The University of Helsinki looked at the test scores and gaming habits of 500 high school children and found those playing more computer games have a better grasp of English.

Games such as World of Warcraft, which is particularly dialogue-heavy, are thought to be the best teachers, with the teenagers in the study who played for 15 hours or more a week getting almost full marks in their tests.

Speaking to YLE, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen, an English professor at the University of Helsinki, said the role playing in the games mimics everyday conversation. “The link between gaming and grades in this case is indisputable,” said Tanskanen.

Lauri Salminen and Samuli Kytomaki are two high school senior students who spend hours every day playing English-language video games. Speaking to YLE, Kytomak said, “If you hear English every day, it’s just a matter of time before you learn it.”

“School English doesn’t really teach me anything new at this point,” added Salminen.

The victim and his six friends were playing the latest edition of the hugely popular video game at his home in Laholm nonstop for nearly a full day when the boy began to have what looked like an epileptic seizure.

The boy’s father told the Kvallsposten newspaper: “They played all day and all night. Maybe they got a few hours of sleep. They ate a little food and breakfast at their computers.” After the seizure, doctors at the local hospital reported that the boy’s bodily functions had been tweaked by a mix of sleep deprivation, no food, and an extended period of intense concentration.

Although the boy will make a complete recovery, his father has decided to limit the amount of time his son plays computer games. Officials from Game Over, a video game addiction treatment centre in Linkoping, told The Local newspaper that they’ve received a dramatic increase in the number of calls concerning the newest edition of World of Warcraft, and its addictive effects.

“It’s been a huge problem. We have parents who call everyday and ask,” said Game Over’s Emilie Backlund to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.