Oh EA, you money-greedy bastards. ):

[neriana]

I've played Final Fantasy since the beginning, and I really dislike FF12. Not as much as I disliked FF9, because the gameplay isn't as bad (though it's not good either), but I don't give a chocobo's fart about any of the characters, including the one hot guy. The music is kinda bleh too. There's just no heart. I can't finish it. I loved Dragon Quest 8 though, that's from an Enix series, and I'm pretty sure that was after the merger. Plus they're re-releasing almost all the old DQs I never got to play, so I'm happy with that.

In any case I have my Atlus games now. *huggles Personas*

[Dr House]

Atlus is and always has been my favorite console enterprise *hugs all her personas plus all their strategy and their RPGs games* I always liked their out-of-the-box games.

Btw I still have Devil Survivor for the DS to try

[wrath of grapes]

Don't get me wrong I love final fantasy, but the enix games they had got pretty much put even further back than even the back burner...

[rum nate]

We were talking about females gamers back at the start of this thread, and this has to do with gamers, so I guess it should be ok to post this here. 

There is a new study out that says the average gamer is 35, overweight, and more likely to be depressed. Men gamers tend to be more overweight and use the internet more than non male gamers, and female gamers tend to be more depressed and have lower general heath the study found.

Full article: http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/study-games-are-depressing-or-are-they-/1346074

[millahnna]

Speaking for myself, I'm drawn to games because of my reaction to real life; I find everything about it perfectly horrid.  I'm with the researchers who think the depression came first.  But I'd bet there's a mix of both.

[neriana]

Oh whatever. Considering "overweight" means "one pound over the ridiculous BMI index which wasn't meant to measure what people are using it to measure when it was first invented anyway", I never believe anything that claims some portion of the population is overweight. Also, I play games because THEY ARE FUN. Watching TV is NOT FUN. Going out and getting smashed is REALLY NOT FUN.

Studies which re-confirm peoples' prejudices are also fun, because they are usually so completely ridiculous. I predict that in a year there will be a study which contradicts this one, but it won't get any play at all. Instead people will keep referring to this one. Junk.

Um, and since when does "lower extraversion" mean "depressed"? Since when is not being outgoing a bad thing, rather than a neutral or even possibly a good thing, showing higher levels of intelligence, self-knowledge and choosiness about relationships? Oh right, since this study was done in America and not in Japan. JUNK.

[Paden]

Warning, rant ahead!

Gee, maybe we aren't going out because we don't have the damn money to take in a movie and dinner? Gosh, maybe we aren't going out to the bars to socialize because we have to save the bucks to buy important things like food and toilet paper? (If you get food, you're gonna need to toilet paper, trust me on this one kids.) The economy has a great deal of influence on how we interact with those outside of our homes or if we even do go outside of our homes for entertainment.

I'd rather wait and shell out the bucks for a DVD than go to the theater to see it, mainly because the popcorn is always fresh here, the sodas aren't watered down with too much damn ice and I don't have to put up with screaming little brats who don't wanna watch the film and run up and down the aisles instead while their parents are engrossed in the on-screen chases.

I'd much prefer a video game to an arcade, where you can find the same kinds of kids chasing all over the bloody place because their parents dropped them off for a few hours while they got some quiet time. At home, I can sit on a comfy couch and not have to worry about a time limit on my coinage or have to hand the game player quarter after quarter to keep the stupid game going, plus the fact that games at home on a console can be saved, novel concept isn't it?

As for being depressed? Well, fuck yeah, who isn't? Money doesn't buy half of what it once did and prices are up at least by a multiple of two so that is something to kind of feel off-kilter about, don't you think so? People are being put out of work, or their hours at work are getting slashed so the bosses can afford their own pay raises and bonuses, all while the people that work their asses off to make the companies money are getting screwed out of everything they ever earned. I sure the hell don't feel good about that kind of shit going on and I don't know anyone that does, unless they're one of the fat cat bastards that works at these multi-million grossing companies that laugh in our faces and tell us to suck it when their products don't rate the bat guano of the month award because it's half-baked and ill-thought out. No wonder many customers hate EA Games...

Anyways, where do they get their data? Do they send out surveys to guys that live in their mom's basement? Do they send them to the lady that can't afford a new diamond collar for her spoiled poodle? Who the hell are they asking this shit? And really, with all of the problems that go on in every day life, who in the fuck cares? I think a lot of gamers play games to have fun, relax and forget about the douche bags they have to deal with outside their front door. So meh to studies that just were done to justify some asshat's skewed point of view.

/end rant

[neriana]

I remember a study from a while ago that said that intelligent people were more likely to be depressed. From my own experience, intelligent people are also more likely to be gamers. Intelligent people are also more likely to see what's wrong with the world -- and then try to change it.

And yeah, I'd be very interested to see how they got their data. What groups did they compare, exactly? Did they survey people playing an MMO then go and survey people on the beach? Or did they compare gamers to people with equally sedentary habits, like watching TV or reading? Did they ask what kind of games the people in question play? Considering they lump in Bejeweled with other games I sincerely doubt it. How large was their sample size? How many males and females did it have? Was it just some survey on a website that people could do?

