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 Roughly two-thirds of college students play video games, but the image of a nerdy guy who spends all day in a dimly lit room blowing up computer-generated bad guys is off base, according to a new study.
College gamers are not necessarily male - or anti-social hermits. And while about a third of those surveyed admitted playing computer games during class, the games generally don't conflict with their studies, says the researcher who conducted the survey for the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
"It's not taking the place of studying; nor is it taking away from other activities," says researcher Steve Jones, chairman of communications department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "What they seem to have done is incorporated gaming into a very multitask-oriented lifestyle."
In addition to the survey data, Jones drew his conclusion from observations he and fellow researchers made while watching students in college computer labs - many of them writing papers, then taking short breaks to play computer games and send online messages to friends.
Often, he says, groups of students stop to watch the game.
"What we found is that it's a very social activity," Jones says.
The survey was compiled from questionnaires completed last year by 1,162 college students on 27 campuses nationwide. Its results have a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Among other things, surveyors found that 65 percent of those who responded were regular or occasional game players. Most said they played in their rooms or parents' homes.
Nearly half said gaming keeps them from studying "some" or "a lot" - though their study habits matched closely with those reported by college students in general, Jones said.
Playing games is so common for this age group, it's almost second nature, Jones says. "It's common maybe in a way Monopoly was years ago," he says.
The survey also found that, while gaming has a reputation as a male-dominated pastime, women are avid game players, too. Of those surveyed, 60 percent of women said they played online and computer software-based games, compared with 40 percent of men. About the same number of men and women said they played video games on PlayStation, Xbox and other systems.
（Agencies）
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一項新的研究顯示：大概三分之二的大學生玩電腦游戲，但是把他們都想成是整天在光線昏暗的房間里對著電腦合成的壞蛋殺來殺去的"大蝦"形象就大錯特錯了。
大學里的電腦游戲玩家不一定都是男生，也不一定是反感社交的隱士。為"Pew互聯網與美國人生活研究項目"做此調查的研究員說，大約三分之一被調查的人承認在上課時間打電腦游戲，然而這些游戲一般跟他們的學習并不發生沖突。
研究員史蒂夫·瓊斯說："它（玩游戲）并沒有代替學習，也沒有妨礙其他活動。他們所做的看起來是把游戲融入一種完全面向多重任務的生活方式。" 瓊斯是芝加哥伊利諾伊大學傳播學系主席。
除調查數據之外，瓊斯根據他和其他研究員對大學電腦實驗室里的學生進行觀察得出結論：他們當中許多人在寫論文，然后在短暫的休息時間里玩電腦游戲、給朋友發在線消息。
他說，有一些學生經常停下來看游戲，"我們發現這種活動很有人氣"。
這項調查是根據去年在全美27所學校1162名大學生范圍內所做的調查問卷匯編而成的。調查結果誤差幅度是百分之三。
調查人員還發現65％的被調查學生經?；蚺紶柾嬗螒颉４蠖鄶等苏f他們在自己的房間或者父母家里玩。
玩游戲對這個年齡段的人來說非常普遍，幾乎是他們的習性。瓊斯說："它可能就像許多年前壟斷一樣那么流行。"
調查還發現，雖然游戲消遣號稱是以男性為主，女性也是熱情的游戲愛好者。被調查的人當中，60％的女性說她們玩在線游戲和電腦軟件游戲，而男性只有40％。大約有相同人數的男性和女性玩PlayStation, Xbox和其他系統的電腦游戲。
（中國日報網站譯）
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Updated: 2003-07-08 01:00
