Study: Gaming linked to depression.

[El Mahdi]

I think tabletop RPGs are a great antidote to depression. All that social interaction and outward focus. Online chat/text-based real-time gaming too, to a lesser extent.

Yeah, I agree with this also. I'm not starting a RPG vs. video games debate, and I'm not saying that video games lead to introversion - but introverted people are probably more drawn to video games than RPG's simply because of the social interaction aspect of tabletop games. Now, RPG's in and of themselves aren't an antidote for depression, depression is much more complicated than that, but I think the social interaction that tabletop RPG's provide is a good thing.

 

[El Mahdi]

The study's "definitive" proof:

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh yeah, I forgot...Kurt Cobain is pining for the fjords.

 

[Jack7]

The study, which was carried out in the Seattle-Tacoma area, found that gamers reported "lower extraversion, consistent with research on adolescents that linked video-game playing to a sedentary lifestyle and overweight status, and to mental-health concerns."

It also indicated a curious difference between male and female gamers: the former proved more overweight and reported more Internet usage than non-gamer men, while female gamers reported more depression and lower general health than non-gamer women.

But which comes first, the games or the poor health? The researchers hypothesized that depressed individuals might be turning to games as a means of self-medication, immersing themselves in a game's world as a way of forgetting about real-life troubles.

I lived in Sea-Tac for a while. That area has more overcast days than any other area in the USA, higher than normal % of SAD sufferers, and (as anyone who is familiar with their music scene knows) a heroin epidemic.

Quoting facts is a very bad way to approach modern science. You won't get any grant or heroin money that way.

You might get a 64th level character whose stats you can sell on a message board on 2nd Life. Then again, maybe not.

Linked it before I could. Sadly, we're pretty solidly in "The Internets" section right now.

Professor, I always heard that pronounced the "Internets Suctions." Maybe it's just dialectical.

 

[Dausuul]

I have to say this strongly - the state of science reporting in the world is not good. However, it is not in any way assisted by incomplete reading of what the reporting does say. You lose the right to criticize the study and report if you obviously did not internalize what the report said. Please, take the time to read more carefully.

Very true. I will add that scientists almost always understand the correlation/causation distinction. It's the news media, or folks with a social or political axe to grind, who take a study establishing moderate correlation and claim it as stunning new proof of overwhelming causation.

And in this case, no such claims were made by either the scientists or the media. This article does a pretty good job of letting the science speak for itself.

... introverted people are probably more drawn to video games than RPG's simply because of the social interaction aspect of tabletop games.

I don't agree with this conclusion at all. Introverts like social interaction too; we simply prefer small groups of people we know well over big "party scenes." Tabletop gaming is pretty much ideal for that.

 

[lutecius]

Oh yeah, I forgot...Kurt Cobain is pining for the fjords.

yeah I was surprised you didn't mention him or grunge music.

Oh, and they also have vampires going all emo because, you know, they... sparkle in the sun light.


What surprises me more is the age. I thought the video game crowd was much younger.
I'm pretty sure it is in Europe.

 

[Jack7]

Oh and they also have vampires going all emo because, you know they sparkle in the sun light.

QFT, and because it made me laugh.

 

[Theroc]

Yeah, I agree with this also. I'm not starting a RPG vs. video games debate, and I'm not saying that video games lead to introversion - but introverted people are probably more drawn to video games than RPG's simply because of the social interaction aspect of tabletop games. Now, RPG's in and of themselves aren't an antidote for depression, depression is much more complicated than that, but I think the social interaction that tabletop RPG's provide is a good thing.

I'm an introvert and the main reason I play videogames over D&D is I have trouble finding places/People to play D&D at/with.

I tend to gravitate towards Roleplaying boards and MMO's that encourage interaction. I tend to play stuff like WoW more casually, just looking for people who like to hang out.

So, I'm more drawn to social interaction on the main point, unless the videogame is REALLY good. ~Played Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind... WAY TOO MUCH~

 

[willf]

Now, I have to go back on something I said. Looking at this page, a sample size of 100 isn't good enough for a true blue study to say something with confidence. You need 500 participants. Because 500 participants grant a margin of error a little below 5%, meaning you are 95% certain the numbers are correct.

Rechan, you were correct in your first comment, that 100 participants can be more than sufficient. It is truly remarkable, but even 30 participants can give you results that have less than a .01 percent chance of being produced when there were no actual differences. Unfortunately, the reporters did not provide enough information to find the original article, so I can't see what probabilities they reported in the scientific article.

Think of it this way. You only need to get heads on a coin 30 straight times before you realize that something strange is going on. It doesn't matter that you could have flipped the coin 300,000,000 times, or even an infinite number of times, the answer is the same.

The page you were looking at has to do with estimating the value of something in a population, not the differences between two groups. Slightly different issues arise there, but even there, it is generally assumed that as few as 800 participants is usually sufficient.

The small numbers needed are stunning, if you ask me, and make me marvel at our glorious universe.

 

[Rechan]

The page you were looking at has to do with estimating the value of something in a population, not the differences between two groups. Slightly different issues arise there, but even there, it is generally assumed that as few as 800 participants is usually sufficient.

It's been about six years since my last Stats or Research Methods class. I feel a little rusty.

Fortunately, I start Graduate school on Tuesday, and what is my first class of the day (at 8 am no less )? Analysis of Variance.