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Forums - Gaming - IGN Report: "Game Addicts are Autistic"

Words Of Wisdom on 03 April 2008
MaxwellGT2000 said:
Rock_on_2008 said:

Game Addicts are Autistic

Further revelations from the academic field.

by Martin Robinson, IGN UK

UK, April 3, 2008 - This year's British Psychological Society Annual Conference is shaping up to be a battle royale of contesting parties screaming the head-smackingly self-evident. Following yesterday's chin-felling revelation that games are relaxing, a separate study has staked its flag atop the peaks of Mount Obvious, discovering that videogame addicts display behavioral traits similar to that seen in Asperger's sufferers.

Research, carried out by Ian Danforth of the American Whitman College and Dr John Charlton of the University of Bolton, took a predominantly male group of 391 gamers. Findings showde that players edging closer to addiction displayed traits commonly associated with Aperger's, including introversion, neuroticism and a lack of agreeableness.

Apsergers is a form of autism most commonly found in men, with some 1.2% of the population believed to be affected. Dr Charlton remarked that, "Our research supports the idea that people who are heavily involved in game playing may be nearer to autistic spectrum disorders than people who have no interest in gaming."

 

 


That line deserves that bold/italics/underline.

Seriously they should have released the systems these 391 gamers played, it would have been great to find out which type of fanboy was Autistic XD

Maybe this is the reason why horrible games get great sales, they should have released what games the mentally challenged gamers played, my vote is for FPS!


My vote for the games the socially challenged gamers play goes to MMO's.



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rocketpig on 03 April 2008

Ugh. Let's not confuse "loser" or "socially inept" with "person with aspergers".

What a giant fuckin' waste of time. Love this part:

"Findings showde that players edging closer to addiction displayed traits commonly associated with Aperger's, including introversion, neuroticism and a lack of agreeableness."

So, basically they're saying that they didn't actually find anything. They just saw some traits that are similar to those shown by Aspergers.

Road rage is caused by ice cream. After all, sales of ice cream spike at the same time road rage instances occur.




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Words Of Wisdom on 03 April 2008
rocketpig said:

So, basically they're saying that they didn't actually find anything. They just saw some traits that are similar to those shown by Aspergers.

That's pretty much the norm.  Many scientific studies yield inconclusive results and it comes down to how well the researchers can draw parallels and sensationalize things to receive more money...



epsilon72 on 03 April 2008

Hey....my older brother has aspergers....people who play videogames a lot must not be playing them right or something, because there's a huge difference between him and your average hardcore gamer!

 

....and also, lol @ them labelling introversion as some sort of defect (to be fair though, this happens quite often). Extreme and debilitating introversion (that harms your ability to communicate effectively) is a problem, but introversion in and of itself is not a disease, merely a difference in where you draw your energy from (internal vs. external)