DeKALB | Recent research shows MMORPGs — massive multiplayer online role playing games — are the new social scene for gamers.

Dmitri Williams, assistant professor of speech communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said these games act as the new “coffee house” environment.

“Games become a ‘third place’ where people meet new people of all different backgrounds,” Williams said. “They also are a place where people keep in touch with friends and family they had already.”

Professors from Illinois and Wisconsin collaborated on the social aspects of video games.

Games like World of Warcraft also have the ability to expose players to people they wouldn’t normally meet.

“Players end up hanging out with people from very different backgrounds than themselves,” said Constance Steinkuehler, education professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The actual social habits of players in and outside of the game can fluctuate.

“When people can hide behind an avatar, they can sometimes act poorly,” Williams said. “On the other hand, those who join long-term groups tend to act better and treat their fellows better.”

Steinkuehler finds the unsocial gamer stereotype to be an inaccurate view of players.

“It is interesting that the non-gaming public holds an image of a lone unsocial gamer,” Steinkuehler said.

Jamie Jeschke, a junior political science major, has found games to be helpful in his social life, in and out of the game.

“I’ve made a lot of friends that I still talk to long after I quit the games, and it helped me to be less shy when it comes to people,” Jeschke said.

Another student doesn’t see any social benefit in online gaming, and finds it takes away from maintaining a normal social life.

“If anything, it takes me away from the social world because I’m glued to a computer,” said junior operations and information management systems major Nick Voelker.

Alan Edrinn is a City Reporter for the Northern Star.