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Gamers are less likely to go to university
GAMERS ARE LESS LIKELY to go to university, according to researchers at Oxford University, who we assume don't play video games in their spare time.
A study of 17,000 people born in 1970 revealed that those who played computer games regularly as teenagers - and did nothing else, had a reduced chance of going to college. Male gamers had a 19 per cent chance of going to university, while female gamers had a 14 per cent chance. This compares to 24 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, for their peers who, for example, read, in their youths.
Of course, since the survey focused on people when they were 16 years of age, that means the year in question was 1986, when gaming wasn't as extensive or popular as it is now. When we add in all the handheld devices over the years, such as the Gameboy, DS, PSP, Xbox and now the 3DS, not to mention the latest consoles, motion control technology and the trusty personal computer, it's much more likely that today's teenagers are more into gaming than teens were a few short decades ago.
Despite the lower education prospects for avid gamers, the research found that there was no reduction in the likelihood that a teen gamer would end up in a managerial position by the age of 33. The study was not clear about whether or not they would manage their local Gamestop store.
Teenagers who read books at least once a month, on the other hand, had a much higher chance of going to university, as did teens who went to the threatre or participated in some other form of extra-curricular activity, such as playing a musical instrument in an orchestra. However, the research also acknowledged that much of this boiled down to the teenagers' parents being wealthier and the fact that reading has an obvious academic affinity and close correlation to scholarship.
The research will be presented today to the British Sociological Association conference by researcher Mark Taylor, according to The Guardian. µ
Tags: Software
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What do you think everyone does once they are in school, aside from drink? Maybe some schools but don't you think there would be an outpouring of accusations to the ones who make the games. Like Kotick from Activsion would be on trail (http://www.askmen.com/specials/2010_top_49/16-bobby-kotick.html)
well someone had to say it zeke
just because people dont go to university doesnt mean they are not smart or capable or better yet, happy
those who can, do
academia is based on an anachronistic ecclesiarchy which acts out a worthless scrabbling after status driven by atavistic instincts which no longer apply to the current condition of the human race
high status does not correlate with with reproductory success, in fact in the case of academia and ecclesiarchies generally quite the opposite tendency applies
we are evolving away from this pattern of life and those who seek an education are going against the flow and dooming their genes
a more worthwhile question is how many children avid gamers have compared to over educated conformist nebbishes or educational academics
It would certainly make sense that kids who were not into studying would have a bit more free time, and some of them would spend that at arcades or in front of their NES. I imagine the same would be true if you looked at other popular teenage hobbies at the time, like skate boarding. Or. . . MTV watching? I'm not sure what teens did back then.
Also, thanks Mark for commenting. I find it interesting that the Guardian article states "Playing computer games regularly and doing no other activities meant the chances of going to university fell from 24% to 19% for boys and from 20% to 14% for girls."
Is that "and doing no other activities" part accurate? If so that's a pretty huge detail for the inquirer to leave out.
I'm a game developer working in a large company where the vast majority of staff went into higher education - game development is complex and requires well educated people who can think for themselves and it is very difficult to get a position without a degree OR a lot of previous experience.
If you want to find a reason for the lack of innovative games then you should be looking at a) the tastes of mass market that most games are aimed at and b) the large sums of money invested in games dev and the subsequent risks that publishers are increasingly reluctant to take.
Can I conclude that most of game developpers today either were not gamers or never made it to university, Which could only lead to lack of quality and imagination in games we get today "Mostly Copy paste"...
The clue is in the survey, people born in 1970. You can't apply specific statistical data to people not included in that specification.
It might show that gamers born in 1970 are less likely to go to university, although even then I'd disagree it was a major contributing factor, but you certainly can't say ALL gamers are less likely to go with this data.
It's exactly this type of research that gets over sensationalised by the media...
i think the fact that the percentage is so low because this test was done donkeys years ago. i went to uni and studied photography and ive been a gamer all my life. my freind has a phd in neuropsychology and his brother is a lawyer in london. they both went to uni and are gamers.
yes reading books is helpfull but that doesnt always mean your gonna go to uni just because you read a book.i know 5 guys who went to uni to do graphic design and they were gamers and all they did was drink everyday
Ive been a solid gamer for most of my life, but i still went to college and then on to do my Accountancy Qualification. I did not go to university, because I come from a poor family, and did not want the debt over my head...
A more amuzing research in my opinion, would be to look at the jobs which University students do after they finish University... Because the majority of people I know who have gone to Uni, have ended up in places such as Boots + Tesco + biggest of all...Currys!
Simple fact is, if people dont live in locations where that job is required, then their qualification for that specific job, is useless...
For instance a Games Design Course, when you live on a farm, in the country.... Point? waste of time and money on University.
Hi guys
This is a pretty weird experience for me (I'd never been in a paper till today...) but a couple of things I'd like to clear up.
- obviously I'm not claiming that if we cancelled XBL accounts and replaced them with novels those kids would be more likely to go to uni. Just an interesting trend that's emerged (tbh I find the fact that gaming doesn't influence people's chances of getting a pro/managerial job way more interesting, but that's just me)
- I'm a PhD student so much as I'd love the idea of kids applying to work with me right now, it just isn't happening...
- I'm a pretty serious gamer, always have been.
Cheers!
I was a kid at that time. I played computer games all the time. Not only that, I wrote them. Yes I was a sad case and earned my first GBP80 from writing a game in assembly language when I was 12 / 13. Having said that I got mostly A's in my GCSEs and A-Levels and went to University. Let's get away from this view that University tends to be for the elite, that's rubbish. It is for the smart dudes and gals and anyone else who can pay their way thru or waste most of their time getting drunk. If those kids who didn't study hard to make it spent a lot more time playing computer games then so be it, and so what. And I tend to agree with the first comment - my 4 year old has developed quite quickly by interacting with his laptop and nintendo and has made his thirst for knowledge and learning stronger... I think we need to do a study of those types attending Oxbridge, perhaps put them in a cage or zoo, and study them for a while, see where they came from, how their forefathers got rich at the expense of whomever, and so on...
Education is overrated. Read "rich dad, poor dad".
& this is coming from a holder of a BSc in computer science.
Gaming stimulates kids brain development more than any other activity / medium.
Pre-school kids that are exposed to gaming are more likely to feel jaded & find early learning (e.g. learning the alphabet, etc..) boring and simplistic to their developed brains.
So if you want your kids to be more intelligent, don't waste their early years without introducing them to gaming.
Give your kid the gift of a highly developed brain early-on through games before its too late.
This could mean or give an indication of all sorts of things. Generally this research provides data that has very little conclusions.
Maybe one conclusion is; that university studies and academic teaching is so removed from every day life, so lacks the tools to appeal to a wider range of persons and often taught by lecturers/professors who's only reason to being included is due to their publishing fame rather than their teaching ability.
After all, the best universities tend to have some big names that are FORCED to act as teachers to attract students. Those big names are stuck, they need the funding & facilities a wealthy academic establishment can provide and after years of forced teaching they become apathic to their students.
Perhaps it's time to move on to an age that rewards teachers for their teaching capability, that ranks univesities in a more meaningful fashion etc etc.
We've been here before...
CEO's of major companies are more likely to own grand pianos than people who live in shipping containers. This does not mean that if only Cletus could steal a Bosendorfer that his life would be turned around. Nor does it mean that someone who would not otherwise have went to uni would suddenly do so if you replace their xbox live subscription with a readers digest.
Like Cletus, apparently the author did not go to university as he doesn't understand the difference between causality and correlation.