Comments on: Greatest Hits 2009: Are All Gamers Fat?

By: Ameron

Ameron — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:09:12 +0000

@Alric
As long as you’re not filling out one of those “gamer medium” T-shirts then I think you’re ok.

@Thor
I suspect your group is in the small minority with regards to physical excellence. While RPGs will attract people of all shapes and sizes it seems to appeal more to the heavier folks. But believe me I couldn’t be happier that we’re finally seeing more and more gamers not fall into the fat guy stereotype.

@snuh
D&D and snacking will always be linked. You’re absolutely right that changing what we eat is the most important first step. Healthier snacks are a great first step.

I too have found that the majority of the gamers at my FLGS sadly define the stereotype.

@Perrin Rynning
The lack of physical activity in the lives of table-top gamers or anyone who sit at a computer all day long means that they’re more likely to be heavy. Combine that with poor diet and you get fat gamers. Sad but true. We need to make more effort to eat healthier and be more active. It sounds so simple but we find it so hard.

By: Perrin Rynning

Perrin Rynning — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:15:58 +0000

It’s an interesting question. I’ll toss in a request for an additional breakdown: are tabletop gamers (mashing pen’n'paper players with computer game players) more likely than LARPers to be out of shape? The gamers’ “real lives” may also impact this question. How many gamers have active jobs, or otherwise take exercise seriously when they aren’t gaming? And as snuh pointed out, how many gamer widows (or widowers) offer high-quality, home-cooked snacks? One game group in my recent past offered hand-made bread with all kinds of healthy ingredients during a long session, as well as “throwback” Mountain Dew with real sugar (as opposed to that corn syrup stuff everyone’s arguing about).

By: snuh

snuh — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:43:37 +0000

It's not just about your health - better eating can make for better games. We used to eat similarly, but we noticed that we would get sluggish/bloated/cranky/sleepy as the sugar and caffeine wore off. We made a concerted effort to eat better and it made a huge difference. It's not like we're eating broccoli and granola, but just better than pizza, soda, and doritos. As for whether gamers are generally fat, most of my group isn't but when I go down to my FLGS and look at the other customers, I think we might be the exception.

By: Thor

Thor — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:25:26 +0000

I personally can vouch for gamers not being fat, if only among my friends and compatriots here in school and back home. Most of my players are actually D1 athletes or high school athletes before they came here. The biggest guy we have playing is a heavyweight wrestler who looks alot like his barbarian character.

By: Alric

Alric — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:26:23 +0000

Don’t know how I missed this one when it first appeared – an outstanding post.

Maybe this is why the owner of my local game store (who stocks gaming-related T-shirts) refers to shirt size XXL as, “the gamer’s size medium.”
.-= Alric´s last blog ..The conflict-first approach to adventure design =-.