Keeping in Touch

While the media tends to portray online gamers as anti-social people, we've seen data before showing that most MMO players regularly play the game with someone they know in RL. Thus, we have seen some preliminary evidence that players were using the game environment as a way to maintain relationships.

As opposed to talking to someone over the telephone or chatting over IM, online games allow people separated geographically to work together and collaborate on something. Thus, online games may be used by some players to maintain relationships with friends and family members who don't live close to them. In this article, we'll take a look at data on this issue.

Overall, 60% of MMO players use the online game to keep in touch with friends who don't live close to them. There was a mild decline with age. Younger players were more likely than older players to do so, and there was a small gender difference. Female players were marginally more likely to do so than male players.

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And overall, 14% of MMO players use the online game to keep in touch with family members who don't live close to them. Female players above the age of 22 were about twice as likely to do so than male players.

Thus, while it's easy to think that playing online games can be a socially-isolating experience, most MMO players in fact use online games as a way to sustain relationships with friends and family who don't live close to them. While the media tends to emphasize the social isolation or the danger of meeting strangers in online games, the data shows that online games play a role in maintaining existing relationships for many players.