Research proves online gamers aren’t anti-social basement-dwellers. Krishna Bahirwani explores how gaming does not diminish players’ social lives, but augments them
Gaming today is not just for kids, people of all ages enjoy this art form. Games are an interactive way to create virtual worlds, tell stories, teach things and expressing yourself. New research finds that the gaming community has as much of an active social life online as it does offline. Contrary to popular belief, online gaming is expanding players’ social lives.
“Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes, they’re highly social people,” says Dr. Nick Taylor, an assistant professor of communication at NC State and lead author of a paper on the study. “This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm.”
Reserchers travelled all over the word visiting gaming events, from 2,500-player events held in convention centers to 20-player events held in bars. They observed thousands of players and had 378 players take a survey with a focus on MMORPG’s or massively multiplayer online role-playing games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic and World of Warcraft.
The reserchers focused on understanding the behaviour of gamers both online and offline. What the reserchers found was that gaming was only one aspect of their lives.
“We found that gamers were often exhibiting many social behaviors at once: watching games, talking, drinking, and chatting online,” Taylor says. “Gaming didn’t eliminate social interaction, it supplemented it.
“This was true regardless of which games players were playing, and whether a player’s behavior in the online game was altruistic. For example, a player could be utterly ruthless in the game and still socialize normally offline.”
The researchers also found gamers enjoyed watching other peoples games and did not diffrentiate between that time and the time they spent gaming.“It all fell under the category of gaming, which they view as a social activity,” Taylor says.
Taylor notes that this work focused on Western gaming communities, and he’s interested in studying the relationship between social behaviors and gaming in other cultures.
The paper, “Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings,” is published online in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}