Fat, Sad Gamers

Another day, another study about people who play video games. Hey, I'm one of those! (Xbox Live Gamertag/PSN ID: AmSci) In the past year or so, I've heard that I'm prone to violence, not prone to violence, in better shape than most people, and prone to sedentary habits. It's all very confusing. But a new study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes to put all those previous studies to rest. Well, until there's another study. The CDC (and P!) looked at 552 adults from the Seattle area and found that about 49% of them were gamers. The average age worked out to around 35, and these people also tended to be overweight, introverted, and possibly depressed. Female gamers in particular demonstrated a tendency toward depression, leading researchers to believe that they play games for emotional escape more than men do. Frankly, I don't put a lot of trust into this study. Gamers run a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and a lot of that has to do with the kinds of games they play. People who play sports games, for instance, might not fall into the same categories as people who play party or puzzle games. For all we know, these fat, sad people are all playing World of Warcraft! I'd apologize for making such a sweepingly insulting statement about World of Warcraft players, but I'm under no delusion they pause from their guild runs to read this site. More details here.