I think some of the more niche games/genres tend to make its community more open and inclusive, since it’s a bunch of people wanting more people to enjoy the things they do.
The moment you get competitive, shit goes downhill hard. From my anecdotal experience with World of Warcraft, a game that caters to both tryhards and casuals, the latter are much more likely to hang around and help you out, or ask for your help, while the former will actively try to make the game worse for everyone, especially those of the opposing faction, ganking low level players that cannot fight back “for the lulz”.
Also, anyone that has ever played in a LAN like setting, with your buddies literally within punching distance, knows that everyone behaves better and are less likely to go full apeshit
The scientists then looked specifically at players of shooter games, a genre often associated with military themes and violence. They found that shooter game players were also more likely to hold inclusive values regarding gender roles and equality compared to the general public. Their views on social tolerance were not significantly different from the average American.
Across every model tested, the authors found no evidence that playing video games broadly corresponds to an increase in exclusionary values. “The average person should take away from our findings that video game players are not some monolithic community,” Pauley told PsyPost. “While exclusionary and vocal segments of online gaming communities certainly exist, and we certainly do not want to downplay that, our findings suggest that on average, video game players hold slightly more inclusive values than the general population.”
So, the same problem that has plagued the internet since its inception: the loud idiots are too fucking loud
This guy skewed the data, pretty sure:
This is much more obviously true in the table-top space, but I suspect the obvious expansion of diversity in gaming culture was exactly what all the awful reactionary gatekeeping crap was about, and why they continue to peddle the myth. I’ve seen similar arguments made that comic books are only for young white cishet men and that publishers are deluding themselves by not only catering to that market, despite the fact that the comics market in the US has pretty much collapsed while the more inclusive Euro and Japanese markets are doing very well thank-you-very-much.
There’s no way this is actually true. Maybe it seems like it because companies want people to look at them and their games more positively but literally every competitive game and then others isn’t.
I mean, I’m an old gamer.
I feel like we are one of the worst groups for inclusive language but actually pretty damn good at inclusive behavior.
Truly the most oppressed class of people 😢
/s if it wasn’t obvious
Here’s my personal anecdote that supports this.
I live in Pennsylvania, which is considered a swing state, but it did vote for Trump both of the times he won. Pretty humiliating.
AGDQ this year was in Pittsburgh so I got to attend a couple days. It is by far the most inclusive crowd I’ve been in locally, where people can just let their true colors out without constant fear. I think it’s the only crowd where I’ve heard “trans rights” exclaimed and met with cheers. And it’s truly inclusive in both directions. I’m a big old bearded straight cis white guy and nothing made me feel out of place either.
Between gaming communities and FOSS/linux communities, I think it’s we nerds who are so inclusive!
I dont recognize this but sure, study says… But im going to go with my own experience. :)
Unless that game is csgo
Source: I play csgo
Don’t for get dota 2!
Source: I play valve games.
makes sense,maybe the less inclusive/racism thing comes from your view not the video games you play.
Yeah, woah. What a surprise!
From my quick read through of their methods it seems like they didn’t account very well for the types of games, platforms and demographics. The decade in question saw a massive explosion of gaming as a hobby into the mainstream and, importantly, a strong growth of women in the gaming population.
So as a whole you have games becoming more mainstream to younger (“woke”) audiences and more accessible while the inclusive-biased demographics also blew up. It’s not at all shocking that you’d find more inclusivity there.
A much more interesting study would be separating the gamers from the Gamers. Show me how people playing Splatoon and Animal Crossing compare to the neckbeards living in LoL and HoI4…
Tbf there is a certain overlap between gaming circles (e.g. hard core tryhard games and chill mellow games).
But besides that: Yeah, some game communities can get very toxic. Even more so if you open up to a weakness they can exploit easily while one is vulnerable…A much more interesting study would be separating the gamers from the Gamers.
That would require you to define a Real Gamer, which would be divisive by design.
It’s an exercise in nutpicking.
It’s hard to give an exact definition, but someone playing candy crush on their phone is meaningfully different than a LoL player. Not in elitism or whatever, but for example one is a game any person might play for a bit while bored, and one is a demanding competitive immersive game. I would say a good separation is the cozy / not competitive games with competitive games, since the competitive ones are the places most people think of Gamers not being accepting.
Exactly. A “gamer” is too broad of a definition to really mean anything if it just means “people who play games”. I watch TV/films, but that could mean anything. Reality? Horror? Non-fiction? They’re all different. I read books, but that could mean anything. Sci-fi? Fantasy? Biography? Poetry? They’re all different.
