Fat and happy or thin and uber, your call.

School must be back in because everyone is completing their reports lately. This week's report is from "New Scientist" in their tech section, and discusses the UCLA research into 7,000 players of Everquest II. The good news is that apparently they are more fit than the average American because they work out twice a week. The bad news is that they seem to be unhappy. My guess is that with the current state of the economy the researchers would be hard pressed to find anyone that is happy. The report does discuss higher substance abuse for the EQ2 players than non-gamers, but they don't discuss the substance. Again, my guess is that the substance is probably caffeine, but I'm no expert.

The best part of the news is Mark Griffiths', of Nottingham Trent University, reaction to the report. He just believes that people with hobbies enjoy them, or in more scientific terms, he believes:

"...that most gamers simply exhibit healthy enthusiasm for their hobby rather than obsessive addiction, and says the new results sound about right. But he adds that since the research only studied one multiplayer online game, its conclusions may not be true for single-player console games. "They involve very different psychologies," he says.

Read the rest of the report at the New Scientist technology section.