Does gaming create social rejects?

[Zombie_King]

I read a study suggesting it didn't, but I don't know where it was from, so I have no reason to believe it. I wasn't a HUGE reject before I got WoW, but once I got hooked on it, it was like a drug. I didn't hang out with my friends, I didn't go out much anymore. So what's your opinion, does excessive gaming create social rejects?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Wrong way round. Social rejects create excessive gaming because that's the only way they have of socialising.

A better phrase to use would be "rejected by society" though.

Let's see, play on a game with hundreds of different nationalities testing your wits against others or hang round with your clique repeating insular peer pressure ideals

Hrrmmmm.

 

[zen5887]

Not so much anymore me thinks..

 

[John Galt]

Pretty much what TROAE said, it doesn't always create the problem, it just exacerbates it.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I chose to remove myself from society, I wasn't "rejected". I just found the social interactions I was engaging in... unpleasant, to say the least.
Video games, much like any other object, can be used by anyone for as long or as little as they want, for whatever purpose they want.

A casual gamer might just play a game for a quick bit of gore, an average gamer might have an online match with his mates for a few hours and someone like me might have made many friends with online games and play with these friends often.

It's all down to the person, their views and their wishes. I don't think it's even possible to accurately test something like this.

 

[tino1498]

not when you play on xbox live with all your friends. I agree with the root of all evil

 

[CouchCommando]

Like most things in life I think its just a matter personal choice and responsibility, who knows maybe at a point in life your social sphere can be just plain noxious, and online gaming provides a substitute with a safe buffer in between. Relatively though like all substitutes ,not as good (or bad) as the real thing. Personally I was addicted to wow until my job and personal life began to suffer, ultimately it was a good experience as It actually made me aware of and sensitive to my social life and the community at large, I'm now a member of two volunteer community groups that before i would never have before contemplated joining. In short its up to the individual, and people change.

 

[stompy]

I don't go out much, but I don't find it hard to talk to people, and socialise. But, I prefer gaming, 'cos, well, I don't know why, I just do.

 

[wilsonscrazybed]

Moving this to the right forum.

 

[TheIceface]

To be a social reject or not? The decision really is up to the gamer. Personally, I'm a hardcore FPS addict who likes to spend some time with other types of games as well. I refuse to play WoW as that would just be degrading, the same reason I don't, nor do I ever intend to get, and Xbox.

The trick is to have a social life in addition to being a gamer. Go to school, or have a job where you talk with many people. Or, you could sit at mom's house, in the basement, surrounded by "Flamin' hot Cheetos" bags and empty mountain dew cans while bragging about your level 12 goblin-slapper.

Either way, I think the choice is completely that of the individual gamer. I don't think that time consuming games creates social rejects, but it gives said rejects an excuse to not talk with real people in person. Unfortunately talking with people on-line is no where near as fulfilling as a pizza at work with a bunch of friends.

The real problem is the people who encourage the complete cutting-off of real social connections in lieu of these online "conversations" being regarded as socializing. Saying "Well at least fat pizza-face Herbert has lots of little friends in his online game." is unacceptable. Especially by authority figures like parents who should be encouraging said "kid" to get a job/go to school/get a life.

 

[Colodomoko]

I read a study suggesting it didn't, but I don't know where it was from, so I have no reason to believe it. I wasn't a HUGE reject before I got WoW, but once I got hooked on it, it was like a drug. I didn't hang out with my friends, I didn't go out much anymore. So what's your opinion, does excessive gaming create social rejects?

Yes, but only if you plan on being married to your console (Spoiler!!!).

 

[Imaginatio]

I lot of the social rejects I know are heavy gamers, don't know if that's what caused it.

 

[Fineldar]

Pretty much what TROAE, John Galt, Zen5887 and said.

Now that games are more mainstream now and you find the generic High School jock playing some fantasy RPG, no one picks on the nerdy kid who spends his Saturday night playing Wasteland.

If the OP chooses to play WoW all the time and not hang out with friends or go out anymore then it's him not the game. It's like doing crack. The crack doesn't make you a maniac, you do when you choose it. That's a bad example(though it is your decision to start snorting drugs of the breasts of a hooker). It isn't like doing crack. There's no brain altering thing thats makes you do it instead of being a social acceptance.

 

[TheMadDoctorsCat]

No, it just gives them something to do. As do forums like this, incidentally...

(Well, what's the problem? Seriously, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??!!!)

 

[Copter400]

No. Video games have an excellent social aspect. Something funny happens in TF2, I see some scary stuff in Bioshock, I hear about something cool on the Internet, and the next day I'm talking with my friends about it. If your friends shun you for your tastes, you are hanging out with the wrong people.

 

[Sackwak]

Actually, since i'm like the only one with a PS3 i end up dragging all the mates over for a Call of Duty 4-athon.
Anyways, I can think of 2 reasons why games don't create social rejects.
1. Party games (Buzz, Guitar Hero, Singstar) Get all the friends over for some "feirce" competition
2. Online play with your friends

 

[Irrok the Wide]

Yeah it did to me.. I was more concerned with my new games than what my friends wanted to do. But it was also a combo of marijuana and masturbation. A lethal trinity that I have finally overcome. I'm back to having a social life once again. And it feels so good.

 

[TheIceface]

(Well, what's the problem? Seriously, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??!!!)

The problem is occasionally normal people (I am super normal, and sexy-cool BTW.) have to interact with social reject gamers. Unfortunately, these social rejects don't have the experience in dealing with real live people to perform a tactful fulfilling conversation.

This can be when us "Normies" decide to play online games, or when we meet a basement-dweller on a twinkie run. Either way, its very unconfortable to deal with a RedBull-chugging cheeto junkie babbling about his level 12 goblin-slapper with a persecution complex IE: The world hates me because I'm different/special/fat/ugly/lazy/smelly/addicted to Wow.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

(Well, what's the problem? Seriously, WHAT'S THE PROBLEM??!!!)

The problem is occasionally normal people (I am super normal, and sexy-cool BTW.) have to interact with social reject gamers. Unfortunately, these social rejects don't have the experience in dealing with real live people to perform a tactful fulfilling conversation.

I think MDC was making a joke about himself being a reject there, Ice.

I know this one kid who's always on games. Really sound bloke. The reason : He's paralysed from the neck down and controls his character using the little motion control he can manage.

That's more social life than he'd ever get without games.