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The Science of Game Addiction

Posted by Zonk on Tue Feb 28, 2006 04:56 PM
from the science-is-addictive-too dept.
Entertainment Games Science
Gamasutra has a report on the state of game addiction science. From the article: "Yes, South Korean and American gamers have died from exhaustion. Yes, this makes bored journalists and unpopular politicians very happy. China has already thrown a fair bit of legislation at video games, whether or not games are the problem. On the other hand, such legislation might fail to address the real problem. In this article I explain addiction simply. Then, I talk about research that attempts to connect addiction to gaming, and some clear problems in that research. One caveat: this article is not going to make anyone into a trained clinician."
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[+] Game Addiction Clinic Swamped 249 comments
Via the Gamers with Jobs Press Pass, an article on The Australian site claiming that the Dutch gaming addiction clinic is swamped with fearful parents and glaze-eyed children. From the article: "Although experts are still debating whether excessive game playing counts as an addiction, Mr Bakker has no doubt that the symptoms are the same. 'If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it,' he said. 'It is not a chemical dependency, but it's got everything of an obsessive-compulsive disorder and all of the other stuff that comes with chemical dependency.' Tim, a 21-year-old from Utrecht, said he had hardly left his bedroom for five years because he was so obsessed by his computer games. "
[+] Defining Video Game Addiction 354 comments
1Up has a feature discussing where the line should be drawn when it comes to game addiction. The author speaks to researcher Neils Clark about some of the common characteristics of addiction, and how the high level of immersion in many modern games contributes to the mind's ability to drown out mundane tasks. We've discussed game addiction many times over the past several years. Quoting: "If we're not all dribbling addicts, then why are we playing so much? Clark puts this down to a theory proposed by The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien — primary and secondary worlds. The primary world is our own real life. The secondary is the fictional world: literature, film, videogames, and so on. 'It used to be that the imagery and artistic intent had to be fully available before you could really "find" yourself in a written story,' Clark says. 'Immersion has progressed to the point where entering a world [inside a game] is almost automatic. At the point we're at, playing healthy not only means understanding immersion but [also] recognizing that these secondary worlds are designed to be more fulfilling than the primary. Learning to balance them is its own technology. It's something that humankind is in a process of developing, even if on a subconscious level for most gamers.'"
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  • I will read this article... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tebriel (192168) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @04:58PM (#14821302)
    right after I play another turn of Civilization IV.
  • Say what you like about EverCrack or World of Warcrack, but MUDs have still got to be the most addictive substance on earth. The first time I logged into one, I saw "Hey guys, i've been playing 32 hours of nonstop MUME!"

    A few years later, I got to read a restraining order obtained by the University Computer Science department against a former student who had been haunting the labs over the weekends, unbathed, and occasionally sleeping under the terminal.

    Did I mention most MUDs are free to play?

    The moral of
    • I was all ready to get on my 'STOP TELLING GAMERS ON A GAMING FORUM TO GET OUT AND SEE THE REAL WORLD', but you left your "It's okay, I'm one of you" comment until right at the end. You got me, awesome effort :)
  • Once you define the word "addiction" broadly enough that you can become "addicted" to gambling... a process with no chemical interactions we weren't all born with... you can become "addicted" to anything that you happen to find pleasurable. Playing EverQuest. Bird-watching. Playing Puzzle Pirates. Exercising. Playing Civilization IV. Watching soap operas. Does this mean that the creators of soap operas need to "understand that a problem exists", as this article exhorts game creators to do?
    • I would write a scathing reply to you, but Days of Our Lives is about to start...
    • You are right, you CAN become addicted to anything. Does this mean we should regulate everything? No, but it does give people the knowledge to realize that those 6 hrs / day spent on an activity might not be healthy, no matter what the activity is.

      Also, as explained in the article, addiction to non chemical activities still has a chemical addiction:

      So much dopamine is released while engaging in some behaviors that neurons, our basic brain cells, get accustomed to having that dopamine around. These neur

      • You've compleatly missed the point of GP's post. Humans can become addicted to any pleasurable behavior or activity, thru the mechanisim of dopamine release you describe. Your point that we, as participants in these activites, should be aware that too much time spent doing them is bad is a valid point. However GP was adressing the fact that the providers of these activites, in this case game developers, should not be held responsible in any way for the addiction.

        There is essentaly nothing that devel

      • It's not the first time I see that dopamine explanation being thrown around, and this isn't even the most scientific one. But then maybe it just had to be dumbed down for Joe Random to understand it.

