Originally posted by BattleFelon

Neoterrar, you're right. I didn't read the original article closely enough and simply assumed that the study created a "profile" of an average gamer (35 /5' 11"/ 220 pounds), in which case a sizable minority of truly obese dudes would throw off the statistical average. The media loves to do these profiles and many times they are completely skewed.

If by average they mean either overweight/not overweight, then it wouldn't matter.

At any rate, I think we agree that the study doesn't really reveal anything. I'd also be interested to know if by depressed do they mean gamers self-reporting as depressed or do they mean serious depressive episodes that lead to hospitalization or suicide attempts.

It DOES reveal something:

1.  Gamers in the area surveyed are more likely to be overweight than non-gamers (**shocker**)

2.  Gamers in the area surveyed had a higher average score of a depression index than non-gamers.

I'm fat, lonely, and I'm a gamer.

Originally posted by cfurlin

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

 

You haven't been paying attention at all. The average gamer is ~35, married, and has children.

Absolutely, 35 sounds about right. But it's important to remember that "gamer" includes "casual gamers" -- and we're not talking "Soloers", we're talking "Bejeweled Addicts".

A few years ago, the highest demographic increase of gamers were Age 40+ women -- almost entirely in the "casual" category.

So far as, say, World of Warcraft goes, it's probably closer to about Age 25. There aren't as many Under-18s playing (paid) MMORPGs as people like to think there are. They're busy pwning my ass and calling me "fag" in Call of Duty.

Similar article on Wired Magazines Site:

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/gamers-are-sad

You people are so naive.   Almost anyone could make up a study to prove anything they want, especially on the net.

Just some idiot trying to reinforce a silly stereotype they have fixed in their mind.  The first thing you should do about such things is question the study.

Isn't 35 the average age in the US?  Not sure about "likely to be depressed" but around 33% of adults are obese in the US (with more being overweight) according to the CDC.  I'm older than 35 and not overweight but I'm not average.

This doesn't surprise me at all. Everyone and his mother are playing Guitar Hero nowadays :)

All my friends play some sort of game and we are all 25-50, some are married and other aren't.

What is a bit shame is that the last 10 years or so game developer seems to make games more and more easy and less complex and with more go go go mentality in it.

This is kinda strange since there is a real Big market of all the older gamers who would love to have more flight simulators and such. And I still are puzzled why they try to make MMO for younger audience when it's the older gamers that actually can afford to play them, make MMO's for grown ups.

WTF im so enraged at this thread. I'm not depressed!

also, has a neck beard, wears glasses, still a virgin, flips burgers, and still living at home with their parents in the basement. I'd be depressed too.

Originally posted by Antipathy

Games don't make me depressed. People make me depressed.

 

Games are where I go to get away from all those arseholes. Not that I'm saying I'm depressed - I'm not - but without gaming I might well be.

 

Gaming is just a good way of finding other people whom I can get along with - whereas in the real world such people are few and far between, and generally quite hard to find.

This is EXACTLY the depression they are talking about.  Gaming doesn't make you depressed while playing it....but if the servers go down and your "Addiction" causes you to not be able to interact with others as well or creates a "sadness" that you can't play...that's the depression right there.

The point is, the depression kicks in after the gaming stops.

Who cares? We are happy playing our games, leave us alone and we won't have to open a can of whoop-ass on you with our physically untrained skills in ninjitsu. Personally, I learn my stealth/assassination skills from Ninja Gaiden :p

Seriously, we geeks and gamers who are "depressed", supposedly without GF's, and overweight build and improve the technology for you people, who aren't gamers, and who have no excuse to sit around all day.

Just a quick google search: 

Study: 60 Percent Of Western World Plays Games - take from: http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24859

•Percent of noninstitutionalized adults age 20 years and over who are overweight or obese: 66% - taken from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

Depression Hits 1 in 13 American Adults - taken from: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7629823&page=1

Just food for thought.

Originally posted by neoterrar

This thread really kills me...

The only average that would be skewed by Bill Gates like outliers would be the age. So really, the stereotype of a gamer is young. This means there are many more old gamers than people think. (over 35)

Overweight is a medical statistic/fact. Most people you might consider chubby or a little on the heavy side are overweight. Overweight is not necessarily obese. Most people in industrialized countries tend to be overweight. As an example someone who is 6 foot tall should weigh less than 183 pounds. If they weigh more they are overweight.

The overweight is not an average of the peoples weights.

More likely to be depressed just means compared to a non gamer they could be as little as 5% more likely to be depressed. This does not make most gamers depressed or even a large percentage, but just a higher than norm percentage.

And of course the kicker. It's correlation, it means squat. It just means they found two sets of number that match up. They don't know why and all they can do is guess.

Actually overweight has several different definitions, the most common used by medical researchers is actually the least valid.
 

BMI = body mass index.  For the general population this is ok and a healthy individual will have a BMI of of about 18-25. An overweight person will have a BMI of over 25 and an obese person of over 30.

However body mass index does not take into account fat mass at all.  It is strictly mass in kg divided by height (in meters) squared.  Therefore someone may have a body fat percentage of say 7% (extremely low) and still be considered overweight.  Ths is the main criticism of it and is fairly common among athletes, and not accurate at with children or the elderly.

I personally am 33 years old 6'2" 187 lbs and 9% body fat using 3 different measurements (BMI = ~24), and working on being 195 in the next 3-6 months with the same percentage (BMI = 25.4 overweight according to BMI but not according to below and not visually or healthwise).  Not fat at all.

