Now, a survey has examined the factors associated with problematic gaming, and the results are rather interesting. The study examined a representative sample of the US population aged 18 and over. 37% of respondents played games for at least 1 hour per week; those who did were asked detailed questions about the games they played, and how much they played them. One of the questionnaires they completed was a measure of ‘problem’ gaming, the PVGPQ – which is closely based on an earlier one about alcohol.

So what did this show? One interesting result was that certain game genres were associated with problematic use: first-person shooters topped the list, and roleplaying games (RPGs) – including both the single-player and the massively-multiplayer variety (MMORPGs) – were also correlated with problems. This fits with a widespread impression among gamers (and others) that both MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft, and online shooters like Call of Duty and Counterstrike, attract obsessive players.
Quite interesting, and more legit than a lot of the dipstick research we've seen before considering this is a proper study from the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.

Click click for the whole story.