When the beta version of the video game Team Fortress 2 came out in September, Anthony McCulley skipped a day and a half of classes and increased his gaming time to 30 hours a week.
McCulley, a junior computer science major, said the binge didn’t affect his grades. But that doesn’t hold true for many students, according to a study by the Bureau of Economic Research. The study, released in August, found that freshmen whose roommates had a video game console in their rooms studied about 40 minutes less per day. Their first semester GPAs were also about 0.241 points lower.
The research sought to find how study habits impacted grades for 210 students between 2000 and 2001. But one of its most prominent findings was that students who had similar habits of class attendance, working and partying – but who also had a video game console – had significantly lower grades.
McCulley, who is also the president of the Student Association for Video Game Awareness, Research and Development at the university, said he knows how addictive gaming can be. But he added that it also depends on the format of the game.
“I used to play World of Warcraft, but I don’t play anymore because it is very time consuming and easy to get addicted,” he said. “I don’t play those kinds of games while I’m in school.”
Still, Team Fortress 2 more than doubled McCulley’s habit from the 10 to 15 hours a week he played before the game came out.
“I play a lot of video games, but I put school first,” McCulley said. He added that he wouldn’t have sacrificed a day and a half of classes for the new game if he wasn’t confident about his grades in his classes.
The Counseling Center at the university has an academic support program for students who need help with study skills. About once a month, they offer workshops to teach students better time management techniques.
Shirley Browner, a Learning Assistance Service counselor in the Counseling Center, said she had not personally counseled many students who had problems with video games.
However, she said the placement of a video game console can affect how frequently a student uses it. When students have video game consoles in their rooms, they can be drawn to it over studying. “It has to take its toll in some way,” she said.
But many students on the campus disagreed with the study’s findings, insisting video games were no more detrimental than any other distraction in college.
“Anything you do that takes time away from homework will hurt your grades,” said Carla Doernberg, a senior elementary education major. “If you can’t manage your time that’s your problem, not the video games’.”
Chris Morton, a freshman letters and sciences major, agreed.
“If I was going to blow off studying, I was going to do it anyway,” he said.
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