Gamers Play Against Type
Participants in the role-playing game “EverQuest II” defy the stereotype of the overweight male teenager, researchers reported this month in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
The average age of the 7,000 players surveyed was 31, said first author Dmitri Williams, assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
“We found that older players were more typical,” Williams said. There were more players in their 30s than in their 20s, and playing time tended to increase with age.
In addition, while women made up only 20 percent of players, they logged more time in the game than their male counterparts.
“The hardcore players are the women,” Williams said. “They play more hours, they’re less likely to quit.”
Players also stated that they exercise vigorously once or twice a week – more than most people – and their reported height and weight showed that they are slightly overweight but still 10 percent leaner than the average American.
Even assuming a modest amount of under-reporting, the survey suggested that serious gamers resemble the general population in overall fitness.
The fitness data pointed to an intriguing difference between television and online game experiences.
The researchers cited studies showing that time spent watching television is related to poor health outcomes and fewer servings of fruits and vegetables. But “EverQuest II” players do not appear to fit this profile.
On the popular virtual worlds blog Terra Nova, a comment about the “EverQuest II” survey blamed commercials for television viewers’ poor health habits. It can be found at http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2008/09/who-plays-how-m.html
The results conformed to stereotypes in some respects. Data provided by Sony Online Entertainment, which runs the game, showed that players spent a large amount of time in-game: 26 hours per week on average.
Survey respondents were roughly 50 percent more likely to have had a depression diagnosis than the population at large. The rate of substance addiction was about 20 percent higher than normal.
On the other hand, players reported slightly lower levels of anxiety than the general population.
The researchers warned against inferring that online gaming compromises mental health. It may be that individuals with mental health issues play the game as a form of self-medication or that individuals with these issues are simply more attracted to the game, they said. The lower anxiety may reflect players’ efforts to regulate their moods through play.
The researchers’ report on the survey is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121394419/HTMLSTART
Williams’ co-authors were Nick Yee of the Palo Alto Research Center and Scott Caplan of the University of Delaware.
In a first for online game research, the Sony Entertainment Corp. agreed to let the researchers access game data.
Players were recruited over two days with the offer of a “Greatstaff of the Sun Serpent,” a keepsake created specifically for the survey, in exchange for participation. Everyone who logged in during the recruitment period was offered the same prize.
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USC in the News
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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