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Denver, 8:30 PM
Tue Dec 1
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/18/09
Take 50000 gamers from all over the country and lets just see how those numbers stack up.
Also, if a gamers' average age is rising, wouldn't that contribute to the worsening of the health statistics regardless of any other factor?
So far as the depression stats go, I'd like to think that a lot of people game because we look outside and see a world that has become so fucked up and full of greedy, self important people that we'd rather hang out at home and play with people who's agenda doesn't include being a fulltime asshole. If I'm ever dealing with depression, which at times I am, it's not because I'm a gamer. I game because I suffer from depression. It's an outlet, a release. It a way for me to interact with people without having to play the stupid social games we all play with one another whether we mean to or not.
That said, everyone, gamer or not, should exercise regularly one way or another, lay off the fast food and the high-fructose corn syrup, and occasionally get outside... That's why there's DSes and iPhones and PSP's out there people.
08/18/09
There's a reason it's the home of grunge music. EVERYBODY there is lazy and depressed. That tends to happen when it rains 300 days a yer and snows the other 65.
08/18/09
"EVERYBODY there is lazy and depressed"
Speak for yourself asshole.
08/18/09
Also, I find this survey to be chicken and egg: It will be blamed ON games causing this, when what is likely happening is those who are socially ostracized - the overweight, unpopular, socially awkward - tend to go to games to interact with people, because it doesn't require physical interaction.
Which they obviously get taunted/whatever while doing.
08/18/09
08/18/09
If you're bucking the stats, I say good on you, it doesn't necessarily mean the findings of the study are completely wrong, but it doesn't mean that gamers should give up on themselves, either, and I think that's the most important part.
08/18/09
08/17/09
I'm pretty sure that even if I DID play outside like all the other kids, I'd still have spent the majority of my life up until graduation from high school on my ass in a seat listening to someone drone on and on about shit I don't care about. If I were fat right now, I could tell you gaming isn't the only thing to blame.
People in general don't take care of themselves. Gamers are not alone in this.
Random side note, but in case anyone is wondering, I did very well in school despite not paying attention to the teachers. I heard the staff joke about me on more than one occasion because I'd be able to sleep through class, then lift my head up randomly and answer questions that none of the other students could answer, then go right back to sleep.
Kind of a waste of my brain, I guess. College is actually engaging, though.
08/17/09
Fox News will simply not mention it and go on its merry delusion.
08/17/09
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08/17/09
I'm not trying to say you're lying though or trying to take anything away from your problem, I just think it's decieving to call it a form of depression, even if it was considered as such before.
08/18/09
08/18/09
08/18/09
But here's a more accurate description, in case anybody was misled: Imagine that, in one moment, you're energetic, extremely happy, and ready to take on the world.
Now, the very next second, you're overwhelmed by every little event, the slightest comment from somebody can either send you into a howling rage or an uncontrollable torrent of tears, every cell in your body seems to be screaming at you to just end everything, and there's absolutely nothing you can do to get back into that euphoria.
So you do everything in your power to coax your brain into releasing dopamine and providing a moment of relief: drugs, self-mutilation, etc. But it doesn't work for long, and when you finally rush back into that sense of joy, you constantly fear the next crash.
Now imagine how near-impossible this makes it to hold a job or a relationship, and let that fact torment you on your next depressive spell.
That, in a nutshell, is the difference between bipolar and depression.
08/18/09
08/17/09
:/
*does some sit-ups*
08/17/09
I'm sorry but taking a sample of 500 people from a single American city proves jack shit. I can guarantee that the same sample size in another city within America or another country would get different results again.
Do a survey with a sample size of a million people (you're going to automatically skew the average age if you only sample adults) and perhaps then the survey would hold some weight with me....pun not intended.
08/17/09
500 is a REALLY low sample size.
08/17/09
08/17/09
500 is generous.
08/17/09
If you game more.. you have less time to do exercise. So people who game a lot, have less free time.. and probably would weigh more. I would say the same goes for ppl who watch a lot of movies, spend a lot of time online, etc..
I would definitely agree that those people I know who game a lot have weight issues. I only know one guy who games a lot (he plays everyday for more than 3 hours) and is in shape.
08/18/09
@ natpoor and Armagetition: No sample size of 500 regardless of what any statistics teacher tells you, is a big enough sample size to gauge any worthwhile statistics other than 45% of these 500 people from this city are gamers and this percentage of them are fat unhealthy losers. Nothing more. The world is not made up of clones of the same 200-500 types of people.
08/18/09
I'm just throwing that out there.
08/18/09
I'm just throwing that out there.
08/17/09
I'm a big fatty :(
08/17/09
08/17/09
In terms of mental health, I'm good, thanks.
In terms of intelligence, which you failed to mention, I'm in a Biomedical Ph.D. program at Harvard. And I know how damn retarded 99% of public health people are. I assume this study was part of it.
08/17/09
08/17/09
So THERE. ;)
08/17/09
08/17/09
EDIT: Poor people also may be disposed to having issues that aren't very good for pregnancy like stress, drugs, poor medical care.
08/17/09
Oh, also.... ;)
08/17/09
Of course, now that you've provided more information, I concede I probably would've been rolling my eyes too. Heh.
08/17/09
08/17/09
"We knew they were immoblie slugs, but Christ. Some don't even have vertebrae anymore."
08/17/09
08/17/09
08/17/09
Good thing I don't live in Seattle. I'm a gamer, 32 years old, but I love hiking, biking, and eating healthy. My only Caffeine intake is 2 cups or less of coffee every other day.
Note to self, do not move to Seattle.
~19
08/17/09
30+ average means that most gamers are those that started playing in the 80's. They were gamers when kids and have stayed like that now that they are adults. That group of kids who grew to be "old gamers" are still a larger group than the new little kids. That means that there is less growth around young kids than there once was hence a need to attract new gamers since the core "original gamer" is still the majority. If they don't expand what will happen when the core generation dies?
Still, things should change when that core gaming demographic starts having children since they are likely to become gamers. I'm guessing most of them either recently had children or had a few years ago. In that sense we could see in the next 10 years the average gaming age lower a bit instead of increasing.
08/17/09
08/17/09
08/18/09
"With the growing number of female gamers, the survey found that women age 18 or older now represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%) than boys age 17 or younger (18%). "
So at least the people who conducted that survey they included children under 18.