After months of intense research a Syracuse University Study has come to the conclusion that MMO’s do more damage to gamers health and responsibilities but also provided a much rewarding experience compared to other forms of gaming.
DUH.
How did they come to this amazing conclusion? They took a batch of 100 students splitting them into 4 groups playing outdated and largely irrevelant games in todays market.
The first group of 25 were given tokens to spend at a local arcade, most likely wiping out their entire allowance during the study within days…
The second group played Gauntlet: Dark Legacy on the PS2 (Metacritic Rating, 73).
The third group got to play Diablo II on PC, but apparently never played on or became Bnet addicts.
The final fourth group of ill-fated subjects played the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot. (One has to wonder how different would the results have been if they were forced to play the original EQ or Star Wars Galaxies?)
The study had the following to say on the results of the MMO gamers:
After a month, the MMORPG players — the fourth group — reported playing on average 14.4 hours in the previous week, more than twice as much as the next most avid players, the “Diablo II” group.
The “Dark Age of Camelot” players also reported significantly lower overall health and poorer sleep and were more likely to find the games interfered with their studies and social lives.
On the other hand, they had more fun playing and were more likely to say they had made new friends, presumably online.
So there you have it, proof that studies waste just as much time and money proving the obvious, but we didn’t need a study for that did we?
About the Author
I have no comments, but I’m sort of glad it wasn’t WoW related.