antisocial
Latest
We're not antisocial! Yay!
This might be an obvious statement for those of us around here, but as it turns out, we're not antisocial. A new study has proven that gamers are not just basement-dwelling loners. In other words, everyone you see at BlizzCon did not just come out of their mother's house to talk about WoW -- they really are socially well-adapted people who enjoy the company of others. This combats the stereotypes typically associated with gamers. More studies like these are an important step in eliminating the stigma associated with the online gaming community, and can go a long way in places of business and with health care in making "serious" online gaming like WoW more of an acceptable hobby. Now of course we consider it acceptable, however the CEO of Super Mega International World Corp might not agree. The only problem with this study is that it viewed gamers already acting in social situations. Now given that they picked these gamers from that group, there would be a natural tendency for them to be more inclined to normalized social behavior. However at the same time, the study would have easily been able to pick up on outliers in the social interaction (meaning that their only social interaction was say, BlizzCon). The study found that this social interaction was deep and not just limited to one thing -- so while the population might not be ideal, the data still holds up (for the most part).
.jpg.cf.jpg)
New Cloak app helps you hide from 'that guy'
There are a plethora of geo-location-based apps that make it incredibly convenient to do friendly things, like chat with nearby peers about local hotspots or meet up with a coworker on the fly. A new iOS app called Cloak, however, utilizes services from Foursquare and Instagram for a more anti-social purpose. The brainchild of Brian Moore and former Buzzfeed creative director Chris Baker, Cloak identifies the location of friends (read: those you'd rather not bump into) based upon their latest check-in. While perusing the map, you can choose to "flag" certain undesirables, like exes or annoying third-wheels, to be notified when they wander within a preset distance of your personal bubble. Or you could, ya know, skip town altogether just to be safe.
The Daily Grind: How do you handle random party invites?
I don't know why, but sometimes I get discouraged when a random person sends me a party invite while I'm in the middle of questing. I know it sounds odd, but when I'm not playing with my regular group of friends or guildies, I like to just play alone. When someone whispers me to ask if he can join me, I usually turn him down (politely!), but if I get a random party invite without so much as a hello, I simply ignore it. My own antisocial issues aside, I want to know how you feel about this topic. Do you think a random invite is a healthy way to find companions and possibly friends, or do you see it as an invasion of privacy while you're trying to quest? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Gamers buck stereotypes in a recent survey
Angry at being lumped in with the stereotype of a gaming loser who can't make a friend for all the effort in the world? It turns out you probably have a right to be upset. According to a survey by Bigpoint, most gamers are actually balanced, social and fairly good-looking -- a far cry from the antisocial nerd who cannot understand this thing called "women." The Bigpoint Gamer Survey covered 6,663 gamers across the globe in its research before coming to this startling (or not-so-startling, depending on your perspective) conclusion. The survey also showed that gamers are just as active with their online friendships as those in real life. Yes, 55% of players under 20 years old said they had more online friends than offline, and a quarter of gamers mashed the two social spheres together -- 28% of those surveyed said that they eventually met their online friends in the real world. Bigpoint's Janine Griffel thinks that this survey paints a very positive picture for the gaming community: "Our study shows that online gamers are attractive individuals with healthy and active social lives. Social and casual games are very popular among our users for the reason that they emphasize being social. The trend's definitely moving away from single-player games to social-based experiences." You can read more about this fascinating survey at Game Politics.
Wasteland Diaries: Lone wolf
An MMO is a massively multiplayer online game. So what would attract a lone-wolf type to something that is massively multiplayer? You would think this would drive someone who enjoys his solitude away. This is simply not the case, as every MMORPG has lone-wolf players. If that MMO happens to be Fallen Earth, with its post-apocalyptic setting, it might seem to attract individualistic survivalist types who strive to be self-sufficient. I have never played an MMO in which so many people were withdrawn, introverted, and downright antisocial. Well, it is the apocalypse, and there are times when I just want to be left alone to kill in silence. I am a bit of a lone wolf, myself. But many times, trying to get a group together can be like pulling teeth... from a drunken throwback's maw. Sure, people aren't bound to be as friendly in a ravaged, unlawful world like the one we call home in Fallen Earth, but sometimes the wasteland can be a very lonely place. I enjoy doing my own thing as much as anyone else, and in many cases I don't want to stop what I'm doing to help other players, but I tend to. And I'm almost always glad I did. After the cut, I'll take a look at the pros and cons of being a lone wolf.
