Skepticism You Can Believe In
September 30th, 2008Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mike Fahey. Fahey is appropriately dubious of a study whose methodology is to ask a number of MMO players about their weight and exercise regimens and then… take their word for it. Survey respondents are notoriously averse to telling the truth about any number of issues, and there’s no reason to believe MMO players would be any worse. Since their answers are counterintuitive, I suspect Fahey is right to doubt them: do we really think that MMO players are 10% leaner than the average? I don’t mean that it’s impossible that they could be healthy - plenty of gamers don’t fit the slob in his parents’ basement stereotype - but to think that they are in general significantly more fit than the average seems to be implausible.
Good job, Mr. Fahey. Everyone else, more of this, please. I don’t often see this level of analysis in gaming pieces, especially those related to scientific studies.
Posted in Geoff, Journalism |
October 1st, 2008 at 2:59 am
From the article:
“They also found that MMO players are on average 10 percent leaner than the average American”
Well, considering that the average gamer is probably younger than the average American, I don’t find that surprising. Also, the word “leaner” sounds good, but maybe “skinnier” would be more accurate. I wouldn’t be surprised by that. There are a lot of overly thin young men. And, when you’re playing games, you tend to procrastinate on eating (I know I do) - which might contribute to it.