Are gamers smarter?

[jeffsforehead]

Someone mentioned gamers being more intelligent than the "unwashed masses" (or something like that), and I found it humorous because a good portion of gamers are generally unwashed.

 

[Mistwell]

Look, half the people in this world are below average intelligence. That's the realist in me.

The pessimist in me says that Southern California has a larger density of that population, as evidenced by what I see every day, though. I don't expect much in terms of intelligence... I expect kids playing in the street to actually move when a car is coming... I expect people who work at the local restaurant to not look at me like I've arrived from another planet when I announce that I only want an ice water to drink... I expect people on the road not to attempt to turn right from the far left lane... and to go at speeds greater than 10 miles per hour when driving... I expect that when someone calls my home by mistake and asks for "Charles" and I say "I'm sorry, you must have a wrong number, there's no 'Charles' here," they won't try to convince me for 10 minutes that they did indeed dial the right number, I'm just clearly in the wrong house.

I see far more evidence around me that most people around where I live are below average than above average.

--The Sigil

Serious, no kidding at all here, having lived outside of Los Angeles, I can say with great confidence that people in southern california drive MUCH BETTER than most of the rest of the US (and the planet).

I've had a pretty good sample to back that up, too. Before I travelled a lot, I too thought people in socal drove poorly. I was wrong. Sooo wrong. We are AMAZING drivers compared to most of the rest of what is out there. And that, my friend, is seriously depressing...

 

[Trainz]

(this thread really has me going...)

Here's a personal example of why gamers are NOT more intelligent.

My SO (significant other) of 9 years... I tried to interest her again and again to RPG's. She humored me a few times, even played for two months in my last D20 Modern game, never enjoyed it, not her bag.

She's a chartered accountant. A VERY INTELLIGENT one.

What she does lack (and she said so herself again and again, in non-RPG related discussions), is IMAGINATION. She has very little creativity. She does enjoy sci-fi and heroic fantasy (who read erotic, you little pervs, mmm ?), but in books or movies. She can't just sit down by herself in a comfy chair, her eyes blank, with no outside media, mind filled with scenarios of epic medieval battles and galactic empires at war, like ALL OF US do. This is the marginal trait that all gamers share.

Not intelligence, IMAGINATION.

Now if you ask if gamers in general have greater imagination than the average peeps, the answer will be a resounding YES. Imagination is the prime building block of our hobby. It doesn't take a great mathematical mind to add 14 to a d20 roll. It does absolutely need an imaginative one to find it FUN and want to do it again and again, every week, for years and years.

If you can't imagine and picture in your mind what those stats and die rolls portray, it is absolutely and definitely impossible to stick to this hobby for any given length of time.

The first time I was exposed to the hobby, it felt like I was born for the first time. I felt a part of myself that has been locked-up for decades explode to the surface of my mind. I was so exalted by the event that I was totally enthralled by it for the first years. I couldn't be thankful enough.

It was a religious thing, man.

 

[Trainz]

To further add to my previous post above, picture this from an outsider POV:

Joe:"You look happy today..."
Me:"Yeah!"
Joe:"Why ?"
Me:"Well... tonight I play D&D."
Joe:"Yeah... like you do every friday right ?"
Me:"Yup."
Joe:"But you look happier than other fridays."
Me:*giggle* "I know..." *giggle*
Joe:"Why ?"
Me:"Well, because on my character sheet, where the word class is written, it is written fighter, and because where the word level is written, it is written 8, and because where the word feats is written, it says improved critical, it means that where it used to be written 18+ besides falchion, now it's written 15+ ! *giggle* *snort*"
Joe:...
Me:*grin*
Joe:"Huh... so ?"
Me:"Well, since last game, it means that when I roll my d20 and the number comes out 15 or better, when I roll my 2 four sided dice and add 10, I DOUBLE IT ! ! !"
Joe:"Well... isn't it how it used to be ?"
Me: *snicker* "NO !" *giggle* "THIS used to happen ONLY when I rolled 18 or BETTER !"
Joe: *deer in the headlights*
Me: *laughs* "Oh MAN ! I'm gonna SO KICK MAJOR ARSE ! I can't WAIT to play tonight !"
Joe:"Let me get this straight... you're so happy, because some numbers are changed on a piece of paper."
Me:"I know ! Awesome, huh ? ! !" *snicker*
Joe:"I'm gonna go watch a movie..."
Me:"I hope the Dungeon Master won't throw undead all night at us... damn..."

 

[Creamsteak]

Alright fine. I'll elaborate. Ruin my tiny little quip, turn me into a rant...

I don't feel good about myself because I can't maintain my own ideals of myself. I set my standards at what I guess should simply be called "too high". If I'm not on top, I'm losing.

I'm not proud of my successes because I want to maintain perfect modesty and admit where I can improve upon things. I want to be on top, once again. Being good is not enough.

I think I'm better than a LOT of people for one key reason. Self Motivated. I'm not looking for the common happinesses that I believe most want. Those would be things like financial security, individual power, sexual outlets, and whatever else drives people. I'm driven by a motivation to be motivated, motivated by my own motivation. I might not feel good about myself, but that doesn't drag down my desire to win over winning. I don't feel good about myself because sometimes I fail to uphold myself to a standard of only being motivated for the sake of motivation.

I often, and I mean very very often, have thought (or yelled in someones face) that I'm better than them because I'm not looking for anything else, except to do better for better's sake... in more words.

Edit: The context of that last sentence needs explaining. I often find myself trying to motivate people, most often people that are my friends, to do something with themselves because they can do something with themselves. Most often this circumstance comes up when someone has chosen to accept where they are at, because they are happy enough for themselves.

Blah.

 

[Kichwas]

They ranged from fairly intelligent and reasonable people to the stereotypical so intelligent that they couldn't function socially to the stereotypical racist, close-minded, ignorant trash.

Maybe I've had a bad run...

But I've found gamers to be very small minded, egotistical, often prejudiced in one or more ways, and no more intelligent than the masses at large.

The small mindedness, big egos, and predicial nature however tends to make them come across as less intelligent to those not in their fold...

 

[Trainz]

OK. Thanks for clearing that up. At first that's not what I thought you meant. It sounded like an undriven person, when in fact, you are overdriven...

You are indeed one wired moderator.

 

[Dr. Talos]

Define above average. In terms of a standard bell curve which is used in most IQ tests then average is 68% of the population, which lies within 1 standard ditrubution of 100 +/- 15. Above average is the next standard deviation above 115 up to 130. This encompasses another 14% of the population. It is not until this second range that a noticeable difference in intelligence exists. Above the second standard deviation at 130 is where genius is defined. So geniuses make up 2% of the population. 1 out of 50 people are geniuses.

Conversely people below the first standard deviation (<85) are less likely to be involved in anything academic - though I have seen some of these people gaming.

So given that 16% of the population are above average or well above average compared to the 84% that are average or below average, you can can come to a single conclusion...most people think they are smarter than they really are and statistics are useless.

 

[Buttercup]

I would think that more of us reach higher education levels than the population as a whole... I mean, theres more gamers at college than there were at highschool.

Ah, but are there more gamers of college age than of high school age, regardless of their educational status?

 

[Hardhead]

I would think that more of us reach higher education levels than the population as a whole... I mean, theres more gamers at college than there were at highschool.

My group includes two college grads and four high-school only grads.