MMO players not loners

Jarlaxle — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:38 GMT

I disagree. If they weren't asocial, they wouldn't be making friends through MMOs. Of course there are people that have a good social life not connected to games and play MMOs, but this wasn't about them.

People are asocial because of lack of confidence too, not just because they don't want to hang out with people.

MMO players not loners

DMT2007 — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:37 GMT

This is actually true i met a guy on WoW and ended up being one of my real life friends from school. But about the; -( “The virtual world that these games offer, allow players to express themselves in ways they may not feel comfortable doing in real life because of their appearance, gender, sexuality, age, or other factors. They also offer a place where teamwork, encouragement and fun can all be experienced.”)-

Doesnt apply with the people I know that play WoW, and none of us are loners at all but yet we still raid, even hardcore sometimes. We actually are more of the popular kids at our high school. I guess its just different people different personalities.

MMO players not loners

dr58 — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:36 GMT

DUH.

They spent money to find this out? Playing for 10 minutes on any WoW server would show the vast number of couples and friends that play and play together. I can't even begin to count the number of married folks that I know on my server, and can think of several that met while playing wow, and got/are getting married as a result.

MMO players not loners

Monstercloud — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:35 GMT

Um, why did someone just repost something that was already posted?... and 3 people didn't notice?..

MMO players not loners

blhotz — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:34 GMT

"If they weren't asocial, they wouldn't be making friends through MMOs" What? Of course they would. MMO stands for Massive-Multiplayer-Online. Multiplayer... Massive... Of course MMOs are full of social people. Asocial people are the ones at home playing Final Fantasy.

I think this study was done to give MMOs positive publicity since there have been a lot of negative news lately.

MMO players not loners

Heydan — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:33 GMT

i actually have to scroll down for 10-15secs:) in my friends list,i`m in one of the gratest guilds on DB so on behalf of all of us who feel like little lab rats:)) suck our asocial *** ey? cheers

MMO players not loners

kraderif — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:32 GMT

Partially disagree with the whole article... "high percentages of gamers making life-long friends life-long friends" Which MMO has been out there for a life??

Is talking with confidence to a guy that you met online really a friendship? You will never know completely one person (I think we can't even know ourselves). Much less a person that you don't even know who he is in RL.

Jarlaxle has a good point, but partially agree with him too. I consider myself asocial but not because I lack confidence. I don't have as many "friends" as most of the people, (I can count mines with no more than my fingers), but the few that I consider my friends, are real life-long friends.

Yes, there exists some kind of social life in MMOs, as blhotz stated, interaction with other people is part of the very nature of MMOs. But definitively that is not the same as meeting people in the real world.

My point is, human relations in a non-virtual world, where you can feel them and taste them, are already a complex thing, they might not be as strong or as tight or as "real" as you think they are. Then, how can you be sure that a relation that you have in a virtual world is what it seems to be, how much real is it, how much trust-worthy or reliable can it be?

MMO players not loners

Jarlaxle — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:31 GMT

@blhotz

I was saying that they would be making friends IRL. Go out (with RL friends!!), make even more friends (or just get to know people), *** some chick/guy. Instead, they do it through MMOs (meet people). Maybe even on a saturday night. This is stil asocial for me (again, not saying this applies to all MMO players)

@Heydan

hahaha, are you seriously saying you are popular based on the number of people you have on your MSN 'friends' list ? And it even seems its mostly made up of people you met through WoW. Goddamn, you suck

@kraderif

Lol, you aren't really asocial if you can count your friends on your fingers. Especially if they are real, life-long friends. Thats actually a good sign

MMO players not loners

hamor — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:30 GMT

I was wondering that myself...

MMO players not loners

cybermonkey — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 01:17:29 GMT

I agree they did this study to gain positive Press faction rep ;)

Anyone who plays this game very long (and especially people with voip software like vent and TS) knows that it's full of families and friends. I know a lot of parents that play with their children, old friends who live thousands of miles apart who use the game as an easy way to stay in touch, etc.

As far as not knowing someone until you meet them IRL, even then you can't guarantee that the person isn't lying to you or whatever. Not to say you should never trust anyone, but that just because someone is an online friend doesn't mean you know them any less well.

I'm not asocial as much as I have an irregular personality (did I just insult myself?). It's hard to find friends in my small town. If you don't become best friends with the people you work with you're screwed. WoW gives people with unique personalities a chance to find other like minds. There's also a bunch of total A-holes out there so it's just like real life ;)