for science
UK study says over 1 in 10 young gamers go into debt due to lootbox spending habits
The pushback against lockboxes in gaming in the UK continues in spite of the matter not exactly making non-stop headlines. A new study from...
ToxMod is a new moderation tool that recognizes and reports voice chat hate speech in real-time
Moderating a game's text chat isn't easy by any means, but at least there are a variety of tools and algorithms that try to...
For Science: Researchers investigate why some players invert their directional controls
When you have an analog stick to control the camera, does pushing the stick forward tilt the camera up or down? The Guardian published...
New survey points to increase in hate and harassment in online multiplayer games
The behavior of people in online games does not appear to be improving for the better. According to national survey results from the Anti-Defamation...
For Science: Gaming is good for you, actually, suggests new Oxford study
A new University of Oxford study published this week suggests that there's a "positive relation between game play and well-being."
The paper itself hasn't been...
EVE Online dev discusses how communities and lasting friendships form in the sandbox
Let's all ignore the 15 weeks' worth of explosions, bubbles, and fighting going on in EVE Online and instead talk about friendship. Or more...
Researchers argue Pokemon Go caused a discernable increase in car accidents, injuries, and deaths
What is the deadliest video game in existence? If a scientific whitepaper is to be believed, at least in the case of Tippecanoe County,...
Star Citizen has 720K total backers and 34K subscribers according to gathered public data
Getting subscriber details for multiplayer and MMO titles out of companies can often be like pulling teeth out of an alligator's mouth with a...
EVE Online players submitted over 41M classifications to fight COVID for CCP’s latest Project Discovery initiative
What's better than a science MMO story or a feel-good MMO story? One that's both. And this one is both, as EVE Online and...
For science: New UK study finds that video games improve the mental health, reading, and writing skills of kids
So this one's fun. The results of a study performed in the UK between November and December of 2019 have just been released. The...
The Daily Grind: What’s the most annoying ‘dark pattern’ in MMO gaming?
I've been kind of obsessed with dark patterns - that is, intentionally deceptive or annoying interface design - for kind of a while now,...
GDC Summer 2020: Better living, climate awareness, and citizen science through games
Way back during GDC 2018, I covered several panels relating to gaming for good. Things like citizen science projects, games as medicine or for...
Social scientists study Minecraft and One Hour One Life communities
You might think scientists would balk at the idea of using online gaming communities as a test bed for study, given those communities'... strong...
GDC Summer 2020: What online gaming can (and should) learn from social media’s trainwrecks
The circle is now complete: Social media has mastered skills MMOs and online games haven't, not that social media was paying much attention to...
For Science: Meta-analysis of aggression studies shows no link between aggression and video games
Do video games make people violent? The dispatch from the APA back in March certainly seems to indicate that it thinks so, which runs...
COVID-19 roundup: How the pandemic has affected game devs, GameStop’s flip-flopping on mask wearing policy
Hey, it's been some time since we've done one of these roundup stories about the novel coronavirus' effect on gaming, and since there are...
SuperData calls expansions the ‘lifeblood’ for World of Warcraft
I have a thing about graphs without labeled axes. Just yesterday, I was literally making fun of the time Nexon turned in this unitless graph in its investor report. Yay squiggly lines!
Quantic Foundry surveys say gamers are seeking more relaxing and less intense gaming experiences during COVID-19
How has the novel coronavirus pandemic altered the types of games people play, if at all? According to some new survey results from Quantic...
What’s the biggest MMO in the world? That’s OK – this video doesn’t know either
Redditor u/SanctuaryZ attracted attention on several gaming subs this week for his visualization video attempting to track the most popular MMORPGs ever from the...
MMO Business Roundup: PAX Online, PAX Aus, games for ADHD, Epic’s $17B valuation
Welcome back to another quick roundup of video games business and industry news that bumps into our little old MMO genre over here.
PAX: PAX...
