Gamers are "more social, more active, and more valuable as consumers" than non-gamers

A new study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT on behalf of IGN Entertainment concludes that gamers are, unlike their stereotype, more active, and social than their non-gaming peers.

The nerdy loner stereotype doesn't seem to have any basis in reality when applied to gamers as a group.

Gamers Bill of Rights

PC game developer, among other things, Stardock has come up with a Gamer's Bill of Rights. It only applies to PC games, but the ideals are pretty universal to all video games.

Here it is:

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

It is encouraging that at least one game developer is thinking in such a consumer-centric way.

Register to vote on Xbox Live

Starting Monday 25th of August, users of Xbox Live in the United States can use the online gaming service to register themselves as registered voters for the US Presidential elections later this year.

Microsoft, the owner of the Xbox Live service, is partnering with Rock the Vote for the initiative. Rock the Vote is hoping the campaign will help them reach their goal of registering 2 million young Americans before the elections.

Let's get out there and register, gamers!

Could violent video games reduce violent crime rates?

That's an interesting thought, but that's exactly what Patrick Kierkegaard from the University of Essex claims is the only logical conclusion one can make from comparing video game sales and violent crime rates objectively.

He's published a study that says there's no evidence to support the claims that violent video game playing causes violence. He says:

"With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence. Instead, violence has declined."

He further claims research into the topic is inconclusive and many existing studies are biased in one way or another. There's need for more comprehensive research, he concludes.

Video game industry self regulation working better than in any other entertainment industry

Every year the FTC conducts a secret shopper study on various entertainment products at leading retailers to find out how well the retailers are enforcing the ratings found on the products. 13- to 16-year-old "undercover shoppers" try and buy R rated movie tickets, R rated DVDs, unrated DVDs, PAL music CDs and M rated video games. The FTC has been this since 2000.

Today the FTC released its 2008 secret shopper study results.

And boy, are they an impressive win for the video game industry!

20% of the underaged shoppers were able to buy an M rated game. That compares favorably to ALL other products in FTC's study. 36% were able to R rated movie tickets, 47% were able to buy R rated DVDs, 51% were able to buy unrated DVDs, 54% were able to buy PAL music CDs.

Not only that, but the video game retailers have improved their enforcement year after year, from 86% in 2000 to 20% in 2008. Since 2000 the movie theatres, for example, have not improved their ratings enforcement practically at all while the other retailers have all improved roughly 50% within the 8 years.

Even more impressive was that the only video game specialty chain store included in the study (GameStop / EB Games) refused to sell M rated games to the kids 94% of the time. Not one retailer scored higher in this study on any product group.

The study shows undeniably that the self regulation within the video game industry and the video game retailers is working exactly as intended. There is no need for expensive and restrictive (as well as unconstitutional) legislation.

Harvard Business Review on what massively multiplayer online games can teach business

Harvard Business Review has a feature article on an 8-month study on leadership in games and work commissioned by IBM and conducted by Seriosity. The full report can be downloaded from Seriosity's website.

IBM is trying to answer a question of what kind of changes do business leaders in an increasingly distributed and virtual business environment need to prepare for and what kind of people would be best suited to lead in that kind of an environment. They went about studying potential impacts of such changing business environment by studying the behavior of large guilds and their leaders in World of Warcraft.

The study has a number of conclusions, well summarized in the HBR article and in the executive summary of the research report:

Conclusions include the following: leadership in the games includes all skills currently identified in the Sloan model, but puts a premium on the dimensions of Relating and Inventing. Leadership in the games happens fast, it encourages risk taking, it promotes temporary rather than permanent leadership roles, and there are numerous opportunities for leadership practice. The most important conclusion, however, was that game environments make leadership easier. Critical leadership features in game environments include virtual economies, transparency of metrics, and connection methods for inter-group communication.

We conclude with predictions about the future of games and leadership in the enterprise, including comments about how games will highlight qualities of digital interactions increasingly important for online leadership, and qualities of leadership unique to games.

Grand Theft Childhood

Adam Thierer has posted a thorough review of a new book about violent video games and children called Grand Theft Childhood - The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do.

Written by Lawrence Kutner, PhD and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD from Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media the book is, according to Adam Thierer, "...the most thoroughly balanced and refreshingly open-minded book about video games ever penned."

The book points out many of the points heard before:

1. Research on the affects of violent video games is simplistic and makes conclusions without proper proof
2. Violent video games are played by pretty much an entire generation or two of the entire population, yet violent crime rates are down significantly
3. Violence in kid's play and literature is as old as humanity, yet video games get singled out

It's good to see established scientists come out and say what us gamers have been saying for quite some time already.

Update: G4 TV had the authors of the book on their show. The interview is a great summary of their work.

Selected quote from the interview:

The big concern that you hear the politicians and the pundits argue that playing violent video games will somehow turn your child into a criminal or a violent person. There's absolutely no evidence for that.