        But here's also the problem I have with the dopamine explanation waved around more and more these days: it is also dumbed down enough to paint a wrong picture to Joe Random and make it sound like it's drug addiction. In fact, like it's the poor man's marijuana substitute. Which makes for good lobbying and propag

    • Once you define the word "addiction" broadly enough that you can become "addicted" to gambling... a process with no chemical interactions we weren't all born with... you can become "addicted" to anything that you happen to find pleasurable. Playing EverQuest. Bird-watching. Playing Puzzle Pirates. Exercising. Playing Civilization IV.

      I don't know about you, but I can see a bright side with this: we now have one more piece of information which we'll need to dismantle governments and federal level. It's not

  • Unfortunately, these days I spend more time at work than I do gaming; eight to ten hours in a stretch! In fact, though I've nearly died of exhaustion several times, I think we would all agree that there are only a few people who are actually addicted to their jobs.
    • I think that there is a good point here. Isn't there a certain amount of a social acceptability criteria that creeps in through any of these studies? Currently computer games are seen as "tolerable" by the majority of the population, but certainly not an acceptable replacement to television!

      Lets look at this logically with a different context, say camping. I am sure that there are people who love camping, spend 36 hours on a weekend with minimal human interaction, turn up to work tired on Monday morning
  • Take the greatest greatest injection of herion you've ever had and multiply it by a thousand and you're not even close.
  • ... for a chat with a therapist addiction.

    The article links to http://www.netaddiction.com/clinic.htm [netaddiction.com] which charges $95 an hour to councel you in a chat room about your addictive behaviour. Talk about cultivating a prime target audience.
  • It seems to me this could all be pretty easily solved. I propose the following solution: in an MMORPG, once an account has been logged in for, say, 8 hours in a 24-hour period, the character slowly gets less and less XP. By hour 9, the character gets half normal XP, and by hour 10, no XP at all. Other punishments could be added to taste: can't chat, can't emote, can't gain new quests, NPCs won't respond, etc. This could even be explained in-game as a negative buff, call it "exhaustion" or something.

    T
    • Would you not call someone who plays a game for 8 hours a day addicted? I suggest making it so that you can't play more than 3 hours a day. However, all anyone faced with the limit will do is play another character or another account. It'll be viewed as a money-grab for the game company.
      • No, I would not call someone who playes a game 8 hours in a day addicted. I can comfortably game 10, 12, or even 18 hours in a day, should I so desire. And I sometimes desire just that. Yet I hold a successful job, have a normal social life, and my 10 hour game sessions do not negativly impact me in any way. To punish me for such gaming sessions is a violation of my freedoms.

        On the flip side, I'm sure there exist people who only have the ability to game for an hour or two a day, yet could be said to be

        • I can comfortably game 10, 12, or even 18 hours in a day, should I so desire. And I sometimes desire just that.

          The first step is admitting you have a problem.
          • I realise you were probably trying to be witty there, but to be serious for a moment: Point to my problem.

            As I stated, I have a sucessful career, a healthy social life, I'm in good condition physicaly. So tell me where my 10 hour gaming sprees are hurting me.

            Or do you just want to take away my ability to game for 12 hours at a time because you think it's weird and would never consider doing it yourself?

            • Don't take it personal, man. I was just trying to crack a joke.

              In all honesty, I used to game all weekend every weekend, and as much on the weeknights as possible -- until I found a serious girlfriend. Now I game maybe for an hour or two a day while on the train, and maybe three to four hours over a weekend. I find that my girl takes up far more of my time than video games ever did. It made me realize my gaming habit was not the result of my single status, but my gaming habit was the direct caus
              • As a matter of fact, I too have a serious girlfreind. And while I do spend a lot of time with her, I don't find that the relationship is mutualy exclusive with occasional 13 hour gaming sessions.

                The point is that it's not really possible to identify game addiction mearly by play time. And the mere fact that a person likes to game for long sessions does not point to a deeper problem, or mean that they are nessisarily missing out on some other aspect of life. It can be indicative of those things, but it

            • Claiming that you're* a functioning addict doesn't make the addiction any less of an issue.

              Most people won't admit they have a problem until they hit rock bottom.

              *Not you specifically, but what I've said may apply to you.
              • I would dissagree with you there. I'd again ask that you point out the problem.

                If someone is functioning at or above expectations in all areas of their life, yet plays games for 12 hours at a time occasionaly, why is that a bad thing? A functioning addict with a chemical dependancy might have some health risks, but that situation doesn't apply here. Gaming isn't inherantly unhealthy.

