Asian Gamers Heavily Affected by Online Bullying

Global market intelligence group IDC has released today results of a study of online gaming trends in Asia and they are interesting enough to take a closer look at. Specifically the study looked into what gamers like and dislike in the industry as it is today. The study was carried out in August in six Asian countries (China, Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam) and involved web-based interrogation of 664 online gamers.

The most important conclusion we can draw from the study is that online gamers view bullying of weaker players and general rudeness of players as the most important of all the negative factors involved in their favorite amusement: 64% of respondents named bullying as a major dislike about gaming experience while 70% also mentioned rude behavior of other gamers as a negative factor as well.

We all know that online world is merely a reflection of the real-life world with all the advantages and disadvantages. But since people find it easier to abuse others online hiding under a nickname and an avatar, bullying can reach the state when it becomes unbearable to many. And while social gaming attracts lots of young people partly because they can meet new friends (50% of respondents mentioned this particular aspect as an important one) and socialize online, this very social nature of gaming experiences also features a dark side of bullying and abusing of the new or weaker community members.

In general, I believe the results are not surprising at all and must be very similar in other parts of the world. While initially gamers are drawn to online gaming platforms for the gaming experience in itself, eventually they start to realize that the purely entertainment activity can evolve into making friends and socializing. But humans are humans everywhere and one can not avoid negative aspects of socializing - be it on blogs, discussion forums, social networks or online gaming sites. And knowing how incredibly bad results of online bullying can be, I think parents should absolutely address this particular issue when letting their children participate in any online communities - even if they may seem to be completely harmless at first.

Image by psd used under Creative Commons.