Originally posted by Katrar

Originally posted by Jurzu

 I think thats a load of bull. No way average gamers are 35, I would say 13 or 18. Or even between those ages. I doubt the video games are making them depressed, but more like frustrated from not accomplishing a goal they wanted in a game. Other than that they should be more than mature enough to understand their priorities. I'm 16 years of age and games only frustrate me that moment that I'm playing. Then when I'm off, it's back to normal life o.o

 

-Jurzu

 

Sorry to burst your bubble but the average age of the average gamer in the United States was 33 in 2006, and it is inching up every year. The average age of someone that bought a videogame was 39 (some studies report 40).

The notion of the average gamers being children is an old myth. Guess who bought Pong in the 70s? "Old people". Guess who bought Atari 2600s and Colecovision in the early 80s?  "Old people". Guess who bought Commodore 64's for gaming? "Old people". Guess who buys Xbox 360s and video cards and MMOs, yep... you guessed it... "Old people". The main reason that so many people seem to think it is 13 year olds playing all these games is because for so many years video game publishers only openly marketed to this very under-represented demographic.

Are there kids playing computer and video games? Yes. Are they the norm? No. And year by year they are becoming LESS the norm than ever before.

I think it's moreso because younger people are the loudest most obnoxious gamers, which means we notice them more. Kinda like how people think everyone online is a child molester because of the 5 news stories a year about child abduction from the internet that get blown up into insanity by scared parents.

The real answer is.  The people who can afford games and gaming consoles+PC's = Older people. 

There is a reason raiding doesn't start until 7-8 PM for most Guilds.  Thats when mommy and daddy are home from work and finish dinner. 

 Step1: Take study about alchoholism

Step2: Word replace "alchoholic" with "gamer"

Step 3: Profit!

Seriously though, this was discussed back when it was actually new, and it's STILL complete bull. 

Have you seen the crappy games being released lately? Gamers have a damn good reason to be depressed.

Originally posted by Nythious

 I would like to confirm this information with this Blizzon 2009 Photo

 

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/august/blizzcon_day0_009.jpg

 

You're welcome. 

You win.

/thread

Damn... it looks like in order to catch up with new gaming trends I have to: age for about 8 years, dump my girlfriend, get fat and give up my reasonable optimistic attitude to life. Life of a gamer is not easy....

Originally posted by bonobotheory

Have you seen the crappy games being released lately? Gamers have a damn good reason to be depressed.

LOL...so true.

The average gamer is fat...well according to most studies the average human being is overweight. Before it was the average person who watches tv is overweight. Now with 500 channels of utter crap on TV, they gotta blame the games. And with the crap games comming out...they will hafta find something else to blame the overweight epidemic.

I bet they will blame it on fast food or soda pop or something silly like that!

Haha I thought it said the average gamer, and not the average WoW gamer.  If it was average WoW gamer I would add to the list easily entertained, and unintelligent.

Originally posted by bonobotheory

Have you seen the crappy games being released lately? Gamers have a damn good reason to be depressed.

Everyone here at work is staring at me because I am laughing so hard :)  Good comment.

BTW I am 64 years old 5' 7" and weigh 125 pounds.  I guess I am not average :)

Old ? yes 40.

Depressed ? no, I take prozac :p

Overweight ? Nope slim

 I find the number of people responding to this thread who think the poll is just part of a conspiracy theory of health professionals trying to make money off of us funny and ridiculous. I don't know of a single doctor who does what they do for money. Sure, they have a job for money. But they aren't a doctor for money. They're a doctor or a pharmacist because they are interested in the subject matter, and they're interested in helping people. I have plenty of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists in my family and my friends' families. None of them have ever gotten excited over a new disease because they know it's going to make them more money. Being overweight is unhealthy. It's fact. Overweight people are more likely to develop health problems such as heart failure and clogged arteries, etc... thus, it's important to determine major causes of overweightness in our population so that we can take steps to combat it to improve the quality and longevity of life.

this is just the usual stereotype of gamers but personally speaking. ive had guildmates in wow who are lawyers, doctors, policemen and soldiers... gaming has a very diverse community

Originally posted by rounner

Your first statement that there is an overabundance of food is a paraphrasing of what they said.

Your 'it is ok to be fat' rant is another paraphrasing.

Can't work out if you are an irony fail or are so self obsessed over your weight that you can't see this.

Might want to work on your reading comprehension and look up a definition of "paraphrasing" while you are at it.

My first statement was a refutation of what he said. The idea that portion size has gone up in the US is a myth. At best it is selectively true of certain categories of restaurants, isn't backed up by any reputable studies and generally part of the "we evil people consume too much" campaign. Historical caloric intakes are generally much higher, it's just that when you are working 10hr days in a factory or on a farm you burn off that 3-5000 calorie diet, you don't sitting in an office chair.

My "rant" has nothing to do with "it's okay to be fat"; the entire point of it is that it is none of your damn business wether I am or not. Any more than it is your business what color shoes I wear. Your entire line of "it's unhealthy to be fat" BS is based on the premise that you or anyone else have any right whatsoever to make me "be healthy". Neither you nor the government has the right, obligation or privelege of mandating my behavior in that fashion.

And I can't work out if you are just clueless or another totalitarian nutball who wants to run everyones life for them.

You can't disprove a scientific study that (should have) researched thousands of different persons by saying that you aren't as the study. Either you all want to share with the rest of the world of good-looking, well-trained and optimistic you are or you... well believe that one single example disproves thousands. And when we're on the subject I'm well-trained, 18 and fairly optimistic.

