New Study says Gamers are Fat and DepressedFollow

...lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Nice study...

Since starting FFXI I've *lost* 50 pounds. (Granted, 40 of those were in the past year and a half).

A few of my friends who play have no trouble finding girlfriends. My technique needs work, but has for over a decade.

I'm less depressed now than I was 5 years ago, despite my job situation.

Games don't make people overweight, depressed and lacking companionship. People make people overweight, depressed and lacking companionship.

This just in; People are complicated. Film at Eleven.

BMI has to be one of the worst systems ever devised.

BMI is the same system that labeled Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone as "Obese".

The last time I saw the BMI formula, it didn't take into effect how much muscle mass a person has, so Muscle = Fat by the BMI system.

As to the Obesity Problem, like another poster said, it isn't limited to gamers, at all. Far from it, in fact. There _is_ an Obesity problem in NA, of course. Walk outside your home and look around you, you will see "fat" people everywhere.

IMO, that could be attributed to the fact we have candy machines, pop machines, etc everywhere, including our schools so any kid can stick a quarter or two in a machine and get a bag of some of the unhealthiest "foods" known to mankind.

As far as gamers being "fat and depressed", I know a few IRL who aren't fat by any means (one is actually on the skinny side) and myself... well I have a couple extra pounds, but I'm not *obese*, and I wouldn't call myself depressed, either.

Bored, on the other hand..... ya, you could say that.

I live in a rural area, far away from anyone else my age, and there is literally nothing to do, without traveling 10-15 miles+ to any sizable town.

Gaming and the Internet was the natural choice to go to, for me, for my recreational needs.

For those who live in cities, the growing crime, gang, and drug problems in the streets could be a factor of what is "convincing" kids to stay inside and seek safer recreation on the computer, or game systems.

Edited, Aug 19th 2009 9:39pm by Zariamnk

OMG, go eat something... *shiver* 119 pounds at just shy of 6 feet tall?

No offense, but the human skeleton thing, is a big turn off... I shiver when I see people that thin.

Everything in that article sounds exactly like me. Except the overweight part.

I will rather pick a campaign battle in beaucidine (s) over a sexy party with chicks. *** is overratted anyway, even when I do it right.

I polled one person, and he was fat, depressed, and a virgin. He's also a gamer. Therefore, 100% of gamers are fat, depressed virgins according to my poll. Also, 78% of statistics are made up.

Did I mention I was polling the guy in the mirror? He's such a jerk. Always dresses just like me.



So we give the GMs permanent Perfect Dodge and have them shoot offenders instead of some anonymous ban? I like the sound of that.

I cooked it in my tears instead of buttering the pan, does that count?

I wouldn't be surprised if there is a link between depression and MMOs/Video Games/Etc.

Not that they cause depression, but that depressed people turn to them as a form of escapism.

Whether you see that as a positive or negative is a different matter entirely.

But I don't like "gamers are depressed", as it can be interpreted that gamers get depressed through playing a game. And I believe for depressed gamers, 90% of the time it will be the other way around. They play a MMO because they are depressed, they are not depressed because they are playing an MMO.

I don't agree with this. It really comes down to calorie intake vs energy expended during the day. It doesn't matter if I sit in front of the computer/TV for 8 hours a day, if I use as many calories in a day as I intake, my weight won't change (much).

This survey should be about how much gamers eat and burn during a day if they want to blanket state that gamers are fat people. Eat 4500 calories and burn 700? Yeah, you're probably fat. Gaming might have something to do with that, but it's only a contributing factor, not the definite cause.

As for depression, I can't imagine why anyone would want to spend 8 hours (from my above statement, not the survey, I don't know how they diagnosed depression in the survey) a day in a fantasy land (MMO or single player games) if they're not depressed with their real life. I've spent 5-10 hours/day in FFXI, and I've only done it during times in my life when I've been in a bad place. In times when my life has been good, I rarely play more than an hour or two a day. Of course, anecdotal evidence doesn't mean jack **** when applied to a majority.

Its usually coffee (skim milk, minus the sugar lately) and maybe a sandwich for me when I'm playing FFXI. Hunger kinda tends to catch up with me 3-4 hours after I stop playing though.