Parenting Gamers

New Study Finds Gamers Are, “Highly Social People”

gamers
Image by Dr. Nick Taylor

A new study released by researchers at North Carolina University, York University, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology has concluded that gamers are “highly social people”.

“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.”

The researchers traveled to several different gamer gatherings for this study. They observed and surveyed gamers, specifically focusing on those that play MMORPGs like Eve Online and World of Warcraft. What they found was games “expanding players’ social lives”.

I believe video games have greater power to connect people than any other form of media. They are something you do together. This study shows that to be the case.

“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.”

You can read the entire paper here.

What Makes Video Games Great

If you pay attention to the media at all, you might think anyone who plays video games is socially awkward. The stereotype of a gamer is a loner who lives in his parent’s basement and never sees the sun.

The truth is, video games facilitate connections like no other form of media. Video games have something movies, TV, books, and music cannot duplicate.

Interactivity

When you sit down to play a game with your child, you are actively participating with them. It does not matter if you are figuring out the puzzles in Portal, beating each other in FIFA or Madden, or covering each other’s back in Call of Duty.

The stories of your play time will become woven into the overarching story of your family.

Here’s an example.

A couple months ago, I took my 5 year-old to a birthday party for one of her friends. She loves to go to his house and “play Mario”.

On this occasion, since there were several kids, his dad put in Nintendo Land. This allowed 5 of them to be able to play together.

After a while, they settled in on the Luigi’s Mansion mini game. In it, one person plays the ghost while the other 4 are ghost hunters. The hunters are trying to find the ghost with their flashlights before the ghost can sneak up on and grab them.

One girl started to dominate as the ghost. No matter what the hunters did, they just could not beat her. Finally a dad decided to step in and show the young ones how it’s done.

Nope, the ghost won again.

We could not have this 5 year-old show us up so another dad jumped in.

And the ghost won AGAIN!

It was starting to get a little embarrassing. How could a bunch of 30+ year old men with years of gaming experience lose to a 5 year-old?

So another one of us joined the fight. We strategized. We worked together. There was no way we were going to lose this time.

It was an intense match. She took one of us down. Then we got her. Back and forth it went. Finally, it was me against her. I only had to find her one more time but she would win if she got me.

You would not believe the reaction when I found her. 3 grown men jumping up and down, excited because we FINALLY beat a 5 year-old! Man, it was fun!

When I look back at my daughters life, I will always remember that party. And as she grows and we play together more and more, we will have more of those memories to share.

And that is what makes video games great.

Benefits of Video Games

Last week, I showed you that video games will not make your child a mass murderer or a fat, lazy slob. But it is not just that video games are not bad. They can also be beneficial. Today, I want to  look at some of the benefits of video games.

This infographic from Psychology Degree breaks down a lot of the recent research done on video games. It shows how video games have been linked to better results in surgeons, higher creativity, better multi-tasking, and more social awareness.

Game Changers

Will Video Games Make My Child a Fat Slob?

Yesterday we address the question of violent video games causing violent behavior. Today, I want to answer the other big question. Will video games turn your child into an overweight slob, with no job, eating Cheetos while staring at the TV in my basement when they are 40?

As a parent, you want your child to grow up to be a well-rounded, contributing member of society. You want them to have a life of meaning. You do not want them to be the stereotypical gamer.

That stereotype, as with most, is false. I have played video games most my life. I have also lived a very full, meaningful life. I played in the band and on the soccer team in high school. I finished college in 3 years with a computer science degree. I met and married an amazing woman. I have 2, about to be 3, kids. I own a house, pay my bills, and have no debt.

The stories you hear from the news media are extreme cases. Yes, there are people who get obsessed. But that is the case no matter what hobby you are talking about.

The key is finding balance. It is our job as parents to help our kids find that balance. We are responsible for setting boundaries that allow them to flourish and grow in a healthy way.

Tomorrow I am going to release an e-book called Connecting with Your Teenager through Video Games. Its purpose is to equip you as a parent with the knowledge you need to connect with your kids through video games. It will help you evaluate a game’s content plus give you ideas on how to be involved in your gamer’s gaming.

Will Video Games Make My Child Violent?

There are very few forms of media with a worse rep than video games. They have been blamed for everything from childhood obesity to mass murder. If you listen to the news, you may be wondering if you should allow your kids to play video games at all.

Video games are an easy target. When something bad happens, the news media can rage against them without having to really examine the situation. Politicians can then target them to show they are doing something to keep those bad things from happening again.

Is that rage and blame justified? Are video games really that bad?

Violent Video Games

The debate over violence in video games began in earnest in 1992 with the release of Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat was a fighting game that gives the winning player the opportunity to perform a “Fatality”. This is an ultra-violent move that results in the gruesome death of the losing character.

As the video game industry has grown and advanced, so has the violence. Each new hardware cycle brings more power for developers to create more graphic situations, both violent and otherwise. This has led many to blame violent video games for massacres ranging from Columbine in 1999 to the Norway attacks in 2011.

The problem is there is conflicting evidence on how much of a role violent video games play in these situations. Some studies find a link, others do not. However, there is one piece of data that is very telling.

The video game industry has been growing tremendously over the last few decades. It is projected to hit $70 billion by 2015. And, as I mentioned, the technology has allowed the games to become more graphic and violent. So, if there is a correlation between violent video games and violent behavior, I would expect violent crime to increase as well. However, this is not the case.

According to the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports, violent crime has declined since 1994, “reaching the lowest rate ever in 2009.” I admit this is not proof video games have no affect. It does tell me, though, they have less affect than the news media or politicians want you to believe.

When it comes down to it, I do not believe violent video games directly lead to violent behavior.

Choosing Non-Violent Games

However, I would never allow my 4-year old to play something violent. She just cannot handle it yet. The good news is, I have choices.

Violent video games make up a small portion of all video games released in a year. The ESRB (the organization that gives video games their content rating) rated 1,332 games in 2011. 9% of those games received an M rating, which is equivalent to an R rating for a movie. A full 65% (886 games) received a rating of E or E10+ (G and PG).

As a parent, you know what your kids can and cannot handle better than anyone else. I know my daughter is too young to be exposed to violent games. So I do not play them with or around her. But there are still a ton of games I can enjoy with her.

With that said, there is one more question about video games that needs to be answered.

They may not make my child violent, but won’t video games turn him/her into an overweight slob, with no job, eating Cheetos while staring at the TV in my basement when they are 40?

I will address that question tomorrow.