actually happened. It makes me sad. The collectivist in me wants to know where we went wrong. How did we fail him so badly.

His justification for supporting this kind of adolescent behavior?

League is competitive;

This past spring, we gave a stupid amount of money (around 10k) to the local little league team. Why? Because we think learning things like teamwork and sportsmanship are important.

To One With Whisp, I'm sorry that you were not offered the same opportunity to learn about sportsmanship as the kids participating in those kinds of activities. I can only hope that you take this opportunity to learn a little more about it, develop some empathy, and learn how to play well with others.