Love In The Time of Warcraft 87
Via Edge Online, an article at the Wall Street Journal talking about the process of finding love in an MMOG. From the article: "Nick Yee, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication at Stanford University who studies online games, found in a survey earlier this year that 29% of women players and 8% of men said they had gone on to date someone they met in a game. He says the games are filled with scenarios that shed light on players' personalities. A risky raid on a dungeon, for example, can reveal whether someone is a team player. 'These are trust-building exercises,' he says. Players 'are constantly having to make decisions like, Do I run out and save myself or help the others survive?' Situations that reveal so much about someone's character are less common in the real world, he thinks. Yankee Group, a Boston technology-research firm, estimates that MMOGs, which can be played simultaneously by thousands of people using the Internet, are played by 25 million to 30 million people world-wide."
Why they play, m vs. f (Score:3, Interesting)
It's much higher for women. The question is, why? A reasonable conclusion could be that more females participate in MMORPGs for social reasons than for pure gameplay. One question worth investigating is the ages of male vs. female players. Might it be that female players are generally older?
As one leaves school, one also leaves behind social opportunities for dating--most people find that it is a lot easier finding dates in college than at work.
Surprising Results.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Then again, maybe the difference is explained by gender-biased definitions of "flirting". Maybe most guys think saying, "Wow, you've got a nice rack!" doesn't count as flirting, whereas maybe women think simply typing a winky-smiley-face counts as flirting.
Bruce
Re:My Personal Experience (Score:3, Interesting)
Mine too, and she's all about the DPS (and the more dramatic the mob's death animation is, the happier she is). I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown on what classes men and women are drawn too. My theory is that a lot of girls who game are using virtual worlds as an outlet for aggressive tendencies they can't or won't express in their real-world societal roles.
Been there, done that. (Score:2, Interesting)
Keep in mind, you only ever hear about the people who fail. Some of us can and have faked it for a very long time.
So to answer your questions... yes we can fool you, yes the 'victims' probably would mind, and yes pulling off such a feat requires a great deal of rational thought in order to succeed. Any more questions?
PS: Gonna have to go AC for this one... yeah, we live amongst you. Beware the cyber, uh, sex terrorists?
Re:My God! (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.gay-web-links.com/article.php?n=3 [gay-web-links.com]
I'm actually quite an attractive guy, if only I got past my shyness and talked to people the way I know how to after years of chatting with people online. 12 years on the internet taught me more about people and the world around me than all my years in school. then again it might have helped if i didn't spend so much time in the library and avoiding everyone who tried to get me out of my shell.
Right now I'm learning to be the master of my own destiny, it's not that hard, But figuring out exactly what I want to do with my life is still a struggle. Just remember, that the theory goes, you're at most going to be six degrees of seperation from anyone else, no matter how important and powerful they are. Once you Know the path you wish to travel, and you've mapped the route, and you've planned the moves it will take to reach that goal... you can achieve anything. You just have to understand the reality of the situation well enough to understand... that there are only going to be so many bill gates in the world, and there are a lot of people determined to be there
So you really need to figure out first of all if that level of competition is your cup of tea, and second of all if you're going to be happy making it all the way to the top. Considering myself, I've already decided, that I can be anything in fantasy worlds I've created. But in reality I love a lot of things more than i love money, or power. I love the earth, I love my friends, I love having fun. "with great power, comes great responsibility" My track record shows that, at best, with a guiding hand from the people who love me I can manage to put out a lot of great ideas, that other people can use to make the world a better place.
As long as I have a time and place where I can go absolutely crazy
I'm really starting to believe that with a little more therapy, and a little more advice, I might just find the type of work environment where I can spend half of my time doing the hard work of planning, and calculating and executing well designed plans and half of my time just letting go of all my frustrations.
Until I'm sure that I'll be able to tell when it's time to let those frustrations go, and when it's time to plan for the future, well... at least I can practice, and get better every day. Afterall I don't have to be perfect, just aware of myself well enough to provide the kind of reliability and dependability an employer expects from an employee.
Its true - sort of. (Score:3, Interesting)
My girlfriend and I (who met 7 years ago online but not in a MMOG) are heading down to the US next week to party with the folks we played EQ1 and now play WoW with. This is the third year for us, and the 4th year for the guild as a whole to hold an annual picnic. And ya know what? Its a blast, we don't just sit around re-hashing raids, or talking gear or skills, but actually find that we have this odd bond of trust and openess (likely due to spending countless hours together in somewhat stressful situations). We were really nervous the first year, but look forward to it even more each year. We are expecting from 40-50 people to show up this year, from all over the US (and us two from Canada). Quite a few of us are couples, yes, some are guys who play girls online (oddly most of them single), and there is not a large number of single women in our guild (but there is a few).