Though you all were already totally aware, it seems that the rest of the world is finally finding out that their image of the stereotypical gamer is mostly incorrect. Gamers aren’t the shy, lonely geeks they think us to be.
An Australian study helps out our image. It says that only one percent of polled gamers in this study appeared to have poor social skills, specifically shyness.
“Our findings strongly suggest that gaming doesn’t cause social problems, and social problems are not driving people to gaming,” says psychology graduate Daniel Loton, from Victoria University.
Even though 15 percent of the polled adult gamers were identified as “problem gamers” who spend more than 50 hours a week playing games (mostly MMO players), even they weren’t shy nerds. It’s just that they’d rather be gaming!
“What is important to note is that even problem gamers did not exhibit significant signs of poor social skills or low self-esteem,” said Loton.
Loton, who admitted that he has always played video games, spent the last two years conducting the study, which was based on mainly Australian and mainly male respondents, says Reuters.
I know that I’m not a shy, introverted geek that can’t communicate with the outside world, even though I game about 30 hours a week. My co-workers here at Destructoid are the same way, as are most of the Destructoid community members I’ve met. Some of us are geeky, but we’re defintely not shy! Why do you think the non-gaming world sees us as shy, lonely people?