I do think competitive versus non-competitive is a good dividing point. I hesitate to use the word “cozy” because I don’t think Dark Souls players are playing a “cozy” game.
But even within competitive there are distinctions to make. Children playing the lastest FPS and screaming into their headsets, probably less inclusive. The speed running community, generally very inclusive.
Normally I would agree… But there is a seriously real difference between someone who plays csgo dota and hoi4 vs someone who plays animal crossing splatoon and peak.
Its fundamentally two entirely different demographics which no over lap. Both are gamers but only one set are “gamers”.
Anyone who’s been around long enough knows how fast the gap between the groups are.
Yeah I have no idea why you lumped first person shooter players, moba players, and 4x players in the same category. Talk about fundamentally different demographics.
Edit: by the way, I love the Endless series (Legends, Space 2) and love Animal Crossing. I also have 5000 hours in Tarkov. Peak is also fun.
there is a seriously real difference between someone who plays csgo dota and hoi4 vs someone who plays animal crossing splatoon and peak.
About ten years of age range, for the most part.
Its fundamentally two entirely different demographics which no over lap
Yeah, famously, people never get older
Which of these groups do you expect to be older, I honestly cannot tell. I swear, not bait.
Personally, I’d expect the nintendo group of these two to be the older one.
Which of these groups do you expect to be older
In my experience, you start out playing Splatoon as a kid and then you discover CSGO when you get to HS/College and then you get a job, get married, have kids, and its back to playing Splatoon.
I can almost guarantee that 4x players are the oldest, yes this is a vibes based assumption.
This is obviously just my experience but the younger generation is not inclusive at all, kind of the opposite. At least around the north east US where I have lived.
I work in a kitchen. I often have food runners, hosts and dishwashers who are under 18. They’re extremely uncool sometimes.
Yeah.
Kids are jerks. They’re naive. I certainly was; I think that’s always been a thing, though I can’t comment on how much worse or better it’s gotten.
That’s true I was a shithead
Yeah, I was a little shit too.
Not universally for sure, Gen-Z men are especially problematic. But the sweaty dudes have become a minority of gamers, and I would expect broad-stroke “gamer” world views to reflect the influx of other demographics.
That’s what I’d like to see more of in this research. Cut it by age cohort, gender, income, genres of game, years in the hobby, etc…
Or mobile games, which is the bulk of gamers now.
Metal heads and punks are also really inclusive despite society viewing them otherwise.
and despite a tiny but vocal minority of them being bigoted assholes (for metalheads at least, don’t know enough about punks)
“Nazi punks fuck off”
The Skinhead movement was originally Nazi punks. As The Dead Kennedys said, they can fuck off.
every group of humans has a subset of bigoted assholes. dont hold it against them unless they are tolerated by the majority.
Might be just my anecdotal experience but that seems to be the case for basically any group of people. Edit: typos
Maybe it depends on the subgenre of metal. Every time I discover a new black metal band, I have to research if they are Nazis or not.
Agreed. Most people, generally, tend to be good individually. We recognize we’re all humans. We all get hungry, we all love, we all struggle.
It’s the vocal minority that are bigoted and utilize DARVO just like rapists and billionaires 🤷♂️. They very well may be on a sociopathic spectrum and/or have devolved by losing empathy, which humans evolved to build society and community and thrive together.
Yeah, really good point. I’d say it’s a bit peculiar with metalheads, since it’s a culture that revolves around dark and violent themes, so it makes its bigoted members a bit more visibly harsh or extreme, than other musical (or not) cultures. But this is just me nitpicking, you hit right in the center.
Punks are always having to run off Nazis who want to come to their shows.
Punks yes, Metal heads not until somewhat recentlyish… ;)
In almost 50 years of playing D&D I’ve found that gamers tend to be more accepting of just about anybody than the general public is. I think it’s partly because the gamer population itself gets more than its share of being spurned by that public.
let me point you all in the right direction: people in general are more inclusive than the general public is led to believe
All the people who complain about games being woke don’t play any games.
they probably play call of duty or similar…
You dont understand, I simply have GOT to buy and play the new FIFA/FC/Madden/NBA2K its simply so much better than last year’s! No, thats not all I play, of course not. I also play, like… Uh… GTA 5… Yeah, what a story, am I right? Especially when that guy goes “oh shit here we go again”? What a moment. Also that one PlayStation game, uhh, well I forgot its name. Anyway, what’s your Valorant rank?
Chasing that diamond in league.
Who am I kidding, they’re chasing silver.
Nah they couldn’t get to silver so now they play TFT.
And they’re butthurt about somewhat woke fanfic of their beloved game.