                My point is not about admiting a problem or not, I'm saying that in the case of game addiction, many of the indicator

    • Maybe for games where you're not paying for gametime online, but I find that I only really get gaming done over the weekend, and usually in long stretches as such. I'd be pretty pissed if I logged on and got this crap on me.
    • I think thats a great suggestion. Especially since it makes a fair amount of sense in the virtual world. A character cant go on forever. Let the idea of "Sleep" in the virtual world be the concept of taking a break to reality.
    • Your suggestion is nothing new. This is done already on the Chinese servers of MMORPGs (as mandated by the Chinese government, from what I hear).

      I play MMORPGs extensively on the weekends so I can try and catch up to the people who have more free time during the week than I do.
    • Firstly, saying It seems to me this could all be pretty easily solved in relation to any sort of MMORPG problem gives the distinct impression that you have no idea how any of this works, or that maybe your one of those people that thinks that Blizzard should have magically installed servers that could take more MMORPG accounts than any other MMORPG in history at the same time.

      Unless it's government sanctioned, restrictions like this will never happen. Because you have one of three choices once you hit 'exha
    • I recall playing 'Stronghold' [fireflyworlds.com], an RTS based on medieval castle defense. If you play for a certain (long) period of time the narrator starts making suggestions such as "How about a snack, mylord?" In other words.. you've been playing for too long.. get up and do something! This is one example of how game developers have tried to discourage extended gaming sessions. Though I must admit, after having a good laugh I still kept gaming.
      • I recall playing 'Stronghold', an RTS based on medieval castle defense. If you play for a certain (long) period of time the narrator starts making suggestions such as "How about a snack, mylord?"

        One of the messages that would come up on the load screens between areas in Baldur's Gate II said "Although your character does not need to eat, remember that YOU do. We don't want to lose any dedicated players."

    • The. Best. Comment. On. MMO's. Ever. :) Wish I had mod points.
    • Actually, I vaguely remember that during the beta phase of World of Warcraft, this was actually one of methods implemented. But I think enough people complained about it that it eventually got converted to the current-day rest bonus.

  • A couple of other sources for those wanting more.. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Garwulf (708651) on Tuesday February 28 2006, @06:05PM (#14822045) Homepage
    This is a pretty good article. I'm a bit surprised that they didn't cover Dr. David Greenfield's research, though - he's dealing with online addiction with a sampling of around 15,000. Also, Nicholas Yu (I think I got that name right) dealt with MMORPG addiction with a sampling around 4,000. Both of their research would be helpful, and probably easily found using Google (I'm just back from class and a long walk home, so I'm not looking anything up right now). I found the work of both of these people invaluable when I was writing the addiction chapter in my EverQuest book.
    • "People should spend less time online and more time reading". Or subtitute reading for "Playing Outside", "Hanging with their friends", "visiting grandma", etc. It's extremely common it seems for the older generation to complain about new things to do with your time that aren't what they used to do."

      Indeed very much so. Grandma still reminisces about how she had to be sneaky about reading a book, because her parents kept trying to make her do something more productive.

      In fact, here's one I found even funnie
  • What morons. I guess I can say I am addicted to World of Warcraft, but come on, take a break. I eat, sleep, drinkwater, even pee when I play. But these people gotta have some kind of mental disorder to play so long and so much that you die from it.
    • Let me rephrase that, I take time away from the game to do those things. I do not do it as I play the game, and yes, I get up to use the toilet to pee, not just sit there and keep playing while I piss my pants. Hit the 'Submit' button instead of 'Preview' on accident.
  • This article makes a point journalists like to forget: that anything fun can be addictive. This includes making yourself feel important by bashing something you don't understand. Now that we know this, let's see if we can get the /. trolls and Jack Thompson a support group!

  • Best quote ever (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Teppy (105859) * on Tuesday February 28 2006, @07:50PM (#14822942) Homepage
    I attended a session at Game Developer Conference in 2001 or so, titled "Addiction in Online Games". It started out pretty good - it was about reward patterns that tend to create "stickyness" (addiction) in online games. For instance, rather than using a fixed-per-time reward schedule, use a slot-machine type schedule.

    Then it turned all touchy-feely. "Well, we know we *can* make games addictive, but *SHOULD* we." All the developers took turns trying to prove that they were more caring and concerned than the person who spoke last.

    Then, Alexey Pajitnov, the creator of Tetris (!!!) stood up and said in a thick Russian accent: "What the hell are you people talking about? I cherish the times I've been addicted to games. What else am I going to do - read some stupid book?"

    Got things right back on track ;)
  • Definition: Addiction is a compulsion to repeat a behaviour regardless of its consequences. I guess "consequences" is the key word. How does one measure what a "bad" consequence of something is? With gambling it could be finacial or social or both. With Video game or tv it could be the removal of one from intercation with others. But there can be good consequences, a family spends time playing video games together, how much different is that then playing Sorry or Monopoly as a family. Is it an addict

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