OT: Help with video game study

[DMBillies]

Hi guys and gals,

As I think many of you know, I'm a Ph.D. student at Vandy. My dissertation research is on video games and what skills kids and adults might learn from them. In leading up to the final study, I am doing some survey work to: 1) convince my advisor (and myself) that what I want to do for the final part will work, and 2) gather some more ideas to make the final study better, more organized, and more useful. One of the things I've had a lot of questions about is what different skills might be learned from different types of games. I have some of my own ideas about this, but I was hoping to find a few gamers on here to get a broader opinion on the matter. So, if you play a lot of video games (meaning you have played a lot of different video game types) and have some time to fill out a questionnaire, follow the link below. I would really appreciate the help!

The questionnaire is only intended for people 18 and over.

It is right here on survey monkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ERG5pZzyKkADHawhoxrtbw_3d_3d


Thanks!

Brian


Legal stuff:

Any data you provide will be kept confidential and no identifying information will be collected. Your participation is voluntary and you may stop participating at any time.

If you have any questions or concerns about this research study, please feel free contact the investigator, Brian Verdine, by e-mail (brian.verdine@vanderbilt.edu). You may also contact faculty sponsor Dr. Georgene Troseth, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University by e-mail (georgene.troseth@vanderbilt.edu).

 

[gsusfreak]

i did the best i could brian...hope i was helpful

 

[Abiathar]

Did the best I could, most games require that you pay attention and have good reaction times, though some are just time killers.

Steve

 

[DMBillies]

Any data you provide will be kept confidential and no identifying information will be collected.

Thanks guys and in this case there's not really any sensitive info, but I'm supposed to be blissfully ignorant about who's filling it out. And I would make some other jokes about it, but the IRB doesn't have a sense of humor.

 

[gflat65]

Am I the only person who hasn't played a video game since the original Nintendo (played it to death, but never went on to other systems)? What group of weirdo does that put me in?

 

[sandalscout]

don't feel bad, I have literally played only one "new" video game since like 92 or 93 (and I'm part of the video game generation) and that was starcraft. I will fire up a dos emulator once or twice a year and play a few Sierra games, but those are from 20 years ago!

 

[DMBillies]

Video game revenues, at over $18 billion, are very close to passing movie revenues and music revenues http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080124-growth-of-gaming-in-2007-far-outpaces-movies-music.html

The ESA (albeit not an independant, interest-free organization -- http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php ) also says that 69% of American heads of household report playing video games.

Gary- According to any research I've seen, I'd say you're a minority...


Funny thing is, gaming has changed a lot as the "gaming generation" has grown up. It's now ok for adults to play video games and this has actually even started bleeding in to senior centers. The even funnier thing is that the video game industry is laughing their way to the bank... people from their mid-20's and up, who see video games as something other than a mindless waste of time, have a lot more disposable income than a 12-year-old who has to beg for a new system for Christmas and games for his birthday.

It's interesting, exciting, and scary to see the impact that some of the new massively multiplayer games and networking games are having. World of Warcraft hit the 10 million subscriber mark on January 22nd. That's 10 million people who pay $15 a month to play a game. Other "games" like Second Life have entire economies operating in their virtual worlds. People are literally making a living off of playing these kinds of things. I'm not much for future predictions, but I am fairly certain we are seeing the true beginning of a revolution in the way people interact with one another... do you want the blue pill or the red pill?

 

[NeveSSL]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11963155#post11963155 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DMBillies
... World of Warcraft hit the 10 million subscriber mark on January 22nd. That's 10 million people who pay $15 a month to play a game. ...

:eek2:

HOLY COW! That is a freaking TON of money, needless to say! $150M/month. Good grief! I've got a feeling their servers and bandwidth don't quite cost that much.

Seems like with all this going on, now may be a good time to become an internet provider, too.

Brandon

 

[gflat65]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11960845#post11960845 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sandalscout
don't feel bad, I have literally played only one "new" video game since like 92 or 93 (and I'm part of the video game generation) and that was starcraft. I will fire up a dos emulator once or twice a year and play a few Sierra games, but those are from 20 years ago!

Yeah, I remember when all I wanted for Christmas my 8th grade year was a Nintendo (everyone else already had one...). I guess I do pick up my cell phone and play Tetris from time to time (when otherwise disposed).

Brian,
Funny you mention that this is becoming a new way for people to communucate. Jennifer's cousin and his ex-roomate had a knock down drag out through text messaging... They even work together (with one other person), but instead of talking through their problems, they kept texting page after page back and forth to each other. They are in their early 20's, so they were seemingly born into this culture. I see that kind of interaction as detrimental... On the games, I have never been one to jump on the 'video games are bad' bandwagon, but I think it at least indirectly aids in the increase in young people involved in violence. When I was growing up, I was picked on a lot because I made good grades and was from a poor family. The thought of picking up a gun and shooting people becuase they made fun of me like the whiny sissies from Columbine and other similar shootings did would never have entered anyones mind. I liekly wasn't paying attention to those things when I was younger, but I can't remember a single school shooting growing up (other than the local gang banger wannabe that would bring a gun to school because it made him feel like a man)... My high school had a shooting two years after I graduated, but it was from the wannabe gang activity moving in from Memphis (someone got shot in the back pf the head after a basketball game). My nephew is the poster child I use for how gaming in excess is bad. The kid has a knock against him beause he is spoiled rotten by his mom, so growing up in front of a TV with a game controller in his hand hasn't helped much. His dad is into games, too, so anytime he is home (OTR driver), all he did was play games. My nephew is now 11 and has very few friends (can't seem to make friends because he has no social skills) and never does anything but whine and play video games. Parenting is to blame, too, but the video games are becoming surrogate parents these days, IMO... I agree that the improved hand eye coordination can be good, but if they never use it outside of video games, what good does it actually serve? I guess we'll see when momma isn't around to baby him (if that ever happens), but he's got a bunch of butt kickings coming to him before he understands how to act around actual people. May be an isolated issue, but it is the one that I see often.

 

[DMBillies]

Gary- Yeah, you hit the number one knock on video games for sure. You'll find a lot of psych literature on the subject and frankly, as much as I'd like to argue (love to argue, especially when playing devil's advocate), I think you are at least partially correct. My real answer could fill pages... and anyone who knows my posts knows that I sometimes do.

That said, I think it all comes down to parents being responsible for what their children see, how they interpret it, and how they act on it. Just like television, games are certainly no good if parents use them to parent or babysit their child... which is what I've found in the last 4.5 years of researching the effects of television on toddlers. I also think we all need to unplug every once in a while (who under around 35-40 years old has been away from their cell phone for more than 24 hours at a time in the last week?).

There's plenty to get entirely philosophical about as far as where we are headed, but the simple fact is... video games aren't going away. It's also interesting that you say your nephew doesn't know how to interact socially... yet I'm quite sure he would be right at home on a board like this about video games or any other topic he's passionate about

 

[DMBillies]

Here is a second questionnaire I'm sending around. This one, ANY adult of any age can fill out. This is for gamers and non-gamers alike and it is going to be the first part of my dissertation. If you're on RC late at night and don't have anything better to do, please fill it out for me. I'd say it would take about 20 mins on average, even though we say 30 at the beginning of the survey. Also, feel free to forward it on to anyone else.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=qQbWKk6K153R_2f_2bli3rcLQA_3d_3d

Thanks