MMOGology: Gamerz is speshul

Gamers have always taken a degree of flack about their hobby of choice. Some people call gaming a waste of time (whereas watching TV is completely productive), some people bash it as anti-social escapism (whereas reading a book is akin to attending a gala), some people deride it for its focus on violent content (whereas Hollywood blockbusters, boxing, and the nightly news are G-rated and chock full of joy), and some people despise it for its potentially addictive properties (cigarettes are a far safer alternative). I could go on. As a result, gamers are often seen as grumpy, antisocial slackers. But of all the labels associated with gamers one of the latest is just plain retarded - literally.

At a recent British Psychological Society convention it was announced that, "hard core gamers can mirror certain aspects of Asperger's Syndrome." For those of you who don't know, Asperger's Syndrome is a psychiatric disorder on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum of psychiatric disorders. Asperger's is typically characterized by impairments in social interactions and repetitive behavior patterns. Dr. Charlton, one of the researchers on the study states that, "Our research supports the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum disorders than people who have no interest in gaming."

The study was lead by Dr. John Charlton of the University of Bolton (U.K.) and Ian Danforth of Whitman College (U.S.). It examined 391 computer game players and found that gamers who were more addicted to game playing exhibited "negative personality traits." These personality traits, "neuroticism, and lack of extraversion and agreeableness," were likened to the personality traits of people with Asperger's syndrome. Although the researchers say that the gamers in the study could not actually be classified as having Asperger's syndrome, they agreed that the more addicted gamers in the study found it easier to "empathize with computer systems [rather] than other people."

So what does this mean exactly? To sum up, according to this research study, game addicts exhibit Asperger's like personality traits. OK. I guess one of the first questions you'd ask about the study is, what constitutes addiction or a tendency toward addiction? Were these gamers self described addicts or were they classified as addicts by non-gamers? We also don't know the length of time the "addicted" player spent gaming or the length of time the gamer was observed during a gaming session (if he was). Aside from the lack of detail, does the study indicate that those with addictive personalities exhibit Asperger's like symptoms regardless of the outlet of their addiction? Would a person addicted to nicotine or caffeine act irritable, antisocial and neurotic if denied a smoke or a cup of coffee? Probably. So perhaps the study should have used other addictive substances as controls in order that their findings could specifically point to gaming as the source of these negative behaviors.

Next up we have the ambiguity of whether the studies focused on gamers during a gaming session or over a longer period of time. If a person is focused on completing a task that requires his complete and utter attention (gaming), I think it's understandable if he exhibits a "lack of extroversion and agreeableness." If a gamer is deeply involved in playing a game there's probably a good chance he's not paying attention to another human unless that human is participating with him in the game. He's probably focusing on the computer or TV screen because he's dodging fireballs, saving a princess, or blasting terrorists. Why would any normal person involved in any task that requires concentration, suddenly feel compelled to be social while trying to complete that task – regardless of the type of task? What about the neurotic element? Neuroticism is defined as an enduring tendency to experience negative emotional states (such as anxiety and depression). Without knowing how long the study was conducted we can't really know if any negative emotional state was enduring. We also aren't told whether these states only persist during the gaming session itself or for long periods of time before and after the gaming session. If these emotional states only were noted during the gaming session I could definitely see why a gamer might exhibit negative emotions if interrupted by someone attempting to be social while playing. I can just see a researcher watching someone raiding a dungeon in World of Warcraft and wondering why the gamer wasn't participating in a social dialog with the researcher. Gee, maybe it's because you asked him to play a video game, not discuss politics, bread making or how he feels about his mother. I'm sure if the gamer interrupted the researcher while he was writing up his report he might find that the researcher was also irritable, lacked extroversion and agreeableness.

Then of course, there is the generalized statement that people involved in game playing may be nearer to the autistic spectrum, specifically Asperger's, than non-gamers. People with Asperger's are not simply "anti-social". Unlike the majority of the population, individuals with Asperger's can never choose whether or not to be social. People with Asperger's are unable to understand non-verbal social behaviors such as eye contact, body posture, facial expressions, etc. There's not a switch they can flip to instantly understand non-verbal signals that most of us take for granted. People with Asperger's are also often prone to repetitive physical motor behaviors (such as flapping or twisting the hands, etc.), and generally have a magnificent obsession (a highly intense and specialized area of interest, like dinosaurs). To suggest that gamers exhibit signs of Asperger's simply because they can be antisocial while playing games is to not understand Asperger's Syndrome. When a gamer puts down the controller and stops gaming he's as social or non-social as he was prior to gaming. His personality functions independently of his choice of hobby. Even if the gamers in the study were found to be introverted, neurotic and disagreeable long after they stopped playing (and there's no evidence in the article to suggest this), those traits are completely divorced from the primary attributes of Asperger's (the inability to communicate non-verbally, repetitive physical behavior, obsessive focused interest, etc.).

Since we're on the topic of studies, here's another fun one. According to a National Purchase Diary (NPD) poll of 20,000 people, almost three quarters of the U.S. population played video games last year. In addition, according to comScore networks a third of the world's Internet users also play games. If the study by Charlton and Danforth were true, wouldn't that mean that three fourths of the United States or one third of the world's Net users is nearer to the autism spectrum than the minority of non-gamers? Wouldn't that mean that the majority of U.S. citizens are borderline autistic? And yet, the majority of U.S. citizens don't have an often debilitating social disorder that prevents them from functioning in normal society. Wouldn't that mean that research "supporting the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum" might be ... wrong? Maybe when you're working with nebulous terms like "heavily involved" it's easier to make sweeping and unrealistic claims. Still, you'd kind of hope researchers wouldn't be using nebulous terms.

It's obviously difficult to make a rational judgment about the validity of a scientific study when all we're presented with are the highlights of the research in a press release. Without access to the details of the study the results seem so over generalized as to be absurd. Knowing that around three-quarters of the U.S. population plays video games, it doesn't take a PhD to prove that most gamers are normal, fully functioning adults. Either that, or the autism spectrum is so broad that it truly encompasses all of humanity and is therefore meaningless. We all have our quirks right? As for "game addicts", without control samples in place the results could be applicable to anyone prone to addiction, regardless of the substance chosen for abuse. And speaking of results, they don't seem to match enough of the qualifiers of Asperger's Syndrome to justify the comparison of addicted gamers to individuals exhibiting traits of Asperger's. This "study" seems completely borked on many levels. In any case, it's a controversial topic that might warrant further research. I'm sure the good doctors at the University of Bolton and Whitman College will be happy to pull in some extra grant money to make that happen. In the meantime, feel free to justify your insatiable game playing habits and antisocial behavior by telling your family and friends you have a psychiatric disorder. "Sorry, mom, I have to keep grinding primals, it's a medical condition."

MMOGology [mŏg-ol-uh-jee] – noun – The study of massively multiplayer online games via the slightly warped perspective of Marc Nottke.