WoW... gaming really is good for you

On every "study" that I read or hear about its always "people who play violent games develop violent behavior." But what if its the other way around? What if its violent people who play violent games. And violent people who play violent games AND make violent posts? The equal to that: scientific thinkers who play scientific games, and discuss scientific things on forums. It still seems like people are trying to blame the video games, when its the environment, and family that people are raised in that determines their behavior. Way to take the easy way out!

I really think this is a case of effect rather than cause. An antisocial person will be seeking entertainment, since they aren't entertained by doing things with friends, so chances are high they'll turn to video games or watching TV. You do this, don't go out much, snack a lot while you do it and you end up obese. Bam, there's now a statistic that people who play entertainment video games are more likely to be antisocial and obese. Same thing with violent games, the 'scientific' theorycrafters prevalent on WoW forums, or surgeons who play Wii games. A good surgeon will have excellent hand-eye coordination, so they'll probably be pretty good at games, and therefore more likely to play than a surgeon that might not be as good with the hands and the eyes and the games. And the World of Warcraft bit is just hilarious. Sure, WoW forums are filled with theorycrafters, because it is a place to share useful information outside of the game, which is limited to just a few people. If they were to sample in-game chat, they'd find the millions of players that can't add two and two who just feed off the 'scientific' theorycrafters by asking what build they should go with and where to spend their talent points.

Sounds like cherry picked stats to me. I've been playing violent games since Quake. I became a tech as it was necessary (once upon a time) to get the most out of your PC. Most of the tech I know play FPS (First Person Shooter) notice the Shooter part = Violent.
I find it (along with "other research" I've read) that it is a great stress releaser. And don't forget the team work. I started making so many friends I held LAN parties for 6 years (average of 5 a year, 40 people) and we never had any physical violence at an event. Actually that's a great way to measure behavior of gamers, I've been to Quake con, Million Man LAN, and LPANE Noreaster events and never seen so much as a fist fight - and those are all violent games being played. The study is cherry picked rubbish pointing to violence. Your better off saying people with two hands are twice as likely to shoot a person that a person with one hand.

So my 22 year old brother who still lives with mom and dad, doesn't have a job, and hits me up every month to renew his subscription is just an anomaly?

I guess all of his online friends have jobs then that allow them to play during the day too!

You know what, and that's the same retarded reasoning weight-loss people impose on fat people who don't eat breakfast. "If you don't eat breakfast, you have a drastically huge chance of being fat!" Well DUH! The reason I don't eat breakfast is cuz I noticed one fine day that yes I am grossly obese! Skipping a meal doesn't make you fat, it makes you thin! Look at any pictures of any concentration camp or undernourished African colony. Skipping meals helps slim that waistline! Backwards thinking numskulls who don't understand simple common sense mutter confusedly "but dusnt skipping meals reduce your metabolism and make you fat?" ARGGG! We should all take a day and read the free online Hacker's Diet. Let me tell you slowly: you-skip-the-meal-because-you-noticed-one-day-that-you-are-a-fat-slobbering-pig. That's it!
Dieting is another word for starvation! As you slim down you are slowly dying to death! You bet its painful and no fun! That's why you distract yourself making hacker charts & numerical analysis to distract yourself from the pain you are under.
Remember, obesity is a lifelong, chronic disease that affects pretty much everybody, eventually. Anybody can get hooked on booze or other substances if they have enough exposure. Same for WoW.
GOSH!

If you want to spend your entire free time grinding instances and doing pointless garbage for in game items, go right ahead. But WoW is just a big time waster.

I'm so glad I quit.

or is there some other issue? Maybe if there is some other issue you could get him some help?

I play Eve Online, space based MMORPG, and that costs real money per month but if you make enough in game currency you can use that to pay for the game instead.

And I agree that violent people will probably go for violent activities, and I wonder how many violent people don't play video games?

I expect you're more likely to find Alcohol associated with violence than video games. If 1/3rd of hospital admissions are alcohol related at weekends then isn't that data to back this up?

To the person who said their brother and people he plays with during the day do not have jobs, did you ever think that maybe they work nights or afternoons or may be on holidays. Just because you spend time playing a video game does not mean you are jobless and live in your parents basement. A lot of people play games to relieve stress.