In an interesting move, Sony Online Entertainment appears to have released their server logs for EverQuest 2 to a series of academic researchers. Gleaning unusual data such as the true average player age, time spent in game, and the transactions of roughly 3,000 players scientists hope to learn more about games and the people who participate in them. Examining 60 Terabytes worth of data is hardly child's play but it gives you an idea of what type of processing these games do in just a short week.
The average age of players turned out to be 31. "These aren't just pasty white teenage boys in a basementto be sure, they're there, but they're not typical," he said. The older players tended to play more than the kids and, although the total hours played seem large, he said that the time mostly displaced either TV watching or movie going. And the surveys showed that those who viewed TV news in the first place continued to do so, suggesting that gamers really slotted EQ2 into their entertainment time.
Check out the entire article over at Ars Techina.
