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We all know that SOE recently turned over years of users logs to be dissected by some mad scientists. Here are some of the things they've discovered:
"The average age of players turned out to be 31. "These aren't just pasty white teenage boys in a basement-to be sure, they're there, but they're not typical," he said. The older players tended to play more than the kids and, although the total hours played seem large, he said that the time mostly displaced either TV watching or movie going. And the surveys showed that those who viewed TV news in the first place continued to do so, suggesting that gamers really slotted EQ2 into their entertainment time. Mostly, the gamers seemed healthy; their body mass index was better than the US average and, although they were slightly more depressed than average, they were also less anxious. Buried among those happy, average players was a small subset of the population-about five percent-who used the game for serious role playing and, according to Williams, "They are psychologically much worse off than the regular players." They belong to marginalized groups, like ethnic and religious minorities and non-heterosexuals, and tended to use the game as a coping mechanism. "
kotaku.com/5157952/scientists-analyzing-entire-server-logs-from-everquest-2 |
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most of the demographic information came from a blind survey given to 7000 players
These self-report data were then combined with data on participants' actual in-game play behaviors, as collected by the game operator. The main measure derived from Sony's databases was total playing time
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The way the players responded to their survey sounds amazingly similar to the way the "Hawthorne effect" causes subjects to react in an abnormal way when they know they are being observed/studied. |
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As far as I know, wasn't the survey the thing they used to determine ages and BMI and depression and stuff, and no private conversations were turned over? I think Brenlo or some other guy posted something like that. Currently playing: EverQuest II
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