Gamers Today
Who Goes Gaming? Five Myths,
Urban Legends, and Stereotypes.
Introduction
When we all hear the term “gamer” that brings
certain stereotypes to mind. Usually it is the
somewhat smart, out of touch, quirky “nerd” who
is really socially awkward as seen here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ewrev6XcGo
Introduction
Gamers come from a wide variety of
backgrounds and social statutes.
Gamers are more than the out of touch “nerds” of
society.
Gamers join various games for multiple
reasons friends, family, and entertainment
value.
Gamers come from a diverse range of nations
and ethnic groups.
Main Issues
There are several main issues facing the gaming
community today.
Regulation of content and hardware.
Diversity of the gamers.
What types of games to play, there are a lot,
and why do gamers play them?
RPG, FPS, RPS, Adventure, Arcade, Sports.
The following Myths about gamers are designed
to show some of the social issues facing gamers
today.
Myth 5
Saddam Hussein purchased thousands of PS2
consoles to build a supercomputer.
This myth has been circulating for a while. Though
this myth has been debunked by military sources,
video game consoles are banned from being sold in
several countries for political reasons, usually state
sponsored terrorism.
Countries making the console ban list include: Iran,
Syria, and Lybia.
The control of game consoles falls under is the U.S.
Supercomputer Export Control Policy.
Myth 4
The majority of gamers in the world are white
males who are out of touch with the world.
This is simply not true.
Some statistics put the number of Americans
gamers at 60% of the US population. With the
median range as 18 – 34.
At least 40% of the American gaming
population are women.
Gamers are also spread all over the world
from Japan to Europe.
Myth 3
Most gamers play WOW on a regular basis.
Definitely not!
Though WOW is the biggest online MMORPG, it
is definitely not the biggest game.
WOW by some estimates has approximately 10.9
million monthly subscribers.
Halo 3 was PRE – ORDERED at least 4 million
times. Xbox Live had 45 million subscribers at
the end of 2007.
Myth 2
The country that banned the most violent
video games among countries that have a
large gaming population would either fall in
the middle east or with a communist state.
Not true!
Australia has the most banned games out of any
nation with 28.
American law protects violent video games, but
makes it harder to sell the games in retail stores.
Myth 1
The advent of mass video game media has
caused the death of cultural diversity.
Partially.
Gaming, the internet, and globalization are
some major factors in cultural “death.”
However, the gaming community is highly
diverse representing many nations and
races.
And there are many different gaming
groups representing those national and
ethnic lines.
Conclusions
People choose different games for different
reasons. Be those reasons personal, political,
or social.
Games and game consoles are also regulated
based on what society says is appropriate, and
sometimes different societies experience
tension with values
Example: Manji vs Swastika
Manji – Buddhist symbol for good fortune, looks like a
backwards Swastika to many westerners.
Conclusions
The gaming community is diverse. The
country with the most “gamers” per capita is
South Korea. The country with the most
headquarters of two of the major game console
companies is Japan. (Sony and Nintendo)
People play games for different reasons.
Personal reasons ranging from ethics to cost
may prevent someone from playing WOW or
GTA. Social pressure may cause someone to
play games like Halo, or WII Sports.
Conclusions
To finally conclude: we have seen a wide
variety of issues facing the social life of the
gaming community. As with any technology,
video games will only go as far in society as
we allow them to go.
Resources
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54128
http://ezinearticles.com/?Video-Game-Demographics&id=352934
http://www.gamestudies.org/0301/fromme/
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1997_h/has317000_1.HTM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ewrev6XcGo
http://kezins.com/2008/04/kezinscom-presents-video-game-urban-legends/394
http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/video-game-myths-fact-or-fiction-/1182040
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Arcade#Sales_milestones
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3
http://books.google.com/books?id=cnhnO0AO45AC&printsec=frontcover&dq=david+crysta
l&client=firefox-a#PPA180,M1
Questions?