Gamers are fat and sad!

[KitFisto]

https://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/study-games-are-depressing-or-are-they-/1346074

 

[-jay-]

What a bag of crap i'm not fat nor depressed nor 35

 

[-Super Hans-]

LOL

 

[dansdinosaurs]

I think some of you missed the point of the article.

 

[Shai]

The average gamer is 35, overweight.

 

[-jay-]

I think some of you missed the point of the article.

Yeah me cos i stopped reading after i saw fat & depressed but after your post i read it properly.

 

[BadMoon]

CAn't read the article at work.

 

[-jay-]

CAn't read the article at work.

The average gamer is 35, overweight, and more likely to be depressed, says a new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, which was carried out in the Seattle-Tacoma area, found that gamers reported "lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns."

It also indicated a curious difference between male and female gamers: the former proved more overweight and reported more Internet usage than non-gamer men, while female gamers reported more depression and lower general health than non-gamer women.

But which comes first, the games or the poor health? The researchers hypothesized that depressed individuals might be turning to games as a means of self-medication, immersing themselves in a game's world as a way of forgetting about real-life troubles.

"Habitual use of video games as a coping response may [provide] a genesis for obsessive-compulsive video-game playing, if not video-game addiction," one researcher told MSNBC. The study calls for "further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease."

As luck would have it, a study at East Carolina University funded by Bejeweled maker Popcap Games is also investigating the possible mental health benefits of game playing. Having already discovered that Bejeweled can improve mood and heart rhythms, the Carolina group is about to embark on an investigation in an attempt to determine whether games like Bejeweled can also deliver clinically significant improvements to depression sufferers.

"The research is part of a broad array of unconventional efforts that video game companies are devising to find new markets for their products," says Shankar Vedantam, writing this week for the Washington Post. "Many of these steps are based on the idea that depression and other disorders -- as well as everyday stress and worry -- involve systematic patterns of thought and self-doubt, and that games can distract people and put them in a different mental zone."

 

[BadMoon]

I think they need to do an article and seperate the people that play games and MMO's. IMO opinion MMO's are not games and you will find the majority of the demographic there.

Thanks for posting the article.

 

[JonnyReedie]

I think they need to do an article and seperate the people that play games and MMO's. IMO opinion MMO's are not games and you will find the majority of the demographic there.

Thanks for posting the article.

I was just about to post exactly what you said,
there is an extreme difference between console gaming and MMO's...

 

[dansdinosaurs]

Aw, aren't you sweet. LoL.

Kind of poorly written, though. Like most Yahoo articles. They never mention the potential health benefits of active games, such as those offered by the Wii and upcoming Natal.

 

[King Darkness]

Maybe I should become a gamer, seems I meet the requirments

 

[karamazov80]

Maybe I should become a gamer, seems I meet the requirments

Similar to previous posts, I wonder how they "operationally define" a "gamer." Do you have to play a certain number of hours a week? A day? Does playing the Wii count? What about Solitaire and Mine Sweeper, or Madden Football?

I think getting a report on the health benefits of videogames produced by a video game manufacturer is hilarious. Of course, we constantly see gun, insurance, and pharmaceutical companies creating "scientific reports" about how great they all are and how anyone opposing them or their agendas are idiots. And those are taken so seriously that the Congressmen they are paying will tout their reports as gospel truth, and news networks will take their sides and run their thinly veiled advertisements as "news items." So, I guess this is just as valid.

 

[Shropt]

Ummm, duh?

I'm past getting offended by these articles. Only people that should be offended are 35 year old fat depressed people for being called out.

 

[karamazov80]

Only people that should be offended are 35 year old fat depressed people for being called out.

Probably 90% of the board. . .

 

[Shropt]

Probably 90% of the board. . .

Not me, I'm 29.

 

[Nuka Cola Kidd]

im pretty sure their only talking about people who play WOW, or thats what the study is "based around" cause i would think console gaming age is 16-30.

 

[karamazov80]

Not me, I'm 29.

Hey, me too! I like to point and laugh at those slightly older, but otherwise the same.

 

[ComputerFly]

What a bag of crap i'm not fat nor depressed nor 35

yoda..."You will be..YOU WILL BE!!"

 

[hairlesswookiee]

hey i'm not depressed or 35. i'm working on no longer being in the fat part.