Doctoral candidate and investigator Huon Longman said that he has establish relationships formed as members of teams help players cope better the real world. Players apparently form friendships with each other, and while adventuring jointly in the world, fighting monsters and manslaughter dragons, they often discuss what is going on in their offline lives with these associates.

Longman conducted his lessons on the internet with the help of about 200 players from all over the world. The normal age of his sample was 26, with about 90 per cent of them playing WoW for 20 hours per week.

However it was not all amazing. Longman originate at a small minority of gamers who spent considerably more time online didn't experience the benefits of better psychological health. People who played for longer than 83 hours in one case were just basket cases, Mr Longman said.

This was because they were not getting any more community support from the game and they were receiving a lot less from offline and they had appreciably more negative emotional symptoms.

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