Really obvious study alert: MMOs make you lose sleep
by Kyle Orland 
{ Oct 19th 2007 at 4:43PM }
*cue cheesy infomercial music*Hey, YOU! Tired of using common sense and personal experience to confirm really obvious assertions? Then you should try science. Yes, through use of our patented scientific method, science will have your theories looking less questionable and more sound in no time.
Just look at this study from Syracuse University Psychology Professor Joshua Smyth. At first all four groups of gamers look exactly the same. But just apply the magic of science and you'll see that the group playing MMO Dark Age of Camelot spent on average twice as long with the game on a weekly basis, resulting in "significantly lower overall health and poorer sleep." Once again, science improves our lives by confirming something that every gamer already knows.
Remember, that's science: Confirming observations since ancient Egypt.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Poisoned Al @ Oct 19th 2007 4:51PM
I guess you can play MMOs while tired. Playing TF2 or Halo 3 into the small hours if just an excersise in getting your arse kicked.
Tom @ Oct 19th 2007 6:08PM
I played WOW until 5am last night and I feel dirty...
x876543 @ Oct 19th 2007 5:04PM
MMOs are real life suckers. Almost as bad as television.
stik_man @ Oct 19th 2007 5:06PM
Ehhh it will pass. Once every body gets sick of the whole Tank, Mage, DD, Support dichotomy. They will relise that there aren't any MMo's that are worth staying up for, and therefore go back to sleep.
mr nimblewick (SegaDF - Jogurt Ring) @ Oct 19th 2007 5:08PM
Assuming that WoW is the pinnacle of MMOs and nothing better will ever be created.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 19th 2007 5:14PM
Diablo 3?
I wonder why Blizzard decided to bring back starcraft instead of Diablo,To be honest I remember starcraft and it was good but I never wanted a sequel same with the original warcraft I liked more Age of empires 2.
0.02$
mikeshea @ Oct 19th 2007 6:55PM
diablo 3 can not be made, all the developers left and made HellGate: London, which is almost a diablo 3.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 20th 2007 1:24AM
In Darth Vader voice:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Well Hellgate:London it is.
Well thinking about it there is no way Diablo 3 could be made I mean the saga pretty much ended with Lord of Destruction.
jmf @ Oct 20th 2007 11:11PM
um eve-online? not a lot of magical tolkien elves in there
jovin6 @ Oct 21st 2007 3:31PM
God. Eve is the fucking devil. It takes more work and time to get to end game in that game than it does to get a law school degree.
stik_man @ Oct 19th 2007 5:10PM
assuming that they ever create an MMO that breaks the, Tank, Mage, DD, Support dichotomy.
Word of the street(IDF-Digital Ruler). @ Oct 19th 2007 5:10PM
I remember when I played Diablo 2, I used to play from 8 to 3 in the morning with my LVl 72 Necro, Good times. The last game I played in long basis was NWN and that's because I pwned, looking back the Mage was so broken, man I loved my mage but I still liked more my Cleric I once killed 6 players at the same time in PvP with pure Barrier hehehe.
Now there aren’t games that I really want to play that much even Zelda and WOW are games I played just 1hr per day, really I don’t see how people can play WOW that much it isn’t innovating and most of the quest are more of the same.
samfish (MSDF- Nurse Outfit!) @ Oct 19th 2007 5:18PM
Not me! I've never been able to play any MMO for more than about 15 minutes. They all just kinda suck like that.
Now porn...PORN makes me lose sleep!
Squirrel3D @ Oct 19th 2007 9:32PM
Umm....duh?
PSU usually does this to me.
Sean @ Oct 19th 2007 5:19PM
O RLY?
Rubix42 @ Oct 19th 2007 5:23PM
Could you please re-write this post with more use of the word science? I was feeling that you didn't hammer the point home hard enough.
Chris @ Oct 19th 2007 5:28PM
All that time I spent on planetside until 3 in the morning and waking up at 7 was making me lose sleep, I never expected that although I must admit I use to black out in english and wake up refresed. XD
JB87 @ Oct 19th 2007 5:34PM
MMOs do not "make" you lose sleep any more than they force you to play them... I can't count how many times I've heard and said "Sorry guys, I have to get to bed" while playing EQ.
EihBeir @ Oct 19th 2007 5:52PM
Money well spent.
rv @ Oct 19th 2007 5:54PM
Yes, it may be obvious to us, but it gives outsiders who don't know much (the majority) proof, which is not important to you, but it may be important to many others.
Blazur @ Oct 19th 2007 6:10PM
The same can be said about TF2 :(
Geist @ Oct 19th 2007 6:33PM
This just in: water is wet.
But yeah, they don't 'make' you lose sleep. Being an idiot and playing them silly just to get a stupid piece of armor is what loses you sleep. The genre just inspires this kind of activity.
MegaSnort @ Oct 19th 2007 6:54PM
How is it idiotic to lose sleep just to be decked out in hawt hawt purplz? Please elaborate, i'll be farming motes in the meantime.
stik_man @ Oct 19th 2007 6:53PM
I think it's funny that science found proof that doing something you think is fun late at night will make you lose sleep.
i wonder if they can prove that getting up in the morning makes you awake.
MegaSnort @ Oct 19th 2007 6:55PM
I don't feel dirty playing WoW until 5am unless there's PuGing involved.
blooh (TIDF - Nipple Ring) @ Oct 19th 2007 6:55PM
I think I very rarely lost sleep when playing warcraft, it just wasn't that fun/addictive to me
exit stencil @ Oct 19th 2007 7:30PM
Confirmed. I went to bed about two hours later than I had planned last night because I had a really good premade Eye of the Storm group on and that happens to be the double honor weekend.
If you understood nothing of what I just said than consider me that one extra step removed from mainstream productive society.
skye @ Oct 19th 2007 8:38PM
what the hell? i made that poster for a friend's event in seattle, what does it have to do with this article?
Korova @ Oct 19th 2007 9:49PM
scientists are smart: they make the gov't and other rich people pay them actual money so that they and a hundred or two of their closest friends can play MMO's and then tell them stories about it, while the gov't and the rich people and their friends work and use outlook.
Man, I wish I was that smart.
Llenlleawg @ Oct 19th 2007 10:47PM
Could you put that in a memo and entitle it "Crap I already know!!
ThornedVenom @ Oct 20th 2007 2:06AM
MMOs, sure, but FUCK YEAH for Pokemon.
Laggy @ Oct 20th 2007 11:55AM
Well in everyone's shit daily schedules with work and school, staying up late having fun with games whether it be online or not is a necessity. Personally I justify staying up late as it postpones sleeping, which in turn extends the time before you need to get up at some god awful time the next morning for work/school.
BJ @ Oct 20th 2007 9:26PM
I find it interesting that Smyth does not consider games, especially MMORPGS, addicting. Many people have quit WoW accusing it for taking peoples' lives away, becoming an addiction like alcohol, food, etc. The question he would ask, then, is: are MMORPGS addicting, or are people who have addiction-prone personalities attracted to MMORPGS?