Can I get a w00t? How many studies have you read about gaming addiction, antisocial behavior, or other evidence of how “gamers” are overall social misfits. But a new study from Victoria University in Australia investigating aspects of gaming (mostly addiction) as it relates to physical health and other vices like alcohol and gambling finds that only about 15% of gamers should be categorized as “problem gamers”. Unfortunately, “we found that those who played Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs), such as World of Warcraft, were more likely to exhibit problematic game play”. Damn, pwned after all. I know to me, Starcraft/Warcraft 3 is like heroin, and World of Warcraft like crack, but now I’ve got it down to the management level of Vicodin. But the psych grad student who conducted the experiment added, “I think it’s an evolution of social and cultural stereotypes that suggest only nerds and geeks play computer games,” he added. “The reality is that nowadays everyone is playing video games.”
Doubly unfortunate is that it was games like World of Warcraft that was a MAJOR agent in increasing playership and of MMOs, and MMOs are a huge catalyst in changing the stereotype of who a “typical” gamer is. So if the “typical gamer” is also the “problem gamer”, and there are more atypical gamers than ever (due to MMOs) - such as women and older people, then why are the problem gamers coming mostly from MMOs? What gives? lol.
