Halo Health: fit, happy gamers.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: Citings - Brief article

TEENAGED video gamers are socially inept, fat, pimpled loners who rarely leave their parents' basements, right? Not according to a September study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The survey of 1,100 teens, ages I2 to 17, found that 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls play computer, web, portable, or console games. The five most popular games among American teens are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution. Eighty percent of teens play five or more different game genres. That includes the usual first-person shooters, fighting, and sports games that anti-gamers tend to emphasize, but the same teens are also playing puzzle, rhythm, and strategy games, not to mention intricate multiplayer online games.

Meanwhile, despite those worries about social isolation, 65 percent of...