Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to write for The Onion, and I feel as if that title is probably the closest that I’ll ever get to doing that while writing about gaming, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. There was actually a recent study done by two professors at Penn State that looked at the habits and interactions from people who play games online regularly possess, and the results were rather inconclusive, but not all bad, either.
Gamers carry, or at least they have in the past, a stigma with them that they are socially awkward nerds or raging sociopaths just waiting to go postal and go on a shooting spree. In some cases, those things are true, but this study has shown that in most cases it really is not, and that study couldn’t have come at a better time. They surveyed people waiting in line for the launch of Black Ops 2, whom they figured would be good targets for such a study. Their conclusion was that not all gamers were doomed to be social outcasts and to have failing relationships due to their hobby of playing videogames.
This is stuff that most gamers already knew, but it is nice to see someone taking this stuff more seriously. As for their group that they surveyed, it might not be a complete survey until they find gamers awaiting the next Final Fantasy title, but that is just my opinion.