A much better definition is using body fat percentages.  For men an average is about 15-20% fat, overweight being 20-25% fat and obese being over 25% fat.  For women average is about 20-25%, overweight is about 25-50% fat, and obese is over 30%

Of course these percentages are slightly different depending on age, and quite different when looking at a populations and the techniques used to derive them and the equations used to find the percentage.

I can give virtually anyone a body fat percentage and get a particular number.  In one population this is considered obese, in another is is overweight (linebackers and dancers come to mind).  But for the general population, underwater weighing, calipers with a skilled practitioner, dexa scan are all fairly good indicators.

And unfortunately in many studies the definition of overweight is an average of peoples weights.  As the norms change so does the definition of overweight.

Depression I can't commen on much as that isn't my area.  The stats I could though.  And your right there is a correlation.  Actually I didn't even read the study to find out how strong a correlation there is.  There could be no relation at all, or it could be direct cause and effect.  Rest assured though there will be more study done on it.

Venge Sunsoar

Originally posted by Blackdragun

Just a quick google search: 

Study: 60 Percent Of Western World Plays Games - take from: http://gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24859

•Percent of noninstitutionalized adults age 20 years and over who are overweight or obese: 66% - taken from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

Depression Hits 1 in 13 American Adults - taken from: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7629823&page=1

Just food for thought.

correlation does not imply causation.

Originally posted by Illius

I've got 10 people off the top of my head right now that I know game with me and out of those 10 no more then 2 are overweight.  We're all in our mid 20's and most of us are at or very near our recommended body mass index.  All of us have jobs, we do other stuff besides games and none of us are depressed.  Funny how nobody asked me to participate in any survey yet I can be pigeonholled into some kind of "majority".

Well thats like like living in an all white neighbourhood and saying that the number of black people in the US is a lie. Honestly, some people here are so clueless sometimes.  Its true that you have to see exactly how the survey was conducted and look at everything instead of just blindly whipping out stats, but those who don't belive the average gamer age is somewhere around 35 are just plain ignorant.

24 (ahead of the game already)

not just overweight, but insanely obese (YES! I'm still way ahead of the curve)

Depressed!? Why I just tried to off myself last night!

By god I'm going to win! No one is ahead of me! Me ftw.

Originally posted by Eben

Pretty spot-on, if you ask me.  Biggest MMO nerd I know, 36 years old. overweight, horrible hygiene, lives with his gamer roommate and his two cats.  Doesn't have a girlfriend, doesn't date, doesn't know how to even have a casual conversation without bringing up a game.  Will wax nostalgic about SWG before it was "ruined", blather on for hours about all the toons he bought in EQ2, and how he's quitting WoW...again...for the nth time.  He's gotten so mad gaming before, that he's told me he's punched his LCD monitor off his desk, and put his fist through the drywall in his apartment.  He's been late for work because he was raiding, he's missed paying bills from buying gold.  He's had to ask his parents for money to renew his car tags...because he blew all his money on EQ2 characters.  He's pretty much the joke of our workplace, and he's too oblivious to all of it, since he's just in his own little fantasy world.  I think MMOs are the escape he has from being a complete loser in real life. 

He's the reason that playing MMOs is one of my biggest secrets, and why I won't tell many people that I do.   He's also why I barely play anymore, or if I do, it's in extremely limited amounts of time.  The idea of ending up like him...no thanks. 

This may be an extreme example but it's not far from the truth.

I have sets of friends.  I have my friends I go and do stuff with and I have my 'Xbox' friends.  

I use the xbox discriptive to women that I date/see so they are not shocked if they meet them. 

I've known them forever but all they do is eat or play video games, they don't have the money to buy characters or gold.  They are extremely overweight, their hygiene is atrocious, and they have the social skills of a sea cucumber.  They all live with their parents.  They all are pushing 30 2 of them have never met lips with a woman.   None of them do a damn bit about their appearance, let alone their health.  They make fat jokes at each other all day and set up Friday and Saturday night raid dates on WoW.

So the stereotype joke isn't outlandish at all.

I'm 34, 6'1 195lbs.  I have a sense of style, humor, and a clue about life.  I have an condo on the beach, function in life more or less, and I play these games and do fine.   Not as much as I used to though.  I'm gonna give Aion a shot.

I'd really like to see those friends take initiative and do something about their current situations.  That's where the depression comes in.  It doesn't make laugh watching it get worse year after year.

Originally posted by ZivaDomini

24 (ahead of the game already)

not just overweight, but insanely obese (YES! I'm still way ahead of the curve)

Depressed!? Why I just tried to off myself last night!

 

By god I'm going to win! No one is ahead of me! Me ftw.

 lmao

41 here, wife and 2 lovely kids, not depressed nor close to it, been playing games since i had my old Zx81 and Mac Lisa.

They didnt ask me to voite either.. guess i was too happy for such a biased voting session :p

this post makes me think of neckbeards.

The average age of Americans is 48.8

90% of Americans seek mental health assistance at some point (9 out of 10 -- CDC stats)

The average american is overweight -- they are 1' taller than in 1960 but 25 lbs heavier.

So...  woopie crap.  Gamers are what -- 13 years younger, have depression and are a bit over weight?  The only stat that is "off" from "US norms" is their age is less...