The “lonely gamer” revisited

• A large survey of WoW players shows robust patterns of real-life (RL) sociality while gaming.
• Most people played with RL friends & family; about half made new RL friends in-game.
• Intriguing cross-cultural and gender patterns were found.
• Contrary to the “lonely gamer” stereotype, online gaming can promote RL sociality.

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) supporting rich and complex social interactions among over 8 million players worldwide. In this study, we explore implications of the pervasive “lonely gamer” stereotype, which portrays online gamers as socially isolated and addicted young people, usually male, with few real-life (RL) social ties. This is the first study to directly address the stereotype quantitatively, focusing on assessing the extent to which WoW players interact in the game with other people with whom they share a RL social relationship. Most previous studies of the interaction between online gaming and sociality have focused solely on either in-game or RL social interactions, without seriously taking into account today’s large and growing opportunities for hybrids of both. An online survey (in English and Chinese) collected data from 2865 WoW players from multiple world regions: Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the US. Consistently across regions, the large majority of respondents reported that they do play with others they know in RL (friends, family members, a spouse or romantic partner), and do not only play alone or just with others they know online. Moreover, sizable percentages of players in each region reported making new RL friends in the virtual world. These findings lend no support to the “lonely gamer” stereotype, but suggest instead that playing World of Warcraft may serve to enhance, rather than diminish, RL social interactions. This paper provides benchmark estimates of the prevalence of in-game sociality with RL friends, family members, spouses and partners, and co-workers for world regions not previously explored, and some intriguing cross-cultural patterns and issues for further research.