Syracuse University">Joshua Smyth, associate professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences of Syracuse University, recently conducted a randomized trial study of one hundred college students in order to compare and contrast the effects of playing different kinds of video games. His findings: MMORPGs tend to create both greater positive consequences and greater negative consequences than the more traditional single-player games.

In his study, Joshua Smyth randomly assigned the students to one of four categories: single-player console games, single-player arcade games, single player PC games, and fantasy-themed MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft.

Professor Smyth discovered that the students assigned to the MMORPG group reported greater decreased levels of health, well-being, sleep, real-life socialization and academic work than the students assigned to any of the other groups. On the flip side, the MMORPG group reported a greater enjoyment from and interest in playing, as well as a sharper rise in the acquisition of new friends as compared to the single-player game groups.

While the Syracuse University study is interesting, Joshua Smyth has only served to verify what gamers have intuited all along: that no gamer is an island.