Drama Mamas: How to befriend when antisocial
Dodge the drama and become that player everyone wants in their group with the Drama Mamas. Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are real-life mamas and experienced WoW players -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your server. We're taking your questions at DramaMamas (at) WoW (dot) com. We'll get to the drama in a minute, but first I must talk about the awesome avatars that the awesome Kelly Aarons of Byron and World of Warcraft, Eh? fame has awesomely drawn and painted for us. Awesome. See them after the break. Yeah, yeah. You want drama. We've got your drama right here. The thing about WoW (and MMOs in general) is that while you may be able to solo through it, the most benefits are reaped by at least a minimum of social interaction. We are answering a letter this week from someone who isn't very friendly but still wants to make and keep friends in Azeroth. Try not to get too distracted by the awesome avatars. Awesome.
Australian TV covers World of Warcraft
Fortunately, this "mY Generation" show from Australian TV is a little more fair with WoW than the last bit we saw. Though the stereotyping of an entire generation and the video effects grate after a while, it's a generally better look at what it's like to be a World of Warcraft player. It would be nice to see, for example, these kids going out to a movie occasionally or interacting with other people (since most of WoW's population actually does that), and it would have been good to hear from more than just that scientific woman talking about the average playtime -- why all the focus on how many hours /played these people have and not what it feels like to play during those hours? But as far as mainstream reporting goes, it starts out as a pretty good description of what it's like to be a WoW player.Part 2 and part 3 start to fall down, though, and by the time an intervention rolls around, the show gets a little more biased. I have to say, it would be fun to see a documentary done in this way for someone who watches TV 20 hours a week -- "We wanted to hang out with her, but she said the season finale of Top Model was on. She's a completely different person now!" Somehow, staring at a screen and doing nothing is still socially acceptable, but according to television itself, staring at a screen and interacting with other human beings isn't.Thanks, Luke S.
'Anti-social' behavior much more innocuous in Second Life
An interesting new experiment from University College London, UK has an unmanned avatar wandering around Second Life randomly accosting residents in an attempt to study how people react to their 'personal space' being invaded.The description of the methods used to make the bot operate have me giggling a little -- "The control software sends the avatar off in a random direction until it finds another avatar or object to watch or interact with." How often have I seen someone stumbling around examining this or that object, awkwardly bumping into people, and generally behaving cluelessly? At least 3 times per login session. This 'anti-social bot' is the perfect 5th columnist!However, I have to take umbrage with the concept of personal space in SL. Other factors influence how we drive our avatars that don't exist in real life, including avatar occlusion and line-of-sight issues. I personally have no problem with someone walking right up to me, but frequently will back off just to be able to see the other person's avatar better. In its effort to understand SL, perhaps too much hay is made of it hewing too closely to real life. Not all conventions come across the same way. Remember this the next time you log in; learn a new vocabulary!
Wii Warm Up: Antisocial behavior
The Wii is a very social console. From the marketing campaign to the pack-in, everything about it is designed to get a bunch of people together and interacting in the same room. It can even be fun to have a group together for single-player games, with everyone helping out and enjoying the events of the game together.But video games are not always social events. Sometimes you just want to get immersed in the game without all the interruptions and talking and people. Are you the kind of gamer who prefers to be alone with your games? Or do you always prefer to share your experiences? Or are there certain games that you just can't stand having people in the room while you're playing? Killer 7 on the Gamecube, for example, was something we preferred to play alone because we didn't think others walking in would have a clue what was going on. Especially since we didn't.
Holy cow, somebody in the media got it right
As if to prove that not all media in Australia is completely insane about World of Warcraft, The Age has published a great column by comedienne and writer Wendy Harmer about her experiences playing WoW... with her eight-year-old son.Now this is what I'm talking about-- she praises the game almost unreservedly for not only teaching her son about how to interact with computers and numbers, but also for how to interact with people. In the world of WoW, where the kid is "often playing alongside much older people who have high demands on courteous behavior and fair conduct," the kid is learning how to be social and save up a "bank of goodwill" with his guild members. She even attacks the notion that playing MMORPGs is anti-real world-social-- she says his son plays with both his mother and his friends, and that the game actually encourages real-world interaction modeled on the game, just as past generations of boys modeled their playtime on the TV and radio shows they experienced.And notice how, as opposed to most of the crazy WoW kids portrayed by the media, Harmer actually moderates her child's playing. She keeps the computer out of the bedroom, and, I'd guess, evaluates and adjusts his playing time as necessary. In short, she lets her child play the game as its meant to be played-- as a part of a normal life-- and he's better off for it. That's the picture of WoW that most players see, and yet it's a picture that's almost never shown by the media.Now all we have to do is get that kid to abandon his Pally and play Horde...
