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35 fat and depressed
Boatsmate
Member Posts: 208
I have been reading some interesting discussion in these forums which included the topic of games not being made for older gamers. Which reminded me of some studies I have seen in the past few months about that. Some by independent surveys, and some by marketing firms. So I googled it while ago. The sites all agreed that the average video game gamer is 35 years old, and grew up with games.One site said, "The average video game gamer is 35 years old, fat , and depressed". I'm older, not fat, and not depressed. So not average I guess. Depends on who you ask. Where do you "Weigh" in as a gamer? Are you a coot, a lad, a lass? Are you pleasantly plump, a jolly fellow? Or a bean pole. When you look at a Rorshak Test do you see a dead bird or a butterfly? Do you agree with this assessment of a old,fat,sad Gamer Nation?
Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don't they just get taller ballerinas?
Comments
Female, (Wife/Mother) 39 this summer.. 5"6 122lbs. I started mmos with Ultima Online/Asheron's Call/Daoc.
*edit* and very happy, never depressed
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Didn't grow up with Video games. Computers didn't even exist except for the extremely rich.
Athletic (Train for marathons). Running is more important than gaming.
Not fat.
Not depressed.
You are not a gamer unless you started with Pong!
To some extent. I'm getting nearer 30, I've certainly put on more weight (though I wouldn't call myself obese), and I've been clinically diagnosed with chronic depression. This survey or data you've found almost has me pegged. As for the gamers I hang out with outside of online environments or in the real world, I'd say a large majority of them are quite the oppositte: skinny, fun loving, mid-twenties individuals. So while this information applies to me, I think it'd be difficult for me to include the majority of gamers I know into this narrow category.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
<<< old fat and not depressed
although i dont care what studys or people i dont know say is the "average" i am happy with my life i shall continue to do and live the way i want not the way i am told too i shall also continue to play games and listen to my electronic dance music even though a 45 yr old "shouldnt" do that 0_o
Started with an Apple Commodore. Played first mmo with hubby on Compuserve "Isle of Kesmai"...it was ascii based. Good old 80's.
I don't fall on that but I guess some people may use MMOs as a way to cope with depression, the same way some use alcohol/drugs to cope with their issues. I think the "35,fat,depressed" is a stereotype. Welcome to the world of labels.
Yeah, I'd agree. Especially from personal experience, substance abuse goes hand and hand with the reasons I play video games.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
The MMO genre has some screwed up stats.
One team says females weigh 2/3 of the MMO population, another says the usual MMO player is 12-18 years old. I think people need to make up their mind. haha
21, Male, Moderate build. Kinda blowing the stereotype here.
Played - M59, EQOA, EQ, EQ2, PS, SWG[Favorite], DAoC, UO, RS, MXO, CoH/CoV, TR, FFXI, FoM, WoW, Eve, Rift, SWTOR, TSW.
Playing - PS2, AoW, GW2
I am 35.....but I am also 5'7", 130 lbs (been this weight for the past 10+ years), and not depressed....I would think these other problems described about your average gamer has a lot more to do with how well they take care of themselves in general....physically and mentally.
I'm lucky, I cant gain weight for my life, no matter how much I eat....but, I also eat wisely. I take my dog for a good 20+ minute walk several times a day. I think if you are depressed...these other issues would spiral. It has nothing to do with being "your average" anything, but.....I think a lot of gamers these days are either kids (who dont go out and play) or grown ups that dont have jobs and play games all day, and a lot get pulled into gaming and abandon life issues.
I have run into a LOT of adults that do not have jobs and sit home playing games all day....I would think those people have underlying issues and can cause the other issues described, I'm no doctor....just my 2c! I'm not saying all gamers are this way, I'm just stating that I have seen many others like this and would probably be described as fat, depressed etc.
<------ 33, Not fat, part time drug addict, bipolar.
True Facts!
