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Gamers are not anti-social basement dwellers, study finds

Gamers are not anti-social basement dwellers as some would presume, according to the findings of a new study published recently. Researchers analyzed the behavior of thousands of online gamers–most notably those who play MMOs like World of Warcraft–and determined that anti-social behavior is an oddity, not a regular occurrence, and that playing online games can actually enhance a person’s social life.

The study, Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings, was published in The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication by researchers at North Carolina State University, York University, and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

The researchers attended various industry events in Canada and the United Kingdom and observed the behavior of thousands of gamers. They then surveyed 378 gamers about how they communicated with others in both their virtual-world and real-world lives. What they found is that playing MMOs and other online games did not eliminate a person’s real-world social interactions, but rather it supplemented and even at times enhanced them.

"Gamers aren’t the antisocial basement-dwellers we see in pop culture stereotypes, they’re highly social people," NC State assistant professor of communication Dr. Nick Taylor said in a news release about the study (via CNET). "This won’t be a surprise to the gaming community, but it’s worth telling everyone else. Loners are the outliers in gaming, not the norm."

Taylor also said that in-game behavior does not necessarily correlate to real-world behavior, as some studies have suggested. "For example, a player could utterly ruthless in the game and still socialize normally offline," he said.

This study was based on a Western audience, and Taylor said he’s interested in conducting future research on the relationship between social behaviors and gaming in other cultures. You can read the full study here.

Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Burglars Beware: New Material Steams, Foams Upon Break-In

Can’t touch this
The material steaming and foaming after being broken into.
Jonas G. Halter et al / Journal of Materials Chemistry A

When bombardier beetles are attacked, they mix chemicals in their body to create a rapid and violent reaction, squirting out a concoction that’s corrosive and hot, near the boiling point of water. Inspired by this defense mechanism, Swiss engineers have created a polymer-based material that gives off steam and foam if it is tampered with. The material consists of sheets of polymer between which two different chemicals are sandwiched, including hydrogen peroxide. They are separated by a rigid wall that breaks upon forced entry, after which the materials react in a most unpleasant manner. 

Imagine if ATMs were made of this stuff–thieves could unwittingly destroy their loot before even removing it, as Chemistry World reported. The system could also be tweaked to include dye or a "DNA-based marker" so that thieves could be easily identified and caught, as they say, red-handed. Since the system requires no electricity, it could be cheaper way of defending ATMs, as the researchers wrote in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. It could also be used to prevent animals from eating certain crops or trees, they added. 

Bio-inspired design is nothing new for one of the researchers, Wendelin Stark from the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich. He and his colleagues have previously proposed making self-cooling sweaty buildings and self-defending seeds that can poison pests when bitten into. 

[Chemistry World]


    



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