WOW! What a citizen!

I have long had a theory about MMO Games ability to make people more open minded because of the diverse environment they play in. While many people regard gamers as geeks and outcasts of society that provide no benefit, it seems more information is coming out that the opposite is actually true.

Gamers are better citizens.

The games make people adapt to a very diverse climate, interacting with people from all over the world in different regions and countries with very different ideals and beliefs and research is showing that is making them, for lack of a better term, better people.

Here is an article analyzing one such research area:

“For the uninitiated, she showed some of the "chaotic and complicated" World of Warcraft, which even has its own virtual economy dealing with the things necessary to succeed in the game.She explained how game players she studied collaboratively use scientific problem-solving techniques to succeed in World of Warcraft.”

She continues on to say:

“Her work included analysis of message boards where World of Warcraft players get together. She found 86 percent of the talk was "productive," featuring very detailed questions and serious discussion, with players exchanging ideas and making counter-arguments using data and reasoning and building on each others' ideas.”

But that’s not all, just read about the civic flexibility the players showed:

“She found that 65 percent of the discussion was "evaluative" vs. 30 percent "absolutist" -- "My idea is right and not open to discussion" -- and 5 percent "relative" -- it's just opinion and no one is right.

In contrast, she said studies have found that the U.S. population is only 15 percent evaluative, 50 percent absolutist and 35 percent relativist.”

Those figures are incredibly statistically significant, people in games actively debate over 4 times as often as those in the United States general population and the absolutist attitude is almost half as likely to occur in game as in reality.

You have to wonder how games are really opening the eyes to the fact that there is no “right way” of doing things.

Maybe the people labeling gamers as outcasts should take a lesson from the open-minded.