This thread would be a lot more interesting if people actually knew anything about research method, statistical variation, etc.

"But I'm not like that so this study is wrong" is about the most asinine thing one could possibly say.

Originally posted by Borkotron

37 years old. Check.

Overweight. Check.

Depressed. Check.

Dang....

Well, at least I have a job and live on my own. I've had plenty of g/f's in my life and even have a daughter though not married to her mother.  I guess gaming is much like smoking pot...both make you realize that most of the crap the people of this world consider important really is not. The older one gets, the more they want to be left alone. This is why gaming is soooo appealing (and why Second Life in particular is loaded with age 30+ residents)!!

This might be the issue with this guy.... just saying it affects us all differently.

Originally posted by rikilii

The study doesn't say that games cause people to be overweight or depressed, any more than it says that games cause people to be 35 years old on average.

Yes, a lot of people here don't seem to know the difference between correlation and causation.

This may have been stated already, did not make it through 20 some odd pages of text.  Some funny stuff in some of them though.

However, this quote from the original source made me laugh:

[quote]...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." ...[/quote]

My gawd man!  How many different studies are they going to carry out in upper Washington State that prove that the Seattle area residents are depressed? 

I mean that is where Grunge came from!  There was a study that came out about 10-15 years ago where most 20 somethings were depressed because of the baqd weather year round and not beiong able to get outside much.  Sounds to me like the person doing the sudy from that just got older and found Online Gaming! 

LOL!

Originally posted by beeker255

 Never heard much about ADH ADD(well except in MMO's ;) ADHD....and all these other disorders till around late 90's..

not saying there fake just saying its was spastic kid or quite kid :)

They just didn't use that "politically correct" terminology back in the day.  30+ years ago, I remember going to school with a kid who was "hyperactive".  Today, he'd be ADHD.  Same thing, different name.

Complete non sense.

THe adverage people in USA are overweight... do the same research in canada and your results will be completely different.

Originally posted by Antipathy

Food for thought...

 

A few years ago, I went to a roleplaying convention in Paris. I was surprised how slim and healthy many of the attendees were.

Not trying to pick on France here, but the government mandated workweek is 35 hours, with 4 weeks per year mandated vacation. If I had that much fucking free time off I'd be slim and healthy too. But instead I'm sitting at a desk 11 hours a day, with little time to cook a nice healthy meal or get out and exercise one or two hours a day. It pisses me off to no end when people think Americans are lazy when in reality we probably work more hours than anyone else in the world and get less vacation for the most part. I won't deny I eat bad and rarely exercise, but there's only so many hours in the day, you know?

Originally posted by Redline65 . It pisses me off to no end when people think Americans are lazy when in reality we probably work more hours than anyone else in the world and get less vacation for the most part. I won't deny I eat bad and rarely exercise, but there's only so many hours in the day, you know?

Many people get pissed off with the victim complex of Americans. The post wasn't about you. I didn't even mention Americans. I was specifically comparing the French with the people I know best, the English.

On the other hand, your post prompted me to have a quick internet browse. I found a nice graph in Wikipaedia, which is apparently based on a 2004 OECD study. Here's some quick figures for annual work hours:

Korea: 2390

Poland: 1984

Mexico:  1980

Czech republic: 1882

Japan: 1828

Greece: 1811

USA: 1777

...

Great Britain: 1652

...

France: 1346

So whilst you guys undoubtably work pretty hard, you're a long way from being the hardest working...

Originally posted by Cephus404

Originally posted by rikilii

The study doesn't say that games cause people to be overweight or depressed, any more than it says that games cause people to be 35 years old on average.

Yes, a lot of people here don't seem to know the difference between correlation and causation.

Sadly, way too many of those with that problem are legislators, regulators and policy-makers. It's relatively useless studies like this that get used as "proof" to support regulations, taxation and treatment programs.

Originally posted by Antipathy

Originally posted by Redline65 . It pisses me off to no end when people think Americans are lazy when in reality we probably work more hours than anyone else in the world and get less vacation for the most part. I won't deny I eat bad and rarely exercise, but there's only so many hours in the day, you know?

 

Many people get pissed off with the victim complex of Americans. The post wasn't about you. I didn't even mention Americans. I was specifically comparing the French with the people I know best, the English.

 

On the other hand, your post prompted me to have a quick internet browse. I found a nice graph in Wikipaedia, which is apparently based on a 2004 OECD study. Here's some quick figures for annual work hours:

 

Korea: 2390

Poland: 1984

Mexico:  1980

Czech republic: 1882

Japan: 1828

Greece: 1811

USA: 1777

...

Great Britain: 1652

...

France: 1346

 

So whilst you guys undoubtably work pretty hard, you're a long way from being the hardest working...

That's pretty cool to see. If true, Koreans must be pretty damn hardworking.
 

Originally posted by Nythious

 I would like to confirm this information with this Blizzon 2009 Photo

 

http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2009/august/blizzcon_day0_009.jpg

 

You're welcome. 

Nythious wins the /thread :) 

Of course like another posted said you could just replace "Gamer" in that study with "Almost Any American sub-group" and the results would the same.

There is just more of us to love baby! Or be depressed over if thats the case :)

The average person that conducts these useless polls are overweight lazy and overpaid men that have probably never been good at games. Seriously this comes from the same group of people that did a survey on what color cars birds preferred to crap on. Their conclusion was white.