Most of Romanian gamers are night owls and spend up to four hours a day playing computer games, found a recent study by Intel and LAB501.ro.

The study found that 17 percent of the respondents are heavy users, with four to six hours a day playing computer games, while 7 percent are extreme users, with over six hours of gaming a day.

Simply playing a game is not all that motivates the average Romanian gamer. Romanians are also interested in establishing new personal and team records, with half of users playing First Person Shooter games. Around a fifth of respondents said they play Multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA), Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) or Role-playing games (RPG), while 16 percent are into simulators, and other 13 percent into Real Time Strategy (RTS) games.

Multi-player games allows the average Romanian gamer to socialize electronically, either with friends, or with people who have the same passions, which turns gaming into a social catalyst.

With laptops increasingly popular among consumers, gamers still use desktop PCs, with three quarters of respondents in Intel's study saying they use a desktop PC. Tweaking this desktop PC is also important: a third of respondents would refresh their PC every year, and 40 percent, every two years. A minority of 9 percent would change their computer in less than a year. But in reality, a third of the participants in the study change their PCs every four or more years, another third, every two years, a quarter, every three years, and 9 percent, every year.

The study Project Winner, run by Intel and LAB501.ro, included 3,000 respondents who gave details about their gaming activities and the technologies they use.

editor@romania-insider.com