O.T I have played games all my life 37, Not overweight. Do suffer from pretty bad depression on ocasion but to be fair had that before I ever had a game of pong. Mmo's actualy helped me out with my social skills when I was in a very bad place. Lost my girlfreind in a nasty accident. Spent a year under a duvet drinking scotch. WoW was my first mmo but it really did help me communicate with people again. And when you can talk to the WoW community and not be more depressed then your bloody ready to go out of the house and be a fully functioning member of society again:)
41 yrs young, 550 lb power-lifting megalomaniac with nacissistic tendenties, and an addiction to twinkies.
And I did play Pong on our t.v. set as a child. o_O
30, athletic? Meh, I'm fit enough... not depressed but... I've had a sort of darkness about me all my life. I might be bipolar
because sometimes I want to be the world's superman, other times I'm completely misanthropic.
Anyway, my first MMO experience was SWG and I'm glad for it - unfortunately, given my imagination, I've always thought of 'what could be' in an MMO thus I've never fully enjoyed any MMO... always thinking of ways that would improve the game is not all fun
but it did help me land a job as a creative writer at a game company 
Pics or it didn't happen? I'm the guy in the middle. It was for a Mad Men photo contest at work hehe.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Im 39 last month, Male, Married with kids. Not over weight. I have been married 7 years and have gained around 12-15 lbs, due to .. well.. being married and staying at home more lol
I have gamed since I was young on the atari, nintendo ect, started with computers when i was around 23 or so. Played my 1st MMO when DAoC was released.
Not depressed at all. I work full time and mainly use gaming as something to do while at home thats fairly cheap ( compared to some hobbies ).
I have several RL friends and family who game on PC & console who are around my age, not overweight and not depressed.
So much for the label I suppose.
about to be 45, 7lbs overweight but working on it through diet and excercise.
Not depressed.
edit: I didn't grow up with games per se. We had the arcade. And then eventually an Atari game console to play those arcade games at home. Then I stopped video game completle until a few years after college when I bought a friend's mac to copy my compositions.
She threw in some old video games and one of them was myst.
ah myst.
It was down hill from there.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
20, fat but not depressed haha i do have a life outside of the games so ya, at least now if someone says im a typical gamer i can go urm im not 35 and depressed
20 chubby(kinda) depressed yes because i have no money and im lazy also i want more money
my life sucks
I've never seen those studies, it sounds a bit odd. If it was exclusively of people in the US I could believe it, as we currently have a bit of an obesity problem in the US, but then it's not the average gamer that's fat and depressed, just the average American.
I'm not fat nor am I depressed (I concede to "jaded", though) but then I'm not in my 30s, either. Close, but not quite there. Nearly all of my friends are gamers and ironically I've met more non-gamers that fit the fat/depressed comment than those who are gamers.
edit - I started with Asteroids, does that count?
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
53 years old, 6'2, 190 pounds. Happy as hell because I'm retired and can play games all day long.
edit: damn, I put 52, I just had a birthday. I wish they would not come so fast!
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
I'm so jelly right now.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
I am 32 and slightly over weight due to a military surgery that put me off my feet for 12 months but far from fat. I started gaming on the Atari 2600 and have only been playing MMO's since 2004. Married for 4 years and in no way depressed even though I am now far removed from where I grew up and those I grew up with.
Not sure where or how they got those statistics but conciddering how easily people are labled "unbalanced" be it depression or any other "disorder" I'd say the statistics are scetchy at best. Our country loves to make people feel like they have a disorders when what most people go through is perfectly natural. TY drug companies.
Sorry for that rant but I doubt the 35 fat and depressed is the norm.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
I'm a 25 year old male, 5'7", 115 lbs, and quite happy and engaged with the world.
I was terribly depressed from 2000 to 2004, but I attribute that to adolescent hormonal hell. My adult life has been excellent, in my opinion.
Never understood Rorschach tests. I see an ink blot.
About half of the other gamers I know personally are overweight and depressed, though. They make me want to tear my hair out, sometimes. Or tear them out of their seats and educate them on how goddamn enthralled they should be by this universe, how proud of humanity, how happy with the present and excited for the future.
It angers me to no end when people say they are ‘bored’.
I am not 35!!!!
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
If aliens could do it, then we might be able to do it too. It's worth a shot in any case; better than sending some tiny man to an empty planet.