COMMERCE, Texas -- Computer games are among the hottest forms of entertainment with the average American spending more time and money on these than on movies. So many people are playing -- at least one in every hundred -- that gaming has attracted the attention of psychologists.

Role-players themselves also often wonder if their virtual opponents are as tough as they seem, or if they really are just precocious twelve-year-olds or loving grandparents.

It turns out that, if your opponent is shrewd, then it is very likely that person has those same traits in real life, too, according to a new study recently published in Imagination, Cognition and Personality.

Texas A&M University-Commerce's Anna Park and Dr. Tracy Henley, head of the psychology department, studied the relationship between personality and character preferences in fantasy computer role-playing games. They discovered that people choose characters that are reflections of their own personalities.

Park was intrigued by the relationship between personality, and the things people actually do in their everyday life. She wondered if very different types of people would choose very different types of roles as a function of their personalities. With the help of Henley, Park devised a lengthy survey that simulated the process of creating a character for a fantasy computer game.

About 250 participants volunteered to complete the study, which explored the relationships between the participants' personalities and their choice of fantasy game characters.

"I was surprised that people weren't choosing something different from what they were in the real world," says Park. "I thought compliant people might choose an evil character as a way to release aggression, but they didn't. It seems that people want some form of themselves in the fantasy so that they can see themselves
perform in that environment."

Henley adds, "It is difficult for most people to keep up a facade and to be consistent in that guise across diverse situations over a long period of time. Sooner or later you revert to who you actually are."

Overall, the study found males are more likely to prefer more deviant and assertive characters than females, who tended to favor characters from gentler species - such as elves -- or associated with helping professions -- such as cleric or ranger.

Interestingly, about 28 percent of women preferred to play a male character, whereas 100 percent of men wanted a male character.

Additionally, most (54 percent) of people wanted their character to be morally good, with 38 percent wanting their character to be neutral, and 6 percent wanting their character to be evil. "Those are the folks you want to avoid when playing World of Warcraft, and in dark alleyways," Henley observed.

"Even if fantasy gaming," says Park, "people seem to mimic life."