Let it be known, the image of the lonely, spotty, socially maladapted, overweight gaming nerd has been cast to the wind; so sayeth a survey by Bigpoint.

The Bigpoint Gamer Survey 2010 was conducted from July to September 2010, and it surveyed a total of 6,663 online gamers about their gaming habits, everyday life, interests and goals. 40% of all surveyed players came from Turkey, 21% from Germany, 14% from France and 11% from the USA.

At the time the survey was conducted, 58% of the participants were under the age of 20, 26% were between the ages of 21–30, and 20% were between the ages of 31–40. Only 12% were older than 40 and 5% were older than 50. The majority of participants were male (89%). 32% were married, 61% single and 6% divorced or separated.

Gaming behaviour

The majority of gamers (72%) would rather meet the developer of their favourite online game than a famous politician such as Barack Obama or author such as J.K. Rowling. This holds even in the USA, where 76% of all gamers answered that they would prefer to meet the game developer than the President of the United States.

If gamers were fortunate enough to win the lottery, 16% would buy the publisher of their favourite online game and take over; “I have a lot of great ideas.” 25% would splash out on a bunch of virtual items for their games. 21% would buy property with plenty of room for friends and family. 38% would invest the money and save it. It is interesting to take a look at the age demographic breakdown for the answers to this question.

Contrary to popular belief, most gamers aren’t aggressive. 50% of the players said that they play games in order to have fun and be successful, and 32% play primarily to relax. The older the gamer, the more they play for relaxation. The younger they are, the more they play to have fun and be successful. Only 4% play games to blow off steam, and the rest play to pass the time.

Gamers are peaceful in real life, with 70% of survey respondents answering that they’d rather solve conflicts with words than fight. 19% don’t get involved in conflicts, and only 11% answered that on some days, even a dirty look might set them off.

Social behaviour

Games play an important role in the everyday lives of players. 74% of gamers were more concerned about how they could quickly get ahead in their game than they were about current financial news or the latest gossip surrounding Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. German players seem to be the most interested in world politics, with 46% saying that they were more interested in world currency situations.

When asked what they would rescue from a burning house, 64% of all gamers said they’d take their computer with them. 29% would take the bible and only 7% would take a keepsake from their ex. Most interesting however was that the older the gamers got, the more likely they were to say they’d save their computer over the bible or keepsake.

Even during important holidays, gamers would rather be online. In fact, the majority believe that playing games is an important part of any holiday. Only 38% said that they’d choose to partake in traditional family festivities whereas the rest said they would rather travel. But of course, they’d need to take their computer with them. 73% said they considered an Internet connection more important than sports or museum visits when on vacation. The survey showed that the younger the gamer, the more important it is for them to have their computer while on vacation.

However, gamers are aware that online communities are no replacement for family. 60% indicated that their family instilled life’s most important values into them. Still, 26% of survey participants believe that their relationship to their clan or guild is the most important in their life, whereas only 14% of players think school taught them everything they need to know to live a successful life.

Social life

Social contact is extremely important to gamers, and not only in the virtual world. 62% of the surveyed players said they have more friends in real life. The percentages increases with age: 55% of players under 20 have more real friends than online friends and 73% of gamers over the age of 50 have more real-life friendships. A total of 28% of people met most of their friends online but have since gotten to know them in real life. Only a tenth of all gamers said that their only real friends were online gamers.

Gamers like to socialize in their free time. More than half of them – 52% in fact – meet up with their friends regularly each month. A third (34%) even see their friends on a daily basis, though most of these tend to be younger players.

No matter where they are, gamers pay close attention to their appearance. 53% responded that their appearance is always important to them, both in the real world and the virtual one. 28% did respond if they had to choose, they would rank their avatar’s appearance as more important to them than their own. Only German respondents answered that their real-life looks are more important than their avatar’s (30% vs. 8%).

According to body mass index standards, the majority of gamers don’t have a weight problem. 51% are at their ideal weight, 11% are slightly underweight, 25% slightly overweight, and 13% struggle with obesity. In total, gamers tend to be somewhat thinner than the average person. A possible explanation for this could be that the respondents are generally younger than the average person. Most of the slightly overweight/obese gamers are German (40%) or American (37%).

A hit with to opposite sex

According to most online gamers, they’re slim, good-looking and have good chances with the opposite sex. Almost half (48%) said that the other sex is attracted to them and that they have no problem meeting men/women. 23% even think that they are very popular with the opposite sex, and regularly go out on dates.

American and British players are the most convinced of their good looks – 82% and 83% said that the other sex finds them either attractive or extremely attractive. 18% of all gamers have difficulties with the opposite sex and 11% think they have no chances whatsoever.

Love is important to gamers: 66% of the respondents said they couldn’t live without it. But 62% of the gamers also answered they couldn’t imagine life without online games (it was possible to select two answers for this question). Coming in last in terms of importance were activities such as sports, theatre and other outdoor hobbies.

The survey results also showed that younger gamers don’t think they can live without love, and older players tend to focus more on online games. Last but not least, women (77%) are more inclined to appreciate the importance of love than men (64%).

Gamers owe their loyalty in most cases to their partners: 54% indicated that they are completely monogamous. A third (36%) admitted to having a stronger bond with their online contacts, stating that a strong connection to their guild is the only way for them to achieve in-game success. Football clubs came in third with 10%.

One interesting fact is that German players tend to invest their loyalty into their relationship (75%) whereas Turkish players tend to have a stronger relationship to their clan/guild (50%). This statistic could be explained by the fact that there are a higher number of single players in Turkey – this question didn’t take relationship status into consideration.

Breaking the stereotype

So do gamers really eat pizza in the dark and play video games non-stop? According to the players themselves, this stereotype only holds true for 16% of them, with the USA having the highest percentage (25%). 56% of respondents actually admit to picturing gamers in this way as well, but don’t see themselves as fitting this description. 28% believe this image to be nothing but prejudice.

“The Bigpoint Gamer Survey presents a completely new image of online gamers: attractive, healthy, cultured and popular with the opposite sex, gamers are sociable individuals with lots of real friends. They are influenced primarily by their family and not by games, though games are very important and they can’t imagine taking a vacation or spending the holidays without their computer. Most players believe in true love and consider it more important than games. Violence has nothing to do with their love of computer games: Players are peaceful individuals who play to have fun and use communication to resolve both real and virtual conflicts,” concludes Bigpoint.

Do you represent a gamer stereotype? << Disccuss on the MyGaming forum.