The Truth About Gamers.

Stun · *by **Stun** on Tue 25/Aug/09 7:56pm*

We all know one... or maybe you are one.
Come on - fess up!

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad

E Dogg Capizzle · *by **E Dogg Capizzle** on Tue 25/Aug/09 7:58pm*

Already posted in the gaming thread. Still, it's interesting to see that a study of 19-90 year olds is being touted as showing that the image of the average gamer as a teen is a myth. Edit: Sounds like a pretty crap study all round given its methods. Looks like researchers touting for funding.

avantibill · *by **avantibill** on Tue 25/Aug/09 9:49pm*

What about the average gamer-mtnbiker?

Tama · *by **Tama** on Wed 26/Aug/09 9:21am*

I play video games, am 35, but neither overweight nor sad... perhaps I need to eat more pies and listen to more emo? Or I could play this http://www.emogame.com while eating a bucket of lard with a spoon :thumbsup:

E Dogg Capizzle wrote:Already posted in the gaming thread. Still, it's interesting to see that a study of 19-90 year olds is being touted as showing that the image of the average gamer as a teen is a myth. Edit: Sounds like a pretty crap study all round given its methods. Looks like researchers touting for funding.

Mmmm... tasty funding for broad uncritical media coverage nom nom nom

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad wrote:The study, based on a 2006 online survey of 552 people between the ages of 19 and 90 who were living in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington state, also shows differences between male and female gamers.

Isn't this like running a street corner survey in Haiti and claiming the average pensioner is impoverished, toothless and HIV positive? :eh:

Chickenman · *by **Chickenman** on Wed 26/Aug/09 9:32am*

Tama wrote:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad wrote:The study, based on a 2006 online survey of 552 people between the ages of 19 and 90 who were living in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington state, also shows differences between male and female gamers.

Isn't this like running a street corner survey in Haiti and claiming the average pensioner is impoverished, toothless and HIV positive?

Xrodpacer · *by **Xrodpacer** on Wed 12/Mar/14 4:35pm*

Stun wrote:We all know one... or maybe you are one.
Come on - fess up!

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad

Lol agreed.. us gamer are totally like dat^^

Simonius_Titius · *by **Simonius_Titius** on Wed 12/Mar/14 8:21pm*

It's not THAT bad. For the purposes of the first study to compare male & female gamers and non-gamers over a wide age range it isn't disastrous that the sample is confined to a single area, nor even that they are all members of a market research rewards program.
The 18% participation rate is more of a worry but this is an initial survey to find out whether it is worth spending the money to investigate further, so doing it on the cheap like this makes sense.

http://www.ajpm-online.net/webfiles/images/journals/amepre/AMEPRE_2561.pdf

An Internet-based survey was conducted in 2006 among adults living in the Seattle–Tacoma designated market area (DMA).
The Seattle–Tacoma DMA was selected because of its size (13th largest U.S. media market) and the level of Internet use there (highest in the nation).
The sample was drawn from a panel maintained by e-Rewards Marketing Research of more than 60,000 participants.

Panel members were solicited by e-mail to complete a survey about their world
views and media use.
A stratified invitation process was used to maximize sample representativeness; it yielded a 17.8% response rate.
The responses of 562 individuals aged 19–90 years (M44.7, SD13.1) were analyzed. Breakdowns of the sample characteristics (Table 1) were generally consistent with those derived with random-digit-dialing sampling in the Seattle–Tacoma DMA, with two exceptions: Sample respondents reported higher household income and greater educational achievement.

Oli · *by **Oli** on Wed 12/Mar/14 8:37pm*

Fraser · *by **Fraser** on Thu 13/Mar/14 3:48am*

Velocipedestrian · *by **Velocipedestrian** on Thu 13/Mar/14 10:00am*

Fraser wrote:

Wobbler · *by **Wobbler** on Thu 13/Mar/14 10:17am*

Oli wrote::eh:

Simonius_Titius · *by **Simonius_Titius** on Fri 14/Mar/14 12:24am*

Wobbler wrote:
Oli wrote::eh:

Another angle:
Scientists can write whatever they think will sell in their summary for the public since practically nobody will bother checking to see whether it is justified by their research results or whether their methods were crap anyway.