Average gamer is 35, obese, and depressed

Hey!! i'm not 35

Couch Potatos ? did someone say Couch Potatos ?
The thing should be as they say DEPRESSED is
THE FUCKIN COUCH , talk about depress from someones fat butt mashing all the time , i mean come on give it ME AH BREAK the couch said ....! take ah walk !

and in related news: Average housewife is 35, obese, and depressed.

This just in! Average American is 35, obese, and depressed.

I have to agree. Video games alone do not make you fat. Maybe they should have also studied how much cable TV these fat, depressed 35 year olds watched. Since I was financially forced to shut off mine, I've lost fifteen pounds because I'm no longer seeing an advertising every ten minutes reminding me to eat something whether I need to or not. I've never been obese, just a little (30lbs) over weight, and I'm just under thrity.

I will admit that I have suffered from depression but that mostly stems from the head injury I had in a car accident as a child, five years before I even knew what a video game was.

I'm sure the comment about location might have something to do with the results as well. Perhaps conducting the study in Seatle was a way to curve the results in a way that they want. Why not Frisco? Why not Maine? Because they knew that a study that found gamers to be mostly be gay, or well adjusted, or whatever wouldn't have been given much attention (outside of novelty) laughs because it goes against the status quo. It would be too obvious to not just gamers but non-gamers. This just goes along with what many non-gamers believe.

But without the opinions of the researchers, it's all really just speculation.

Did anyone really find this information surprising? How much did they pay for this research? Cause I could have told you that for a hundred bucks.

I like to point out that this study was partly done in Seattle. Everyone in Seattle is depress. (ok, not everyone)

If this was done San Fransico, then they would most likely find that some gamers were 25 and gay. (same thing, not everyone in SF is gay.)

Location matters.

First of all, video games are far cheaper than going out every night to the bar.... Video games are interactive, unlike television. Video games help you get better hand/eye coordination. Video games help people daily to escape the world of suck. Many handicap find video games a much easier way to communicate with people and become social. There are tons of reasons video games are a good habit, unlike television. Just because some people happen to over eat, does not conclude that its the game making them do it. Some people get easily irritated by being around too many people and or they find people in general tiring(myself included) Playing games are an easy way to stay social yet not have to go out and pay money to drive, goto dinner, get coffee, etc. The media and coprorations are finding it much harder to get people to buy/shop/drive/eat if they have a hobby like video games thus they just look for reasons to bash it. I actually have problems keeping my weight UP. Are they going to say its the video game doing that to me? People are fat because they over-eat and or have actual legitimate health problems. Not because they play video games. FAST FOOD makes people fat. They would be far better off buying groceries and playing video games while staying at home and actually cooking real food. I also have to wonder how many of the overwieght video gamers eat junk food? I drink Mt. Dew and eat twinkies. Other than that I cook all my own meals. I weight under 100lbs. Everything in moderation is a good way to live.

I have found my group of friends has increaseed since i got xbox live. My mate started a new job and all his work buddys play too. I have since met up in "real" social activities like drinking and bowling with these like minded guys!

im not obese or depressed and i play at LEAST 9 hours a day
oh and im 14 so that might be a problem

I'm a life long gamer of 29, I'm type 1 diabetic (aka. not the fat kind) and weigh in at a buck and a quarter, and I've been depressed my whole life, but only because I am helpless against the New World Order. I have plenty of social interaction, my sex life is slightly lacking lately, but I haven't been sitting on my ass all day playing video games as usual either. I'm betting the average gamer is just fat and depressed because they live with mommy.

.....will get to a response after I finish this donut.

Everything in moderation.

Researchers are always trying to come up with reasons. Let's all eliminate or delete the word "Reason". As a matter of fact I play madden, 2k basketball, run my business spend time with my girl, meditate, yoga, mentor, perform music, and write daily. I attribute all to quitting my gig at a law firm during the recession. Freedom to all who follow their dreams. Peace....

Guess what? The ones that aren't gamers, they're obese and depressed too!! Now go find a name or a reason for them!! It's the American Dream, you know how many people in the world wish they were an obese depressed American gamer!! You better recognize!!

From all the gamers I've met age 35 or otherwise this seems to be mostly true. The other group I know of is the underweight, socially inept, anxious person who spends all their free time gaming & using social networking sites as means of avoiding the real life situations (my younger brother) they really can't handle without prescription drugs. I think my husband and I probably fall into the sad, overweight stereotype although neither of us BMI obese (thank goodness) and we do enjoy IRL social activities.

I can actually believe this study to be valid. Me being 17, skinny, and not depressed, i'm not in the average gamer mold, but with the prevalence of MMORPG's such as Warcraft and EverQuest that are so engrossing they can (and have) taken over some people's lives and have wrecked parent-child relationships, job security, and even marriages.

While whenever I say "Play in Moderation" is basically speaking to the choir, we need to have more game addiction centers such as those in South Korea, we have this one near Seattle (http://www.wtop.com/?nid=108&sid=1746138) and is a good start. But we need more and the one thing that can have the biggest impact (besides family) is the game companies themselves.

I play tons of games, including the MMORPG FFXI, which I've been playing for over 5 years.(Hundreds of days worth of playtime) I'm 20, fit, go out with friends every day, and have a full time job in the aviation field.

Now what's sad is that people actually think the depressed overweight players weren't screwed up to begin with. Did you ever consider the idea that some depressed obese 35 year old man may have seen an ad on TV & thought "Hey, that looks kind of fun..."?

There is a documentary on Hulu right now called, "Second Skin". It chronicles the lives of MMORPG players. Very interesting and kinda sad.

Meh. I'm a gamer at age 25 and I'm not overweight. I also see my friends in person on a regular basis! Maybe video games aren't the cause of people's problems, but just something that people do when they are already upset. This research shows no cause and effect.