News

Just because you're into online role-playing games, it doesn't mean you're chubby, male and covered in pimples.

The game-geek stereotype has come under fire from researchers at the University of Southern California, who found that gamers are older and fitter, and that the most hard-core players are women.

"The players aren't radically different than the general population. They are us," says Dmitri Williams, an assistant professor who surveyed 7,000 players of the role-playing game EverQuest II.

Just 6.6 per cent of the gamers were teens, while 37 per cent were in their 30s. The gamers - who averaged 23 hours of play a week - were 10 per cent leaner than most Americans and said they exercised "vigorously" once or twice a week, more than the average American.

But the gamers' lives are not completely rosy. Twenty-two per cent are obese. On average, they are 20 per cent more likely to develop a substance addiction and 50 per cent more likely to get depressed, according to data from Sony, which makes the game.

What surprised Prof. Williams most was the "intensity" of female gamers, who consistently logged in more game hours a week than men.

"The women who do play seem to be more strongly tied to the game, and the community in the game, than the male players. They're more satisfied, they're more dedicated, they're getting more out of it."

Prof. Williams is compiling a deeper study on gender and gaming, including how men and women play video games together while dating.