Overly Positive Thoughts: More For The Science of Gaming

If there’s one thing that the video game industry might just be lacking today, it’s probably allies in other circles. Seems that every time they turn around, the video game industry is under fire, whether it’s from particularly zealous individuals like a Jack Thompson, activist groups like PETA whose latest target was the sugary sweet Cooking Mama, or the media for causing “yet another videogame-related injury/death/natural disaster”.

So I’m really glad to see that at least the realm of science and scientific study is coming out to say meaningful things about the video game industry. Most of my science and gaming articles are read on The Escapist, and the latest gem is the study of one Loyola professor who revealed that players in MMOs are real jerks.

Now, I have to say this is great, because this isn’t the first time in recent history that we’ve had such riveting and useful studies about us gaming folk. Take, for example, the study that says most male nerds are virgins. Shocking! Or what about the science experiment that revealed that gamers get less sleep than others. Hold onto your hats, folks, because there’s a blockbuster of an article that says geeks that spend a lot of time at their computers might lack social skills.

Guys and gals, this is earth-shattering stuff – stuff that I certainly wouldn’t have found out if I had used that part of my brain that touted that “common sense” crap. No, we need the proven scientific method and the people who do a better job surveying guinea pigs – er, I mean,  test subjects – than I did when I was pre-med in college. Besides, what’s a few thousand anecdotal discussions and direct experience in the face of some percentages, statistics, and months of crucial rat maze test runs?

Still, I’m not satisfied. Hell, i want to know if there are less female gamers than male gamers. I want to know if it’s really, really true that if I stare at a computer screen playing games that my eyesight might deteriorate. I want to have some guy or gal in a lab coat tell me that maybe, just maybe gamers might be a bit more out of shape if they don’t play sports or go outside. This is the kind of unanswered enigma about our industry that people should be pounding on the doors of MIT and Harvard and all those other high-end think tanks to work out.

Clearly, subjects such as the continued study of correlation of video games to violence, analysis on the success of the ESRB ratings, and whether or not kids who play games are smarter than those who don’t pale in comparison to these mammoth insights that science can provide us. Where would we be without the scientific confirmation that sports fans buy Madden? Why, we’d be rudderless and directionless, forced to try to perceive the way of the world through these very unscientific brains of ours.

So the next time that something comes out that answers gaming’s most sought after mystery and says that a study reveals that Rock Band or Guitar Hero does not make you an expert guitarist, you’d better be appreciative of that, people, because someone worked very hard to bring you that bit of prize-winning info.