This study has all the hallmarks of very bad science to me, from what I can tell from the article. Hell, they seem to assume that being introverted makes people less happy than being extroverted, which is extremely ignorant and stupid, showing a marked lack of cultural and psychological insight, not that that stops quite a few people with PhDs from doing it anyway.

[Motoki]

Well the economy thing isn't just effecting going out though. I read a news report the other day that said video game sales are down and kind of in a slump.

Of course there were two large companies that were exceptions to this and were doing quite well in spite of the economy.

You can guess which one one of them was.

[JFederated]

The authors of that study thing did disclaim their results and methods, but that does not make for a nice morally panicking headline.  They used years old data from like an online survey or something.

In other news, some game companies look out for their customers and will open a can of whupass upon those that would go against their EULA/TOS and financially prey on that game's community.

It's an online game, but some familiar bits.  Of note:  rampant fraud and immediate relief upon the servers once the grubbers were dumped.

[mustluvcatz]

They used years old data from like an online survey or something.

If figures. Online surveys mean jack-shit nothing. I don't bother to ever fill them out- I'd rather play a game or create something for the Sims then click little boxes answering questions.
So, that said, I wonder how many of the people who filled out said survey were actually gamers? Probably next to none. The reason I say that is that most of the people I know who don't play games tend to think that those of us who do are fat, lazy and stupid. Yeah, sure- alright. I'm a bit overweight, but games had nothing to do with that. Having 5 kids had alot to do with that. (And I haven't gained a pound since the last one was born.)  Lazy? Step into my house- 6 people live here, 5 of them are males- my house is clean, laundry is done, meals are cooked, etc., etc., courtesy of me. And before I lost my job? I worked 10-12 hours a day and still kept up the house. Stupid? Nah. Stupid people don't usually take Honors (advanced, college level) classes in school or have IQ's that are well over 130.

[Scurvy Cat]

Especially since depression is kind of hard to self-diagnose.  I've known people who were depressed for decades who just thought that was what life was.  And people who had an off day twice in six months and wanted Prozac.

[Pescado]

I remember a study from a while ago that said that intelligent people were more likely to be depressed. From my own experience, intelligent people are also more likely to be gamers. Intelligent people are also more likely to see what's wrong with the world -- and then try to change it.

Isn't this sort of intuitively obvious? Stupid people aren't smart enough to see how fucked up everything is. When you're smart enough that you can SEE how fucked up everything is and realize there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, you pretty much have no real choice except to descend into depression or nihilism.

[neriana]

I remember a study from a while ago that said that intelligent people were more likely to be depressed. From my own experience, intelligent people are also more likely to be gamers. Intelligent people are also more likely to see what's wrong with the world -- and then try to change it.

Isn't this sort of intuitively obvious? Stupid people aren't smart enough to see how fucked up everything is. When you're smart enough that you can SEE how fucked up everything is and realize there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT, you pretty much have no real choice except to descend into depression or nihilism.

Or you can decide to point and laugh. That's always fun too.

That study population makes the study completely, totally and utterly useless. The correlations which supposedly merit further study are meaningless. I love how they didn't make any distinction among games played or hours played, I adore how everyone was from a particular area of Washington state (gamers more likely to have SADD! and wear fleece!), and I am totally loving that they only used people who signed up to take internet surveys in the first place!

By the way, when I worked in a game store, I noticed that gamers, um, looked like everyone else, except a little better. The girls had a tendency to not plaster themselves with makeup or dye their hair blond as much as other populations of women do down here. (Seriously, most women down here scare me.) Also BMI reports Brad Pitt as overweight for the same reason it reports me as on the high end of "acceptable": high muscle mass. Maybe the people who reported for that study included a bunch of weightlifters. Or hey, maybe gamers are actually stronger than average. I know the people I worked with were quite strong and fit, and my boyfriend, whom I met online in a gaming community, is incredibly strong.

Seriously, what a load of crapola. That's like if I used a population of about 500 people, all at least age 35, in the Boston area in 1760 to generalize about the lives of every Christian in North America at that time. My professors would burst a lung laughing. The fact that anyone is so abysmally stupid as to actually publish a study like that -- well, what can I do but point and laugh.

[Pescado]

Or you can decide to point and laugh. That's always fun too.

P&L is essentially the end-product of existential nihilism, yes.

By the way, when I worked in a game store, I noticed that gamers, um, looked like everyone else, except a little better. The girls had a tendency to not plaster themselves with makeup or dye their hair blond as much as other populations of women do down here. (Seriously, most women down here scare me.)

Well, gamers don't tend to leave the house as much and therefore don't try to make themselves look "better". And frankly, makeup and hair-dye are hideous things.

Also BMI reports Brad Pitt as overweight for the same reason it reports me as on the high end of "acceptable": high muscle mass. Maybe the people who reported for that study included a bunch of weightlifters.

Yes, having a beefy arm tends to count against you in BMI because all they care about is your height vs. your weight. You will actually become MORE overweight than a fat person if you have a beefy arm because muscle is heavier than fat.

Or hey, maybe gamers are actually stronger than average. I know the people I worked with were quite strong and fit, and my boyfriend, whom I met online in a gaming community, is incredibly strong.

Now that, I'm a bit skeptical of. The ones you *SAW* are stronger and fitter, perhaps because they actually occasionally move. Being that computers are rather heavy, you therefore need to become stronger to actually move about with your computer.