An Analysis of MMORPG Player Demographics and MMORPG Player Stereotypes | Hacker News Reader

An Analysis of MMORPG Player Demographics and MMORPG Player Stereotypes

themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com

15 pointsclryan8 comments

The most interesting statistic to me was the one that seems to indicate MMO playing cuts into (or replaces) TV watching time. That's actually kind of reassuring to me. I think it's healthier for people to play MMO's for hours on end, then to veg out watching sit-coms. At least with an MMO you're using your brain, right?

It mostly replaced TV watching for me. Then I kicked WoW and started running a business. Less dragons to kill, sadly, but much better loot.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a raid on the old inbox. I've had customer support on farm status for a while now but still feel the need to do it every day.

Perhaps this doesn't show that most MMORPG players are unhealthier than the average American in terms of spending too much time on unproductive electronic media. Perhaps what this shows is that American society as a whole wastes too much time!

http://images.salon.com/16dec1995/comix/tombug.gif

absolutely - if those people spent the time doing something productive (like forming a startup), they could make a huge difference to their lives.

I used to play WoW extensively, but quit after it became to time intensive - now I sit in front of a computer working on personal projects and freelance work.

Disclosure: I enjoy playing a certain MMO. I really enjoy it. It's a primary hobby of mine along with motorcycles, hiking, and (other) video games.

I think a large part of the appeal of MMOs is that they provide an easy artificial hit of accomplishment. Self-growth is measurable in an extremely concrete manner. At the same time the effort involved is much less than is required for most 'real life' accomplishments. All you have to do is show up.

When you combine a dose of accomplishment with easy access, fantastic realms, and social interaction the appeal of the game becomes extremely strong. As a replacement for TV I think MMOs are a healthy improvement, in moderation. The underlying focus on personal improvement is a far sight better than watching Al Bundy's latest exploits, or the sensationalism and fear-mongering of the latest news special.

I recently moved to Seattle, where I knew one friend from college and had several online acquaintances. By hooking in to their social lives I now have a healthy amount of social interaction. My list of friends here would be much thinner if not for these online encounters.

Certainly there are more productive ways to spend one's time than to play video games online. But there's nothing wrong with kicking back and quaffing a virtual ale with a few friends.

My thoughts on this subject are still undergoing rapid evolution. My embryonic project which I want to develop into a startup is taking some of these ideas and running with them.

I think the driven entrepreneur crowd tends to overestimate the energy most people have. It seems that whether someone is watching TV, playing an MMO, or maybe just reading, the fact is that a lot of people are very happy spending 5 hours a day essentially not producing anything. It may be increasing the quality of their life more than working extra hours.

For some people it may their goal in life to just kick back and watch sports all day. Seems to me my father-in-law would be happiest if he could just read fantasy/SF novels, watch sports, and go skiing all day. Certainly not "productive", but it makes him happy.

>currently only 60% of MMO players are male (BBC) and this percentage continues to shrink as more and more females are starting to play MMOs.

I love stating the obvious.

This article actually jives pretty well with me. The statistics in this article seem to match my group of friends that play WoW.

We're building a casual MMO, and find that our user base is 50/50 male/female. This is awesome for building a community (nobody wants a sausage-fest), but hard for gameplay, as the 2 groups want totally different things...

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