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Gamers are fitter than the average American

by on01 October 2008

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Which is not saying much


Online roleplayers
are actually fitter than the average American, according to a survey of roleplayers.

Boffins working for the University of Southern California surveyed players of the online game Everquest II about their fitness levels.  Not surprisingly, they all said that they were fighting fit and ready to get on with their lives.

Dmitri Williams, a communications researcher at the university said that the survey explodes the popular image of video gamers as socially awkward, overweight teenage males. Williams said that games have pretty much been on the defensive for the past 20 years by being attacked as unhealthy and culturally destructive. However, it turned out that those surveyed thought they were able to do press-ups one handed and could climb Mount Everest without oxygen.

The surveyors found this was a lot more optimistic than most Americans, whose main exercise was opening a can of coke. Of course it assumed that the players of Fantasy Quest II were not lying to them and were not so locked up in their fantasy world that they thought they were Colin the Barbarian and therefore a bit fitter than most.

It also failed to realize that an ‘average American’ would make me look like a triathlon competitor. (Yeah, sure, whatever. sub.ed.)
Last modified on 02 October 2008
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